Gela

Gela
He leads me beside still waters

Tuesday 30 April 2013

Reflections on Disorientation and Lamentations


Kate Bradford

Our secular world often sees suffering as a deficiency that requires therapy. An entire industry exists around grief management. By contrast a Biblical world view does not see grief as something to be managed or a problem to be solved. The Bible offers a rich, nuanced exploration that takes us deep into the mystery of suffering and the possibility of new life emerging out of suffering. The Bible offers no techniques but rather suggests that we share one another’s burdens. Eugene Peterson simply describes pastoral work as pain-sharing[1]. To suffer is to experience loss: loss of health, loss of face, loss of a loved one, loss of things, loss of hope, loss of dreams, and loss of relationships. We walk together with those who suffer loss and grief and in doing so the sufferer is dignified and their loss and grief are validated. 

Disorientation

To suffer is to experience profound disorientation. For each sufferer there lies a challenge: to seek to find meaning in their new situation and eventually, re-orientation. The ministry of the chaplain is to accompany such people on this journey.

Chaplains need to be comfortable with the Biblical texts that particularly address the subjects of pain, loss and grief. The primary Biblical texts that deal with grief and loss are the Psalms of Lament, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Job and the New Testament passion narratives. The chaplain should also have a good working knowledge of several psychological models that address grief and loss. 

Walter Brueggemann[2], writing on Psalms identifies three phases or periods of life:  orientation, disorientation and re-orientation. These phases are not necessarily successive or even related to stages of maturity and once experienced they may occur again a number of times, in any order, throughout a lifetime. The Book of Psalms reflects this as a natural pattern of life, experienced both by individuals and by communities. Brueggemann notes that as people negotiate transitions between the phases of orientation, disorientation and re-orientation, different poetic expressions arise, notably psalms of lament, praise and thanksgiving. For example, moving from either orientation or re-orientation back into dis-orientation gives rise to lament. By identifying these phases and recognising the necessary adjustments that need to take place, people are then able to adjust their expectations and accordingly, come to view different facets of relationships with God, self and others.

Pastoral ministry to someone in a disoriented phase is to hold out an inkling of hope contained deep within the disorientation itself. This is because to claim that there is disorientation is to firstly assume that there was once orientation and that there is a faint hope of re-orientation. Just as shadows in themselves are evidence of light (as it is only by the occlusion of light that a shadow forms), if there is no orientation it would not be possible to become disorientated.

Grief and Loss Models

Psychological models and insights helpfully remind us that grief is normal and periods of disorientation are part of the human condition. The process of adjusting to loss and the accompanying grief takes time and there are healthy and unhealthy patterns of grieving. There are no short cuts that avoid the pain of grief.

Commonly referenced secular models are Kubler-Ross’ Stages of Grieving, extended grieving cycles, and Stroebe and Schut’s Dual Process model. These models engage with people further through the lenses of Bowlby’s theories of attachment, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Erikson’s early social and moral development, the total pain theory, continuing bonds, categories of loss and others[3].

Each of these systems, while not excluding the possibility of God and the reality of sin, are not designed to address humanity from the perspective of the fall of Adam, the promises to Abraham, the exodus of Moses, the kingship of David, the exile of Israel, the wisdom of Paul or the cross of Christ. It is the task of pastoral theologians and chaplains to ask how, or indeed do, these theories fit together with the Biblical accounts of suffering, concepts of faith, God’s loving kindness, and notions of sin, fallen-ness, guilt, redemption, forgiveness and reconciliation

Lament

The Bible approaches loss, pain and grief through another quite different lens – the lens of the lament. These writings unashamedly expose suffering and engage with it. Lamentations assumes a dialogue partner, and that partner is God.  The suffering is presented from different perspectives often oscillating between a human perspective and a divine perspective. Lamentations neither offers an answer to the problem of suffering nor does it explain pain, however it does help the sufferer face grief. Suffering is never presented as random or as an impersonal force, it is seen as intensely personal. Lamentations offers an articulation for suffering and companionship during the time of suffering. It is in suffering that the closeness to God, and distance from God is most clearly seen and keenly felt. 

