PASTORAL CARE AND FAITH DEVELOPMENT
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
Pastoral Care
Being present with the people is a soulful, and soul-filling, experience. For each of us - minister and congregant, and congregation.
Pastoral care is an activity and a process which, like religious education, I understand as taking place throughout all of the activities of the community. It is as much a way of being as it is what we do, although there are activities that we can and do name “pastoral care.” Pastoral care provides the nurturance and sustenance that individuals and congregations need in order to feel whole, to navigate life's challenges and transformations, to be able to participate in the lives of their families, congregation, and wider community.
We all need to be cared for at times in body, mind, and spirit, and where better to find that care than in our congregations? Truly, the congregation is a container for the hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows, losses and loves that are part of the human experience. Pastoral care takes place in that container.
Pastoral care is a holistic endeavor. It is not only a response to crises, although it is that. It is also about creating an environment in which members of the community attend to the interdependent aspects of their lives and being. So we pay attention to physical health, mental and spiritual health, as well as to the health of our relationships with our intimates, acquaintances, strangers, and the earth itself. Pastoral care is an aspect of social justice when it is a living out of the impulse to wholeness with the world, and social justice activists need pastoral care in relation to their work.
As the minister of a congregation there are aspects of pastoral care, and especially counseling, that fall to me to do, and rightly so. Those activities include counseling, initiating care for those in our midst who need care and comfort, as well as conducting rites of passage, hospital and home visits. It includes preaching, worship, and social action as pastoral care activities. Congregations benefit from trained pastoral care teams and I enjoy training and working with teams in that way. Pastoral care is best viewed as a shared ministry that involves the congregation in creating a climate of care and ministering to the needs of fellow congregants
Do You Have a Minute?
Pastoral care is more than the formal setting of an appointment in the office or standing next to the hospital bed, it is also a response to a sometimes casually stated question, “Do you have a minute?” which unfolds into the sharing of some pain, fear or complaint, or a secret joy or triumph. It is at these times that I am poignantly aware of the unique privilege and responsibility of ministry. I am aware of the soulful nature of what it is that I am called to be.
I bring to pastoral care, and ministry in general, a grounding in Jungian and depth and ecopsychology, gained through my undergraduate work, 20 years experience as a counselor, my own analysis, and six months training in “depth psychology as spiritual practice,” at Pacific Graduate Institute, which includes ongoing continuing education.
One aspect of pastoral care that I enjoy immensely is spiritual direction. I work with parishioners one-on-one on spiritual deepening, to explore their relationship to the ultimate, to consider their soul's purpose, to navigate the uncertain terrain of these times. While crises may arise, spiritual direction is not counseling or based in crisis. It is companioning someone on their journey and is really based in trust that the person’s own wisdom is available to them.
My training as an addictions counselor carries into ministry. I have extensive group experience, which is helpful in those board or committee meetings when what is needed is not only systems understanding, but pastoral awareness.
I am one of the co-founders of the Pacific Southwest District’s Addictions and Recovery Ministry, and provide Addiction Recovery Ministry in my current congregation.
Faith Development
Faith development occurs throughout the life span, and in all aspects of congregational life. In addition to the Sunday morning Religious Education for children and youth, and adult Religious Education classes, I see the Sunday morning worship service, in part, as a religious education experience, our social justice work is faith development, how we are together in committee and board meetings reflects our faith development. What makes this so, and makes it meaningful, is the extent to which we reflect about the activities in which we engage. I thoroughly enjoy Religious Education. It offers us a way to apply the principles of our faith, to deepen spiritually and to grow as individuals and in community, and inspires us to social justice.
Flexibility, Resourcefulness, Co-Creation
How we can provide meaningful experiences for children and youth that engenders a life-long connection and commitment to living our faith? Taking into account that there will be those youth and young adults who leave because it is no longer a fit for them, the question is, how can we offer programming and experiences that are relevant and compelling enough that our youth and young adults feel connected to, and nurtured by our faith and find in it spiritual sustenance, community, and connecting? One of the ways that this happens is through dynamic programming that youth have a part in co-creating and making the space available for individuals to bond with their group and the congregation at large across generations.
Coming of Age experiences are such a powerful way for youth to connect to one another, deepen in their UU identity, and bond with adult members of a congregation. I have witnessed the most amazing and articulate faith statements from Coming of Age youth that have inspired me. One of the things I love is having Coming of Age youth to my house to talk about God and theology. It’s exciting to participate in the youths’ energetic exploration!
Adult Religious Education classes developed
Small Group Ministry
Small group ministry is a place for deep faith development and spiritual growth, not only for participants, but the congregation in general. Theme-based ministry is one of the most effective ways to foster such depth and provide shared experiences across generations through classes, affinity groups, sharing circles, worship - I see collective deepening happening.
Faith development occurs throughout the life span, and in all aspects of congregational life. In addition to the Sunday morning Religious Education for children and youth, and adult Religious Education classes, I see the Sunday morning worship service, in part, as a religious education experience, our social justice work is faith development, how we are together in committee and board meetings reflects our faith development. What makes this so, and makes it meaningful, is the extent to which we reflect about the activities in which we engage. I thoroughly enjoy Religious Education. It offers us a way to apply the principles of our faith, to deepen spiritually and to grow as individuals and in community, and inspires us to social justice.
Flexibility, Resourcefulness, Co-Creation
How we can provide meaningful experiences for children and youth that engenders a life-long connection and commitment to living our faith? Taking into account that there will be those youth and young adults who leave because it is no longer a fit for them, the question is, how can we offer programming and experiences that are relevant and compelling enough that our youth and young adults feel connected to, and nurtured by our faith and find in it spiritual sustenance, community, and connecting? One of the ways that this happens is through dynamic programming that youth have a part in co-creating and making the space available for individuals to bond with their group and the congregation at large across generations.
Coming of Age experiences are such a powerful way for youth to connect to one another, deepen in their UU identity, and bond with adult members of a congregation. I have witnessed the most amazing and articulate faith statements from Coming of Age youth that have inspired me. One of the things I love is having Coming of Age youth to my house to talk about God and theology. It’s exciting to participate in the youths’ energetic exploration!
Adult Religious Education classes developed
- Building Your Own Theology – adapted for a weekend workshop format.
- Dialogue Circles to Explore Study/Action Issues
- From Bambi to Jaws: Nonhuman Life and Animal Rights – An Ethical Exploration Through Film and Theology/Philosophy – (A program I created as part of my D. Min project)
- Spirituality in the Home
Small Group Ministry
Small group ministry is a place for deep faith development and spiritual growth, not only for participants, but the congregation in general. Theme-based ministry is one of the most effective ways to foster such depth and provide shared experiences across generations through classes, affinity groups, sharing circles, worship - I see collective deepening happening.