Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

251personal identification as long as they are principally regarded as objectified,medical identities. Such institutionalised people are urgently lacking anysignificant, more personalised form of care.At the same time Henrietta’s invitation to view her galleried room andMadge’s desire to tell stories that pre-date her institutional days are calls to beunderstood as much more than a medical identity.Therefore, for as long as these people continue to live apart from the morenurturing and familial care that can be found in a home environment they arebeing denied a form of relationship that accords them their whole created status.It is in terms of pastoral presence that they can be afforded a value stemmingfrom a liberating, holistic and God-given regard.There is a growing body of pastoral literature that upholds the value ofpresence as intrinsic to a meaningful pastoral relationship. Presence can suggestthe pastoral carer’s whole-hearted giving of oneself to the other. It can point tothe creation of a hospitable space in which the one being engaged with in care isunambiguously and non-judgementally welcomed and allowed to share their tacitor consciously-described story, whatever that story may be. 603 This hospitablespace is a place of safety where the other person can find rest amidst theirbrokenness and the security of a loving God in the presence of the one whocares. 604 The assumption here is that the carer, in seeking to be the embodimentof a loving God, casts to one side personal concerns and pastoral agendas, andbrings all of their personal, pastoral identity and resources to the task of beingfully present.A particularly pertinent form of Presence that has gained attention inrecent years has been that of Non-Anxious Presence. This was first described byBill Williams in 1997 in his autobiographical work, Naked Before God: The603 Avery, William. "Toward an Understanding of Ministry of Presence." The Journal ofPastoral Care 40, no. 4 (1986): 342-53, 342-347.Williams, Naked Before God, 33, 160.Peterson, Sharyl. The Indispensable Guide to Pastoral Care. (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press,2008), 39-40. McGrath, Pam, and Christopher Newell. "The Human Connection: A CaseStudy of Spirituality and Disability." In Voices in Disability and Spirituality from the LandDown Under, edited by Christopher Newell and Andy Calder, 89-103. (New York: TheHaworth Pastoral Press, 2004), 99.Peterson, along with McGrath & Newell, here assent to Williams’ concept of pastoral care asnon-anxious presence.604 Peterson, The Indispensable Guide, 23-24.