The intensely personal book of Lamentations is never theoretical. The lament is a cry across a gap that must be negotiated between humanity and God, fallen-ness and holiness, mortality and eternity. An attempt to close this gap, either by a quick theological resolution (over realised eschatology that sees everything from a divine end point) or theodicy (theistic or philosophical explanations of suffering) unwittingly create a disjunction between what is real ‘here and now’ and the lost ‘ideal’. They attempt to close the gap too quickly.

The highly structured lament follows an acrostic pattern (each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The A- Z structure guarantees against rushing through, causing both suffer and helper to attend to the suffering. The acrostic device thoroughly covered the enormity of the suffering and the myriad details of grief. The A –Z as it were, covered again and again and again and again (five times) the tragedy until the grief begins to dissipate and its intensity is finally spent.

Walter Kaiser[4] suggests the chapters of Lamentation correlate with perspectives of the suffering representing views from the: outside, inside, upward, overall and finally, with prayer towards the future. Much popular recent pastoral care practice focuses only on the inside view (and this from a psychological perspective rather than a theological perspective) and thus significantly decreases the possibility of helping a sufferer find wholeness. 

In pastoral visitation there is a general pattern to the sufferer led conversations, which closely follows the pattern of Lamentations. The sufferer will usually give an overview of events, and in doing so help put the visitor in the picture.  Secondly, the sufferer will usually share in greater depth their perspective on their suffering if given the opportunity. A skilled pastoral visitor, practiced in empathetic listening skills, helps the sufferer to express their feelings and find words for things, as yet un-named or articulated. Part of the pastoral care will be to help the sufferer to move from the ‘why’ questions that cannot be answered, to a gentle enquiry as to where and how God might be in this situation. Over time the conversation may oscillate between the grief and a catalogue of woes, pain, sin, injustice and unexpected inklings of hope.

Lamentations describes a loss and grief of catastrophic proportions and also suggests a model for those who wish to enter the pastoral work of pain-sharing. Lamentations locates suffering to particular events and gives words to the horrors experienced, the emotions and feelings are not aimless anxieties but connected to real events – a historical memory. Sufferers will tend to orientate themselves toward loss-orientation, or towards a reconstructive-orientation, or oscillate between the two[5]. It is here that the chaplain helps those who suffer to reconstruct their world, incorporating the grief.

The pastoral visitor holds onto the threads of grace and holds out a glimmer of hope throughout by the use of sensitive grace-filled conversation and prayer. Over time (often a long time) a new perspective is formed, very often containing deeply honest reflection and observation about self and others. Slowly a re-orientation begins to take shape. Yet each visit can return to any stage and oscillations are unpredictable. Yet the boundaries of the lament place limits on evil. Suffering – even suffering as terrible as in Lamentations – cannot go on for ever.  

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3: 22 -24)



[1] Peterson, Eugene H. ‘The Pastoral Work of Pain-Sharing, Lamentations’, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work. 1992. pp. 113 – 148.
[2] Brueggemann, Walter. The Spirituality of the Psalms. 2002.
 
[3] For chaplaincy, it is important to recognise that these psychological theories were not developed to reflect on the human condition in the light of Biblical wisdom. This reflection is the task of theology.
[4] Kaiser, Walter C. Jr.  Grief and Pain in the Plan of God: Christ Assurance and the Message of Lamentations. 2004.
[5] Cf Stroebe and Schut,  Health Outcomes of Bereavement, 2007.
 

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Chaplaincy: An Eccentric Ministry


Kate Bradford

Eccentric ministries like chaplaincy happen out at the margins of society. By this I don’t mean to say an odd ministry, although it may be that at times, but rather a ministry that happens far from the centre. Much Christian ministry centres physically around a church, a theological college or faith based organisation, but chaplains are sent people who go out to the lost, the dispossessed, the imprisoned and sufferers of many kinds.

Disconnecting from the centre is an inherent danger in any such ministry. So much time and energy can be spent at the periphery that the concerns of the centre may grow strangely dim and begin to fade into irrelevance accompanied by an imperceptible theological drift.

