The thesis The Parish Community at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Prague in the Years 1950-1990 describes, as the title suggests, the history of the Parish Community during the communist era. Both the history of the church itself and that of spiritual administration, Pastoral Care, and Priestley House, which was established after the expulsion of the Jesuits from their residence, are investigated in the thesis. The aim of this work is to fully comprehend and meticulously organize the sources of information and therefore fill the gap in the history of this place, for the records of activities and events in the parish were not kept systematically during the communist era.

Masters of Art / While media attention seems to suggest that clergy sexual abuse (CSA) occurs primarily in the Roman Catholic church, specifically with children, or in the so-called ‘unregulated’ charismatic churches between charismatic leaders and pious women; the #churchtoo movement suggests otherwise. For example, the multiple cases of clergy sexual abuse from different dioceses in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) which has come to the fore since 2018, indicates how serious the problem is. The prevalent increase in sexual violence is despite the 2002 document called “Pastoral Standards: Practices and procedures for all in ministry” adopted and authorized by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa to provide canonically binding guidelines and detailed processes which ought to be followed where sexual (and other) clergy misconduct is reported.

The purpose of this thesis is to research the experience of men who feel degraded and traumatized by serving under the leadership of women, because of being brought up in a patriarchal environment. Culture seems to play an important part in helping these men to operate within this patriarchal structures. To revisit the negative concepts of African and Christian cultures regarding the leadership of women, and to positively look into equity law in the light of the Bible, which is supposed to be the road map (constitution) for Christians, and the democratic constitution of South Africa. The Bible reveals God as God who hates oppression and promotes liberty, justice, and fairness. Regarding prophecy, the prophet Joel says, “And ... I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh ... Your daughters shall prophesy ... and upon the servants.” (Joel 2: 28-32) Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Women should be at liberty to preach the Word of God inside and outside the church and also to take part in leadership roles. The government of South Africa is propagating affirmative action especially to those who were disadvantaged. Women are the ones who had been disadvantaged when coming to being in leadership positions in every aspect of life. The other factor is to encourage pastoral care givers and the church to jointly propagate equity and the emancipation of all those who are oppressed because of negative cultural concepts and upbringing. Finally it is to demolish all negative cultural aspects whether Christian or African and adapt to the equity law (Law of justice and fairness) irrespective of race, color or gender, for the health, peace and prosperity of our country, and our church. The Bible version that will be used through out the thesis will be the New International Version (NIV). / Dissertation (MA (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

This essay has examined the transition from physical pastoral care conversations to digitalized ones and the experience of it in the workplace. The thesis for this essay is the following; how has the pastoral care conversations continued during the pandemic, and what advantages and disadvantages has the informants experienced in the transition from physical pastoral care conversations to digitalized meetings? The study has been conducted through qualitative semi-structured interviews with a selection of priests and deacons within the Church of Sweden. The main questions that have been asked are: 1. How has the pastoral care meetings practically taken place during the pandemic? 2. What thoughts and experiences has the informants had to the transition from physical to digitized pastoral care meetings? 3. What advantages and disadvantages has this in turn meant for the work with pastoral care? Each interview has been transcribed and then analyzed through a so-called content analysis. This type of analysis has been helpful in being able to pick out relevant themes from the material that have been keys within the interviews. From the analysis, there was four themes that stood out, which were: openness, access, problematics and challenge. The first two categories deal with the informants' experience of the transition as an advantage, while the two latter one’s points to disadvantages that arises with the digitalized transition in their work. The analysis from the interviews showed that one does not exclude the other, that the transition is not just a disadvantage or the other way around, but rather that the two are connected. Instead, both of them help the congregations to create new ways to continue being a church for the community. Reaching out and responding to peoples need to converse and to feel connected even though they have been isolated. The conclusion shows that the advantages and disadvantages have helped bringing the Church to the people when physical meetings are limited or cut off completely due to restrictions within the society. The analysis has also shown the difficulties that these informants have battled with and how they have handled them.

Själavård eller terapi? - En religionspsykologisk studie av en själavårds och samtalsmottagning i Svenska kyrkan Pastoral Care or Therapy? - A Religious Psychological Study of a Pastoral Care and Conversation Clinic in the Swedish Church The purpose of this thesis is to increase knowledge about how staff work in a pastoral care and call reception (called the conversation clinic) under the auspices of the Church of Sweden. The empirical material consists of five informants who in one way or another are employed by the parish conversation clinic. This study is carried out as a qualitative study, where the research questions posed problematize how employees work based on psychotherapeutic/therapeutic knowledge and a pastoral care perspective, how the conversation clinic receives people's existential and spiritual needs and how any differences and similarities are expressed between pastoral care and therapy at the conversation clinic. The methodological and theoretical perspective clarifies what characterizes qualitative studies by applying Sharan B Merriam's (1994) case study method. To handle the empirical material Kirsti Malterud's Qualitative Methods in Medical Research (2014) is used. In summary, it can be said that the answers to the first research question is that the conversation clinic is based on a client perspective. The result of the second research question is summed up by the fact that the conversation clinic care about people's existential health and spiritual needs by that fact that the clients always being welcome to the conversation clinic regardless of religious affiliation or outlook on life, regardless of conversations in pastoral care or therapy. The results of the third research question show that the reception works in an intersection between pastoral care and therapy, where the economic factor and record keeping are two clear markers between either pastoral care or therapeutic treatment. Summary conclusions are that the conversation clinic works with a human care and treatment holistic perspective that offers both pastoral care based on theology and various secular therapeutic, psychiatric and psychological theories and models.

