Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

290I would also claim that pastoral ministry ought to be accepting of theThou, on occasions, being realized within the realm of the extraordinary, asrealized in those stories I discern as approximating Jim’s blessing.Nonetheless, I do claim, as a point of departure from Buber that, throughthe pastoral model of Immanent Thou-ness, that while Thou-ness can beunderstood as residing within the realm of the transcendent, as in the incidentwith Jim, it is also realized through the ordinary and mundane. It can be locatedat the foot of the mountain where we live the vast majority of our lives. It is not arealization that can be described in such shuddering terms as those of whichBuber speaks, but nonetheless describes a Thou-ness born of a confessing spirit.It waits for the Thou to immanently approach the one who, by grace and apastoral posture of mutuality, knows that although they and the other are flawed,yet they are loved immeasurably.7.2.3.4 Conscious Political ActionOne of the crucial advantages of pastoral care expressed as ImmanentThou-ness is that it is expressive of a pastoral commitment that favours themarginalised. In the confessional act of drawing near, waiting and seeing theother in terms of a mutuality of relationship, we are implicitly making a strongstatement concerning those persons to whom we ultimately bear allegiance. It isstating that we are prepared to cast to one side the objectifying, institutionalinfluences that serve to oppress in favour of engaging in committed, authenticrelationship with the people with intellectual disability who live in theinstitutional context. We are asserting the primacy of the Immanent Thou-nessmodel of pastoral relationship. This model seeks liberation through mutualrelation over and above medical models of institutional relationship that exercisea professionalised form of care and service over those for whom they bearresponsibility.If the pastoral carer does not deliberately choose to move near to theperson with an intellectual disability, if they do not choose the path of theconfessing spirit, then they are in danger of becoming comfortable with thedistance between themselves and those for whom they care. They may come tobe regarded largely as indistinguishable in professional identity from those healthcare professionals with whom they share care responsibilities. Pattison claims,from the perspective of liberation theology, that it is easy for chaplains working