Pastoral Care ‘‘Pastoral care is ma

Pastoral Care ‘‘Pastoral care is many things to many people,’’ Grossoehme (1999) said before offering his own definition: ‘‘pastoral care is the formation of relationships with persons of all ages that communicate (both with and without words) and bask in knowing one’s self to be a child of God, so that all persons are enabled to live through their life experiences and to understand them in terms of their faith’’ (Grossoehme, 1999, p. 5). Later in his book he writes: ‘‘The image of the pastoral caregiver as one who can listen and interpret the human experience of brokenness in light of one’s beliefs [is to be the theologian in residence in a worshipping community]’’ (p. 42). Discussions among professional chaplains at The HealthCare Chaplaincy have yielded several other working definitions of pastoral care, which we include below. ‘‘Pastoral Care is the discipline of providing a focused deliberate intention of caring for the resiliency of the human soul within the other’s theological context and understanding, particularly when the other is faced with challenges beyond their usual ability to cope. Pastoral Care does this by using the religious and spiritual experience and resources of the recipient facilitated and guided by the pastoral caregiver’s experience and training.’’Pastoral care is taking action with the deliberate intent to work with the resiliency of the human soul as defined by that soul’s theological framework and understanding. Pastoral care is actively bringing all the experience one has, all the resources one has, all the knowledge one has, to a situation in which someone is spiritually and=or emotionally vulnerable. Pastoral care is crisis management on theological terms. Pastoral Care is helping to transform what appears broken into wholeness—so that a truer understanding of the soul’s relationship with the world and Other is possible.In addition, there is some confusion surrounding the concepts of pastoral care and sacramental care, the latter of which is no more and no less than administering the religious rites or sacraments of a particular religion. These are concrete interventions, such as providing Shabbas lights, providing tefillin, administering Holy Communion, anointing, baptism, etc., and the administration of the rite is the only intervention done by the chaplain. While the authors see sacramental care as an integral part of pastoral care, others may consider only the administration of rites and sacraments to be sufficient care for their patients and may use sacramental care as their own definition of providing pastoral care.