My approach in this exploratory thesis is to lay the foundation for the development of pastoral care for a new time and a new social situation, and to build a foundation for later studies to be able to apply existential queer theological perspectives to the pastoral care work within the Church of Sweden. The work is thus hypoyhesisgenerating in order to develop a method. This is done on the basis of a literature review. By bringing together two theoretical areas, a foundation is created for the development with in the next stage of a new model and tools that improve practical interventions in theological contexts, and that provide new approaches to pastoral care when meeting confidants suffering from depression. athe diagnosis of depression is increasing drastically and affects the world health situation at large. We live in a secular/post-secualr age, when neo-liberalism with its system measures everything in terms of efficiency, productivity and profit. Existential perspectives are generally missing in the National Board of Health and Welfare´s guidelines regarding health today, and the question is what the transformative approach of existential queer theology can contribute to the theological and pastoral care work/meeting with depressed people. My theory is that these perspectives open new avenues for pastoral care in a theological context to contribute to personal health. It is about laying the faoundation for the development of pastoral care with a transformative perspective, for a new time and a new situation. The results and conclusions of the study will be used to develop practice in future research.

The aim of this study, Pastoral care behind bars, is to investigate the experiences of detention and prison chaplains regarding pastoral care and its function in Swedish detention centres and prisons. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six priests within the faith-community Svenska kyrkan. With variation, the analysis has shown, based on Berit Okkenhaug’s theory of trinitarian pastoral care and Ralph Linton’s role theory, that pastoral care is about a compassionate encounter between a priest and a client.  During the pastoral care meeting the client is given the opportunity to reflect on existential issues and faith and to explore inner pain. All the interviewed priests emphasized that confidentiality is a crucial factor in building trust with clients. Pastoral care conversations often revolve around guilt and forgiveness, and clients may confess their deepest concerns.  The clergy interviewed describe that pastoral care in detention centres and prison fulfils a religious function, regardless of whether the clients have an explicit faith or not. This study also shows that the interviewed priests, based on an implicit Christian ideal, create the role of a pastoral care provider and as they describe themselves as a religious authoritarian leader.

The Setting The Captives Free Program (STCFP) is a spiritually based transformational entrepreneurial program whose goal is to help returning citizens discover, through God, a greater self-worth and purpose after prison. Using the theology of the Imago Dei, the curriculum helps them develop the three areas of the Imago Dei, the substantive, functional, and relational parts of themselves. As a means of becoming financially self-sustaining and applying their newfound freedom and post-carceral identity toward positive purposes, students are taught how to become entrepreneurs who own and operate their own small businesses. This not only reinforces their new identity but provides a practical, real-life option for economic stability and independence, with the hope of reducing recidivism one person at a time. This thesis surveys the historical and social context of mass incarceration and recidivism, establishes the theological foundations for the STCFP focusing on the Imago Dei and the Kavod (the glory of God’s divinity), and outlines the practical details of the STCFP curriculum.

Youth Centres such as Faure Youth Centre provide a challenge to questions such as violence and crime. This qualitative research journey started at Faure Youth Centre using narrative pastoral care and counselling and participatory action research to assist the young people there to find alternative ways of standing against violence and crime. Changing circumstances at Faure however, paved the way for the research to follow another direction. This resulted in different voices to emerge and for my family to receive an unexpected `gift' in the process. The `gift' that my pastoral care and counselling at Faure gave to my family initiated a process of change in us and transformed it into a spiralling journey of challenging patriarchal practices and finding alternative ways of living. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

The mission over the last few decades, especially of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has focused on “confessionalism”. In this specific sense of mission growth—numeric growth— has been a priority, and, unfortunately, not caring for “broken” people. The emphasis has been placed on the age-old proclamation of the “truth”, at the expense of social involvement, as it seems that “truth” transcends the needs of people, even of Christians. This has led to the restricting of the scope of pastoral care, and has limited it to an “applied theology”, where the Old Testament and New Testament studies have dictated its structure and methodology. Within Adventism its view and use of Scripture has dominated its ministry, indicating a number of different methods and approaches. These differences in both the conservative and the liberal orientations only represent their own possibilities. These approaches are the result of a basic understanding of Scripture as a body of divine teachings that needs to be accepted, believed, and obeyed. Consequently, this perception has moved the focus away from caring to the “so-called” correct doctrine of “truth” and proclamation. Postmodernism, however, is challenging the assumptions of modernism and is now confronting us with the understanding that there is no “objective truth”, and that there cannot be a completely detached observer. We observe reality, experience and Scripture not objectively, but rather discern them through the eyes of our own context, experience and history. The thesis, therefore, postulates as useful, just and proper that we experience reality in a narrative fashion within a secular postmodern world. It is through stories that we grasp and appreciate the important factors in our lives. Consequently, a narrative approach is appraised as being a more meaningful tool in approaching Scripture and pastoral care. Narratives are like rituals, they preserve the memory of past events in a way that they still have power for us in the present. As Jesus is a servant of everybody His narratives are transposed and they become accounts of our involvement in the lives of our fellow “sufferers”. / Practical Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)