Funerals are still considered as very important and well attended occasion in the black townships of South Africa. In the recent past, traditional African funerals practices have affected a number of powerful and complex systems that have been interaction in Africa. The three most important being traditional African cultures, modern Western culture and the environment. The study was conducted to establish factors that led to excessive funerals expenditures in some black townships communities of South Africa, in order to create a pastoral response to this phenomenon. The project was done in Ramatlabama village in the North West province and also in Soweto in the province of Gauteng. A qualitative methodological plan was followed allowing exclusive experiences to emerge. Families, adults and young church groups, clergy, Bishop, Social group and a Funeral undertaker , an in-depth qualitative analysis was employed in order to find the real reasons that led to excessive funeral expenditure. The data collected and analyzed revealed that factors such as impressing neighbors, meeting community and family expectation were the reasons for the phenomenon. There were other external factors that contributed indirectly to the practice and such as commercialization and politicization. In order to address this practice that is making the poor more vulnerable, the Shepherding Model of Gerkin’s and Pollard’s Theory of positive deconstruction was explored. It was found that the Clergy needed to be helped to be aware of the fact that excessive funeral expenditure requires a pastoral response with the right attitude and meaningful dialogues with those affected. The pastoral care-giver with adequate knowledge and exposure to life of pastoral care seeker will have a greater advantage to help most if not all families that usually find themselves in this predicament or dilemma. The best way for the church to help the poor families venture into the future, it’s by educating our communities on how not to spend beyond their means. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Practical Theology / unrestricted

This thesis is a study of factory owner Abraham Abrahamson Hülphers’s collections of parish description about the parishes in Norrland, more specifically those about Medelpad and Ångermanland. The thesis seeks to explain how Hülphers’s collections were created in practice while also presenting the descriptions content and analysing the ideology it reproduced. It does so by analysing Hülphers’s published descriptions, his travel journal and some of his correspondence. The thesis uses Mary Louise Pratts ideas about the imperial gaze as a theoretical framework to understand the work of Hülphers and the relation between the enlightened middle class and the peasantry which they described. The thesis investigates the idea of the parish descriptions understood as Hülphers travel journal reworked, arguing that Hülphers journey through Norrland was important for social reasons, rather than information gathering, and presenting the collections as new texts, not transformed versions of the journal. Furthermore the thesis discusses who helped Hülphers create the descriptions and the impact these men, from the same enlightened middle class as Hülphers himself, had on the text. The thesis also handles the economic ideology of the enlightenment as mirrored and reproduced by the descriptions. Here the focus lies on the priorities of the parishes different lines of work and the boundless optimism of enlightenment man – as nature could be conquered completely by man’s reason. Finally the thesis discusses the way Hülphers described the local culture; what he considered to be virtues and vices in the peasant population in terms of habits, language and dress, also showing the great value he considered the local dignitaries to have and discussing his disdain towards the superstitions of old as these could lead a community towards chaos.

The theme of the dissertation is design of new building of community center with a vicarage. The building is designed as a flat for a vicar, office of a vicar, new rooms for meeting of the churchgoers and new garden. The vicarage is designed near of church. The vicagareis designed in an area, which is prepare for building of cottages. The old vicacare is in old house in the other part of street Kostelní, than is the church. Existing flat for the vicar is unsuitable. Theobject is designed with one or two floors. The object is designed of tree parts: living part – a flat of the vicar and a flat for visitors, a community center – a parish hall and a hygienic rooms, an office part – an office of a the vicar and a clubroom. All parts of building are divide with fiction, design and used materials. The building is designed with a traditional materials as wood, concrete, masonry. The shape of building is designed from three diferent blocks. An parish hall i designed with rectangle layout, in the hall are designed two windows. The north-west corner of hal lis designed higher than other part sof room, because this corner is situated to church. This window is designed with frame in cross shape. The second window is connection between the garden and hall. The external fasade is designed from smooth concrete with links, that are designed in cross kapes. The links are designe as some crosses, that are designed in gold section. The office of vicar is designed with wood arc beams. The external fasade is designed from titanzinc sheets. The fasade is designed as wall and roof. The end fasades are designed from glass walls, because wood beams are a dominant of this part of building. The living part of building is designed with two floors. Th structure is designed with traditional technologies from masonry and concrete or wood slabs.

This thesis investigates the development of commercial leisure in a northern community, Halifax, over a period of 200 years. It examines a range of leisure pursuits including the public house, theatre and sports and traces their development during a period of population growth and industrialization which came to be based increasingly around the factory. It analyses whether Halifax was typical in the way commercial leisure developed or whether particular local conditions influenced the development of commercial leisure. During the period, Halifax, an ancient town, developed from an important centre of the textile trade in England into a classic Victorian mill town supporting a broad base of industries. Leisure developed from a leisure culture based around traditional holidays and pastimes to a highly commercialized leisure experience increasingly provided by regional and national companies and a sporting calendar that included structured leagues with professional clubs and games played seasonally.

