Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

269disconnects people from those around them the minister experiencesdisconnection from the community which is there to be served. In the language ofPattison, this disconnected status places the pastoral carer into the thoroughlyincarnate realm of failure and sin. 636The minister who can be accepting of such personal woundedness canbecome a source of hospitality to other wounded people who come to be regardedas guests. Access to the soul of the other becomes possible through gainingaccess to one’s own soul. 637 The guests can be offered a friendly space in whichthe soul’s loneliness can be shared. A sense of community is created and healingis thus offered to the otherwise isolated soul. 638Nouwen specifically regards this pastoral model from a just liberationistperspective when he states,In the middle of our convulsive world men and women raise theirvoices time and again to announce with incredible boldness thatwe are waiting for a Liberator. We are waiting, they announce, fora messiah who will free us from hatred and oppression, fromracism and war – a messiah who will let peace and justice taketheir rightful place. 639McNamara specifically equates the carer, and those with disability forwhom they care, with the wounded persons of Nouwen’s pastoral model. Thedisabling effects of the ageing process generate isolation from the lionised,autonomous, rational individual who stands at the centre of liberal Westernsociety. However, in their isolated position, they can gain a wisdom derivative ofassuming the status of a Wounded Healer. As such, they are in a position to offerhospitality or friendship to the guest, no matter the disabled status or autonomy ofthe visitor. 640The contribution of this model to the understanding of a pastoral modelpertinent to this extended reflection is that it understands the carer and the otherperson as those who are both wounded and receive healing through recognition oftheir shared wounded status. Particularly pertinent is the implicit notion that636 Pattison, A Critique of Pastoral Care, 143-153.637 Capps, Pastoral Care and Hermeneutics, 110.638 Nouwen, The Wounded Healer, 92-94.639 ibid., 81.640 McNamara, “Ethics, Ageing and Disability”, 36-38.