Becoming distant from our appointing organisation is one problem, but to become disconnected from God and his orientating word is a deeper problem that cuts to the heart of the matter. Isaiah perceived this danger acutely when he penned the beautiful words, ‘Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand’.  (Is 64:8)

The earthy, visceral image of the potter working the clay with his bare hands is shocking, stunning, focused. Just as his hands formed the dry land, we too are formed, re-formed, conformed to the likeness of the image of Christ. A lump of clay not centred flings off the wheel[1]. Before a pot can be formed it must first be centred, and then formed from centre.

Career chaplains, volunteer chaplains, lay pastoral care workers must all submit to this centering process as part of their spiritual and vocational formation.  For a chaplain to faithfully offer Christ’s care on a situation by situation basis they need to know the centre out from which they move:  an understanding and experience of a redeeming relationship with Christ together with a centred and settled theological framework from which they respond to differing and complex situations. 

By a theological frame work, a single point of orthodoxy is not being suggested but rather an integrated understanding of a theological view of humanity, God, Christ, sin and falleness, forgiveness, redemption, suffering, the limits of freedom, discernment, faith, hope, grace, love. These Biblical understandings or doctrines, work in tension with each other, modifying, limiting, and holding, as the potters hands firmly steady and guide the process as the pot is formed.

Theological centering provides the starting point and on-going reference point around which is built a rich and textured ministry, based on prayer, study of the scriptures, conscious spiritual formation, compassion, patience, sharing in the suffering of Christ, and wisdom insights from human sciences of psychology and sociology.

Compassionate care, listening and reflecting are guided by underlying theological presuppositions; “There is no view from no-where”. The challenge for each pastoral care worker is to examine, understand and be formed by Scripture because our presuppositions affect the care we give.

Christian ethicist Stanley Hauerwas, who has written extensively on disability and the relationship between medicine and the church observes that as a community we do not regard sin, illness, dis-ease, and spiritual health as we ought. As a consequence many pastoral visitors are not trained theologically to deal with the complexities of ministry, preferring to continue to take listening courses rather than grapple with Christology.

 

“I am not really into Christology this year. I am really into relating. I would like to take more courses in CPE.”  They [Students] are likely to be confirmed in that opinion by being told, “Right, take CPE, after all that is what ministry is ― relating. Lean to be a wounded healer.”… No one really believes that an inadequately trained priest might damage their salvation. But people do believe that an inadequately trained doctor might hurt them.[2]

 

Hauerwas is supportive of pastoral care, however, he is concerned that compassionate care offered is theologically informed, centred on Christ, and does not conform to the things of this world.



[1] Jeremiah 18:6 – reference to potter working at his wheel.
[2] Stanley Hauerwas, ‘Sinsick’, Braaten, C. E., & Jenson, R. W. (2000). Sin, Death, and the Devil. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Chaplains as Boundary Riders

By Kate Bradford

Boundary-rider,  noun: a person employed to ride round the fences etc. of a cattle or sheep station and keep them in good order.

Historically, in rural Australia, from the 1860’s there was a solitary occupation – boundary-riding. The boundary-rider was responsible for maintaining the outer fences on sheep and cattle stations (cf ranches), which comprise vast tracts of remote land. The duties of the boundary-rider consisted of riding along the fences on a daily basis; seeing that they were in good order; repairing stretched fences broken by stock; putting out stock from other stations that had strayed in; and keeping the owner’s stock contained.[1]

Some riders lived in shacks out along the boundary that they maintained. Additional tasks of the rider included searching for stock and moving herds and flocks to better pastures. Many boundary riders only came into the station to report in, convey information to stockmen and collect supplies returning back to the boundaries. Life could be very lonely, depending on the size of station and the length of the boundary.

The work of a chaplain has some intense similarities to that of boundary riding. For many chaplains the work is a solitary occupation carried out far away from the supporting religious agency. Some chaplains have the privilege of working in teams. However, even for those chaplains, chaplaincy is one-to-one ministry and each chaplain spends large amounts of the day caring for individuals and families in various circumstances of need and distress. Ideally when alone, a chaplain becomes more available to others, creating space and time around themselves. As the chaplain moves through the institution within which they work, conducting rounds and following up requests, they become openly available to those in need: patients, staff, families, residents, inmates, clients, members, passengers, armed forces’ personnel. It is at this time, when they are riding the boundaries, they come across those who need a visit today. The chaplain ‘touches base’ to sign in or out, collect supplies, convey information to staff or other chaplains, make some notes, and then returns once more out to the boundary.