No description available.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att lämna ett litet bidrag till Svenska kyrkans självreflektion och därmed till ekumeniska samtal genom att undersöka sammanläggningarnas konsekvenser för församlingssyn och liv. Med denna sammanfattning besvarar jag även frågeställningarna; Vilken ecklesiologi kan efter relationsförändringarna utläsas i Svenska kyrkans utredningar och i Läronämndens yttranden över territorialförsamlingarna? Vad ger denna för implikationer för församlingen som koinonia? Genom att analysera den ecklesialitet som framträder i Svenska kyrkans utredningar och Läronämndens yttranden har jag sökt finna svar på frågan hur territorialförsamlingarnas ecklesiologi framträder och vilka implikationer detta kan ha för den ekumeniska förståelsen av kyrkan som koinonia. Jag har visat ett plausibelt samband mellan sammanläggningar av territorialförsamlingar med kommunalisering av kyrkan och ett organisatoriskt skifte från Gemeinschaft till Gesellschaft.Territorialförsamlingarna har genom sammanläggningar gått mot större ekonomiska enheter med större geografisk storlek och ökad genomsnittlig mängd tillhöriga per församling. Man har rört sig från ett övre tak av antalet medlemmar i en församling till en miniminivå. Denna nivå syftar till att utgöra ett tillräckligt stort kyrkoavgiftsunderlag i syfte att bära kostnader för personal och fastigheter. Med detta har man rört sig från att antalet medlemmar avgör mängden personal till att mängden personal avgör antalet medlemmar.Samtidigt som antalet medlemmar minskar ökar antalet anställda. Svenska kyrkan kan beskrivas som tjänsteinriktad folkkyrka där välutbildad och kunnig personal utgör den faktiska församlingen medan den tillhörige primärt konsumerar religiösa tjänster. Den demokratiska organiseringens offentligrättsliga karaktär stärker den Gesellschaft¬-struktur som utvecklats över åren. Möjligheten för den enskilda att ta ansvar för, och engagera sig i, sin församling som förtroendevald går via nomineringsgruppernas respektive vallista och inte via det direkta engagemanget i församlingen. Man skulle kunna säga att församlingsbon lämnar över sitt religiösa liv att skötas av anställa och nomineringsgrupper å sina vägnar. Ett slags helig gemenskap på entreprenad där den enskildes ansvar flyttas till nomineringsgruppen och kyrkolivet sköts av proffs medan den enskilde döpte kan komma och fylla på sitt själsliv vid behov eller vid högtidliga tillfällen. De anställda och förtroendevalda bildar en slags ställföreträdande koinonia medan de tillhöriga blir passiva konsumenter som inte ser sig själva som kyrka. Denna ställföreträdande koinonia riskerar även att leda till en organisatorisk donatism, där förståelsen av kyrkan som en samling rättfärdiggjorda syndare tonas ner då graden av professionalitet ökar.När kyrkan blir för lik världen hamnar dess skapelseteologiska annorlundaskap i bakvattnet till förmån för statsvetenskaplig och ekonomisk rationalism och då riskerar kyrkan att delas upp i en yttre organisation och en inre gemenskap där den förras mätbarhet hamnar i förgrunden. Kyrkans organisering behöver istället hålla ihop med dess syfte att människor ska komma till tro och kristen gemenskap skapas. Kyrkans annorlundaskap som koinonia grundad i Treenigheten kan utgöra en förebild för världen och ge just de förutsättningar som en öppen folkkyrka behöver för sitt grundläggande uppdrag, sin lagstadgade identitet, sin ekonomi och som en del av den ekumeniska rörelsen. Inte minst i en tid av transition mot att vara en kyrka med mer likartade förutsättningar som andra samfund. / In the ecumenical movement the Church is often understood as koinonia – communion with (in) God realized in interpersonal community. In this essay, I have tried to show that the organizational structure in Church of Sweden after the separation of Church and state, risks forming a vicarious koinonia of staff and elected officials. Mergers of territorial parishes and an organizational shift from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft has shifted the view of who is part of the koinonia and put emphasis on employees and on the church as a provider of religious services while the parishioners are passive bystanders and form the basis for church tenth. The vicarious koinonia risks forming an organizational Donatism in which religious professionals replace the understanding of congregation as justified sinners, and of ecclesiological Docetism where the organization of the church is separated from its purpose of community and lived faith.  The church's identity as koinonia founded in the Trinity can set a model for the world and provide the conditions that an open folk church needs for its mission, its finances and as part of the ecumenical movement.

