Some topics for this module

  Christian context

   What is the meaning of spirituality?

   What are some practicalities of spiritual or pastoral friending?

   Some other things.

   What is the role of prayer in our pastoral friending?

   What is spiritual distress?

Christian context. The premise of PFP is that we carry out spiritual care within a personal Christian context. This means that we have a personal commitment to Christianity and will use our own faith to facilitate our capabilities to be more effective friends. In our caring, we may not always be dealing with people who have a Christian commitment. We may meet people who have no religious commitment whatever. We may see others who have a significantly different faith or Christian belief to ourselves. We will find that everyone we visit has some ‘spirituality’, especially when they are sick, but it may not be in a form with which we are most familiar. A fundamental position for a friend is to respect the individual for whom we are caring. Our primary aim is to help the individual notwithstanding their gender, faith, religious commitment or cultural background. Our Lord Jesus Christ set this example.

Limitations. We will not be covering the more practical elements of caring such as providing meals, helping with housework, taking children to school etc. This does not mean that these contributions are not useful or important. They are very helpful and vital. However, we will focus only on the spiritual and communicative elements of caring.

Focus. Lastly, before we get down to specifics, there is one other fundamental element that we must always bear in mind. The key person in any caring is the person, not ourselves. In any communication with anyone, it is that person’s ‘agenda’ that is important, not ours. Sometimes, people  are self-centred – and that is not said unkindly. It can be a reality. We show incredible insensitivity if, when we talk with them, we do not spend time making ourselves aware of the person’s circumstances and letting them determine where the ‘content’ of the discussion goes.

An activity