In a major hospital, with a large multi-faith chaplaincy department, the chaplains from various Christian traditions meet for a short reflection from the Bible and to spend some time praying for the day, the patients, their families and the staff and volunteers. Each day they pray that they would be led to those, throughout the hospital, who need a visit. They also pray daily that God would intervene and help meet the deepest needs of those within the hospital who need a chat, and of those who will visit the chaplaincy office.[2]

For the chaplain to meet people, many of whom do not have a faith community, it is necessary to go out and visit, to be available, and to be generous with time allowing people ‘to be’, to share and explore the things on their soul. Not everyone needs a visit but as the chaplain moves around those who need a chat identify themselves and the chaplain is mutually drawn into conversation. But like boundary riding, if the chaplain did not go, they would neither see the need nor be there to address it. The ‘need’ or the ‘gap’ would simply sit there like a great gaping unattended wound.

The chaplain follows a Lord who searches for outcasts, heals the broken hearted and binds up sorrows. (Ps 147) The biblical image of the shepherd also has similarities to the boundary rider. The Lord is described as gathering lambs in his arms, gently leading those with young, (Is 40:11). Good shepherds are contrasted with bad shepherds who allow vineyards to be ruined and fields to be trampled and become desolate wastelands because the boundaries have fallen into disrepair (Jer 12:10). In such circumstances the flock has scattered (Jer 23:2) and they have been caused to roam on the mountain tops (Jer 50:6). The scattered sheep become food for wild animals all because of the neglect of the shepherd (Ez 34:8).

Occasionally it is noted that these Old Testament verses refer only to the Israelites, not to everyone. There are several verses, however, that refer to the Lord seeking after those who do not seek him (Is 65:1; Rom 10:20) and Jesus himself expressed deep compassion for those who feel without hope or help, and he has a self-identifying responsibility and concern to seek and save the lost. This identity reflected an idea expressed in the book Ezekiel, ‘I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak’ (Ez 34:16). It is within this compassionate framework that the work of chaplaincy happens in places of deep need.

Like the boundary riders, chaplains face isolation, and risk feeling disconnected from a wider community and may become dispirited. There are dangers too, that the freedom of the job and the wide ranging nature of the task – without immediate accountability – opens up the opportunity of becoming a negligent boundary-rider. Such a boundary-rider simply goes through the motions – after all, who really knows what happens in a day? It is only after a time when the fences have not been maintained and sheep begin to scatter and others begin to notice that, ‘it has been a long time since this boundary was really cared for’. Sadly it is often secular work colleagues who notice first.   

The peculiar difficulties around the ministry of chaplaincy cannot be overlooked; chaplains absorb large amounts of stress and grief from other people. As chaplains compassionately care and help carry burdens for other people in crisis, or suffering pain, trauma, loss, grief, loneliness and isolation, these conditions can begin to manifest in the chaplain’s own life.  These things are too big to carry alone. Chaplains need a supportive prayerful Christian community, good professional supervision to provide adequate support, and they need a close and real Christian faith. As with the cost of isolation and the harsh terrain in boundary-riding[3], the cost of chaplaincy and the alien nature of the landscape, in which the ministry happens, is not always acknowledged.

The risks are real but they do not negate the real and wonderful opportunities to care. The chaplain knows that not everyone will feel the need for a chaplain to visit, but for those who feel lost, lonely, scared, without hope or just needing a chat, our government intuitions, in co-operation with religious agencies, who provide chaplains. Chaplains follow a many centuries’ old, heritage of compassionate Christian care, following in the steps of the ultimate boundary-rider, Jesus Christ.


[1] Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary 5th Edition
[2] The World Health Organisation identifies the necessity and importance of addressing people’s spiritual needs together with physical, mental and social needs in order to provide holistic care. 
[3] See the poem, ‘The boundary Rider’, by Thomas William Heney  http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-boundary-rider/