Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

1515.1 IntroductionAs a professional chaplain exercising a pastoral care role in two Adelaideinstitutions that accommodate people with intellectual disabilities I regularlyreflect upon the most effective way of exercising my pastoral role given thespecific nature of the lived context. If this reflection is not carefully consideredand intentional in nature the pastoral care offered will become reactive andhaphazard in nature, lacking thought and respect for the quality of life of thosefor whom care is exercised.There are two questions that form the basis of the pastoral care offered.Firstly, how do I best develop a meaningful understanding of this lived contextand the people who live here for whom I hold a pastoral responsibility? Secondly,how do I most authentically and meaningfully give expression to a model ofpastoral care that offers a measure of liberation to these people?Answering these questions requires careful consideration of an effectivemode of reflection upon action that describes those criteria that will best validatethis pastoral process of engagement. Such criteria need to be methodical,coherent, respectful, well-structured, repeatable, transparent and collegial. Thedetailing of the hermeneutical process to be utilized in this reflection will verifythe use of these criteria.The careful answering of these questions needs to be suitably embeddedin the most appropriate form of qualitative methodology. This pastoral carer willtherefore argue for an action/reflection model of pastoral responsiveness that canbe effectively embedded in a hermeneutical methodology.There are two key features of the action/reflection model of pastoralresponsiveness that make it particularly compatible with a hermeneuticalmethodology. Firstly, it offers an authentic means of pastoral response to thevagaries and changeability inherent in the development of knowledge andunderstanding of people and their lived contexts over time. Secondly, thequalitative nature of the action/reflection model makes possible a response tocontext significantly based upon the artistic and intuitive characteristics of the