The aim of this thesis is to visualize and explain how people’s economic and social relations were connected in the parish of Sundborn, in the south east of Dalarna, in the period 1820-1849. The study is based on records of claims and debts in inventories and parish registers, which enable reconstruction of the private local credit market. The study shows that the majority in the economic network lived in Sundborn, and that while few people had formal loans at the institutional credit market, many had loans by trust at the private local credit market. Also, while few people were lenders, almost everyone was a borrower. The most common credit relationship was between people who lived near one another, and people who lived near one another or were related received a higher average credit. The private local credit market consisted primarily of men. These results have been interpreted with the use of social network theory, it being shown that people depended on their social network to obtain the necessary credit. In creating an economic network graph, I show that households in the parish of Sundborn were interconnected by debt relations. By using this method, it is possible to identify significant persons and potential parish bankers. Through combining the network graph with a landscape map, I show connections between the settlement, the assets, economic relations, centrality and the long valley of Sundborn river. The study opens up possibilities for further development of the same method to visualize historic data and relate it to the landscape, with a view to generating new related questions and spatial analyses.

La present tesi vol explicar la implantació de la Reforma Catòlica en una sèrie de parròquies rurals dels bisbats de Girona (valls de Ridaura, Bas, Hostoles i Amer) i Vic (El Collsacabra i les valls de Susqueda i Sau), entre 1587 i 1800, des dels bisbes posttrentins Jaume Caçador i Pedro Jaime als il·lustrats Tomàs de Lorenzana i Francisco de Veyan. La documentació principal són les sèries de les visites pastorals conservades a l'Arxiu Diocesà de Girona i l'Arxiu Episcopal de Vic; paral·lelament, s'ha reforçat amb documentació parroquial (llibres sagramentals, consuetes, llibres d'obra i confraries), protocols notarials (notaries de Rupit, Sant Feliu de Pallerols, El Mallol i Amer) i impresos episcopals. Els manaments de les visites pastorals s'han contrastat, amb semblances i diferències, amb els decrets del concili de Trento, de les constitucions provincials tarraconenses i les sinodals gironines i vigatanes, i amb les evidències artístiques, arquitectòniques i arqueològiques. Tots ells han servit per demostrar la lentitud en la implantació del programa tridentí, que s'assoleix, de fet, amb força retard (ben entrat el segle XVIII). / The present thesis tries to explain the implantation of the Catholic Reform in a few rural parish churches in the bishoprics of Girona (Valleys of Ridaura, Bas, Hostoles and Amer) and Vic (El Collsacabra and Valleys of Susqueda and Sau), from 1587 to 1800, from the post-Trent bishops Jaume Caçador and Pedro Jaime to Illustrated Tomàs de Lorenzana and Francisco de Veyan. The main sources of information are the pastoral bishop visits. These series are well preserved in the Arxiu Diocesà de Girona and the Arxiu Episcopal de Vic. We also have added some other documents: parish registers, notary books (from Rupit, Sant Feliu de Pallerols, El Mallol i Amer) and bishop printed material. We have contrasted the orders from the bishops visits with the decrees from the Council of Trent, the Constitutions of the Tarraconense Province and the Synodal Constitutions of Girona and Vic, and the artistic, architectural and archaeological evidences. All of them have shown the slow pace and the delay of the enterprise.

The topic of diocesan Church management structures which I present in this research emerges from concerns concerning the comprehensive implementation of the Second Vatican Council in this regard. It is an attempt to examine, comprehend and present the responses and opinions of members of a diocesan Church in a systematic, clear and simple manner to concerns such as: should diocesan Church management structures change? If so, how should diocesan Church management structures change? What should be the main focus and priority of diocesan Church management structures? Do the current management structures of the diocesan Church respond adequately to the needs of the People of God? Since the Catholic Church has a complex management structure, the entire examination thereof is beyond the scope of this research. However, the aim of this investigation is to critically examine the diocesan management structures of a contemporary local Church. The challenge of this research is to ascertain how ecclesial management, as a vital aspect in the Church, is responding to the challenges of the Second Vatican Council to make the Church not only relevant, but allowing full participation and representation of her members in the management of the diocesan Church. / Department of Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D.Th (Practical Theology)

This thesis examines welfare provision in rural Oxfordshire after the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. The county had little industrial development, remained largely agricultural in nature, and the region had been perceived as a backwater of friendly society development. This thesis rectifies that view and places Oxfordshire as an important component of the movement with its independent nature and early rejection of affiliated order branches that emanated from urbanized and industrialized areas. There is no evidence of impetus given to friendly society formation after the implementation of the new poor law with the general increase in societies continuing. However, the relationship with poor law administration changed. A case study of Stonesfield demonstrates how the friendly society became the heart of village life and was integral to self help and support for the poor. A wider view is taken of welfare provision, with detailed assessment of a range of welfare instruments, such as coal and clothing clubs, soup kitchens, and medical clubs, together with an appraisal of their geographical spread. The range of welfare instruments available is compared to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need, a model of human motivation. The case study of Whitchurch provides an in-depth assessment of one parish welfare system where after 1834 at least nine stands of welfare were available at all times to the poor who held a degree of selection in what was an increasingly a consumer market. The thesis is underpinned throughout by the use of extensive primary source material.