Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

275Campbell asserts that a fundamental quality of the communal journey isthat of companionship in which bread is shared. Such interpersonal engagementasserts the need to share resources in order to survive as human beings, and torestore lagging faith 667 We share what we have with the other not out of relationalsuperiority but because, in seeking to address the need of the other, weacknowledge such need in ourselves. As Campbell states, “[i]f we manage tospeak to their fear it is because we know it ourselves and make ourselves nobetter than they in pointing it out. If we manage to comfort their sense of loss, itis only because the loss strikes to our heart and starts tears in our eyes.” 668 To this,Newell, from an embodied disability perspective, concurs, in his assertion thatgenuine human journeying involves an acceptance of personal imperfection andfrailty. 669 Such sentiment describes a journeying born of needful humanity andgenuine mutuality.The hermeneutical circle as described in the methodology chapterindicates the importance of developing a pastoral model whereby the pastoralcarer shows commitment to people with intellectual disability on an ongoing,journeyed basis. This is a pastoral model of incomplete conclusions. The ongoinginstitutional narratives will keep changing, requiring an ever-evolving pastoralunderstanding and modelling. So the major issue concerns the pastoral carerstaying committed to caring for those for whom he or she bears responsibility.The point of this is two-fold. Firstly, it shows that people with intellectualdisability deserve the most liberating form of pastoral relationship available atany given moment in time. Also, through pastoral commitment, it shows thatthese people are not alone, that they are worthy of being ‘journeyed with,’ incommunion, in heartfelt, human mutuality, to that reachable ‘farther shore.’And so a liberating model of pastoral care is sought that not only takescognisance of the strong narrative threads detailed in the previous chapter butalso seeks to comprehensively build upon the liberating qualities detailed in thesepastoral models.667 Campbell, Rediscovering Pastoral Care, 91.668ibid.669 Newell, Promises, Promises, 36.