The thesis argues that there is a need for Christian communal pastoral care and counselling practice beyond the individualistic Western pastoral care and counselling practices. The communal pastoral care model advocated by the author uses culturally gifted care-givers who follow spontaneous caring models. Several of the major books concerning communal pastoral care and counselling were reviewed. The author concludes that the church has been impoverished by ignoring the cultural gifts of the majority of members and the mutual communal care of the community. Pain and its healing in this thesis are understood in a culturally sensitive manner. Pastoral care must be done in context, in this case in the Vhavenda context. Hence the thesis looks systematically at the way in which the Vhavenda understand and heal pain from their cosmological perspective. The thesis engages in empirical research among the Vhavenda people using qualitative interview. The author selected five small communities to test for their understanding of pain and healing. He developed his own interview schedule. Themes encountered in interpreting the research results include pain as part of life. The thesis develops two sub-models of a Vhavenda-Christian culturally gifted model of communal care arguing the need of their incorporation into Christian communal care. They are “Kha ri vangulane” model which pictures pain as a thorn which people help to remove from a person; and the “khoro” or “dzulo” gathering which is family or community care-giving. A case study has illustrated how they are used.Finally, the author argues that the Bible is full of communal pictures which resonate well with the African people. Hence it is fairly easy to correlate the Vhavenda sense of community with the body of Christ model of Christian community as found in the Bible. The conclusion is that members of the Christian community need to reincorporate their culturally gifted care resources and integrate them with the biblical care. / Thesis (D. Th. (Practical Theology))

Project (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Includes final project proposal. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-144, 40-47).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Bethel Theological Seminary, 1991. / Includes index. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-142).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Bethel Theological Seminary, 1991. / Includes index. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-142).

Women and young people who have experienced domestic violence view themselves through an abuse-dominated lens, causing thin descriptions of themselves. Research was undertaken with seven women and eleven young people to explore how they had experienced domestic violence and to co-author and co-construct new stories of identity. This research addressed how a narrative pastoral approach guides therapeutic conversations with people who have experienced domestic violence. A narrative approach has at its heart the notion of decentred practice and an ethic of care. Reflective letters after each group meeting played a central part of the research. The letters were structured to tell the alternative stories emerging during and between sessions. These stories were told and retold and in each telling the women artd young people experienced alternative views of self and joined others in this re-writing. Participants spontaneously continued to meet beyond the completion of the research / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

Women and young people who have experienced domestic violence view themselves through an abuse-dominated lens, causing thin descriptions of themselves. Research was undertaken with seven women and eleven young people to explore how they had experienced domestic violence and to co-author and co-construct new stories of identity. This research addressed how a narrative pastoral approach guides therapeutic conversations with people who have experienced domestic violence. A narrative approach has at its heart the notion of decentred practice and an ethic of care. Reflective letters after each group meeting played a central part of the research. The letters were structured to tell the alternative stories emerging during and between sessions. These stories were told and retold and in each telling the women artd young people experienced alternative views of self and joined others in this re-writing. Participants spontaneously continued to meet beyond the completion of the research / M. Th. (Practical Theology)