Theology and Practice of Pastoral Care.
Assessment 2019-20
Case Study (1000 words) due 16th December 2019
Select one of the two case studies below and apply Carrie Doehring’s model of pastoral care to it.
a. Grace is a seventeen-year old girl. She is normally a keen participant in church activities, including the choir, worship services, and youth camp. She helps with the church’s mid-week Bible Club for primary school children. The pastor often praises her as a shining example to other youth in the church. A bubbly personality, she gradually becomes sullen and withdrawn. Nobody can establish what is wrong. Eventually, Grace tells the church’s head of youth ministries that she is pregnant.
She is distressed, fearful, and angry. Her local GP has confirmed that Grace is pregnant, but there has been no discussion about what to do next. She is afraid to tell her parents, who are prominent members in the church, very strict, and hold out high hopes of her going to university, and achieving great things in life.
The eighteen-year old boy responsible for making her pregnant is reluctant to assume the responsibilities of fatherhood. He is pressuring Grace to have an abortion. She is concerned that if she tells the pastor and her parents about her situation she they will judge and condemn her as promiscuous.
OR
b. Benjamin is an elderly man in his late seventies. He came to England from the Caribbean in the early 1960s. A long serving member of his church it seems as though everything in his church is changing. A new leadership team seems determined to introduce a contemporary style of worship. Many of his friends have died or returned to the Caribbean. He feels lonely and isolated. Benjamin has worked hard all his adult life, asking nothing of anybody, paying his taxes, and giving a tithe to the church, but now he is frail and suffers from acute problems with his legs that make it hard to walk. He sometimes gets confused. A gang of three youths: Asian, White, and Mixed Race assaulted Benjamin and robbed him, when he made a recent trip to the local corner shop to buy some milk. They punched Benjamin in the face and kicked him while he lay on the ground. He is struggling to understand the changes taking place in the world around him and in his own life as he ages.
Now, he rarely ventures outside of his flat. He is angry and fearful at the same time. The police arrested three youths based on his description, but he could not remember what his assailants looked like, when he attended an identity parade to, potentially, identify his assailants. It seems to him that God and his local church have abandoned him.
Essay (3000 words) due 6th January 2020
Essay 1
State your understanding of the theology and practice of pastoral care in dialogue with two of the contemporary pastoral theologians. You must choose two theologians from the list below:
Stephanie Crumpton
Carrie Doehring
Paul Goodliff
Emmanuel Lartey
David Lyall
Barbara McClure
Neil Pembroke
Eugene Peterson
Stephen Pattison
James Poling
Andrew Purves
Anthony Reddie
Derek Tidball
Margaret Whipp
Or
Essay 2
Describe, analyse, and evaluate the opportunities for pastoral care in your church’s practice of public worship.
