The purpose for this research journey was twofold: (1) to discover the power of certain discourses in the charismatic church context and (2) to challenge disrespectful discursive practices in order to co-operate respectful, ethical and caring ways of being. Seven leaders in charismatic churches committed themselves to this qualitative research project. The research process resulted in a confirmation by the participants that some charismatic discursive practices can be abusive and also to the acknowledgement that they too have at times fulfilled the role of abuser, even in unknowingly. This research journey ended in Hope. Hope for more transparency and trust between leaders and members, resulting in more respectful practices. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

This qualitatively oriented Practical Theology research project was based on a narrative inquiry into the spiritualities of six gay women who are related to Northfield Methodist Church, which is situated in Benoni, Gauteng. These conversations occurred within a small group context, and were aimed at co-authoring preferred ways of being both gay and Christian. Toward the end of the research journey, I asked each participant to prepare a written text that would summarise their experience of being simultaneously gay and Christian, so that by hearing their own stories of their journey, they would be able to find a voice. As these women are usually marginalised in the Methodist Church, I invited various groups to audience their stories. This research report records the beginning of my journey into working towards the complete acceptance of gay and lesbian Christians into the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

This research journey examines the process of co-creating, along with my co-travellers (research participants), a more holistic approach to trauma debriefing. Whilst incorporating elements of Mitchell's (1983) Critical Incidence Stress Debriefing model (C.I.S.D.), our point of difference has been to adopt a narrative pastoral approach. This was achieved by introducing spirituality and narrative therapy practices. Our research pathway has been further shaped by adopting a qualitative research approach within a postmodern, social construction discourse. My research curiosity was invited by both the mind, body and soul divide expressed in psychology; and the healing possibilities of spirituality I have witnessed in both my own and in the lives of others. While my co-travellers predominantly preferred to express their spirituality in terms of Christianity, our narrative pastoral approach to trauma debriefing is offered to people of all religious persuasions. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (with specialisation in Pastoral therapy)

This work is concerned with healing practices that are created within a participatory framework in pastoral theology. It works in post-colonial and postapartheid times in South Africa following on from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The thesis looks to forms of participation with both victims and perpetrators of apartheid. It seeks to challenge singular identities of victims and perpetrators, whites and blacks, which are bound up in juridical practices that are embedded within binary forms of identity. It exposes some of the problems associated with the splitting of a subject from an object of enquiry. The research concerns a journey with a group of Mothers who lost their sons and husbands to the violence of the apartheid state. It is also a journey with some of the perpetrators who were responsible for the elimination of these men. It seeks to deconstruct identity in order to find alternate descriptions of people, both the victims and perpetrators that are not constructed within a binary oppositional form. This is worked with ideas from the social construction movement particularly ideas relating to relational responsibility. The research attempts to create a safe enough context for accountability, vulnerability and healing to take place within a participatory frame of pastoral care. It works with post-modern theology and some of the philosophy of Derrida, Foucault and Levinas. / Practical Theology / D.Th.(Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

This qualitative action research was activated at the junction between three sites of operation of modern power: the site of the woman in the family, religious and cultural power discourses and the professional discourses of therapy. Using an action research design for this study focused the research on reaping benefits in real terms for the research participants. The researcher applied a postStructuralist, feminist and narrative approach to the phenomenon of failed personhood as manifested in the lives of two White Afrikaans women. Narrative therapy methodologiElS, steeped in a religious studies ethic were valuable guides on the therapy-as-research journeys, ensuring the exposure and deconstruction of dominant cultural and religious power discourses. In the course of the therapeutic and research journeys, various narrative therapy methodologies were used with positive effect on the life world of the participants. These methodologies included the externalisation of problems and the discovery of unique outcomes that constitute alternative, preferred life stories that contradict problem-saturated life stories of failed personhood. The research participants engaged in individual and communal conversations, relanguaging their self-narratives and religious narratives as part of the coconstruction of their preferred identities of moral agency and hope. Support networks were created for the research participants, Mara and Grace, to strengthen their new self- and religious narratives and to dislodge the power of the normative cultural and religious discourses of rugged individualism. In one instance, the researcher incorporated the healing power of South African bush veld, by inviting a group of women on a series of expeditions into the wilderness as part of Mara's journey. fn Grace's narrative, we utilised the modern technologies of the internet to connect her with a virtual response team and the Anti-Anorexia/Anti-Bulimia League. Storytelling and reflecting conversations formed the basis of the therapy-asresearch processes. The research participants extended therapy conversations beyond the therapy room, by actively participating in their therapy-as-research journeys. In line with narrative approaches, the researcher encouraged them to honour their skills and knowledges on their journeys: Mara extended her therapy by making resistance quilts while Grace assimilated her art, poetry and resistance writing into her healing process. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

HEARING ALL THE DRUMS: TOWARDS A MORE INCLUSIVE CONGREGATION is about increasing the participation of women in positions of both leadership and church ministry praxis within the Seventh Day Adventist church in South Africa. Women have been excluded in the office of elder, and have been generally excluded from preaching during the worship hour. The research process followed a participatory way of doing research, while using theories on social construction and post-modernist epistemological approach. The theologies that inform this work are contextual in nature and include African and Feminist theologies. In the pursuit for change, however, care is maintained to use inclusive practices that attempt to avoid polarising the congregation and their concomitant theologies. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

A number of previous studies have examined lay counsellor training within a modernist paradigm. By contrast, this study collaboratively presents ways of training pastoral caregivers using a participatory approach to practical theology and pastoral care in the postmodern time in which we live. The research journey starts from the premise that postmodernity calls for the mediation of a new approach to practising theology, pastoral care and giving authority to ordinary members of the church through training in pastoral work. This work therefore describes Participatory Pastoral Care (PPC) training as a suggested way to train people of God to use participatory approaches. The research journey also explores how the PPC training constructions they participated in brought about transformations in the co-researchers' lives, relationships, caring practices and the societies in which they live. This practical theology research document introduces the participants as co-researchers and theologians. The recollections shared by the participants reveal a rich variety of stories as these participants reflect on their lives, caring practices and faith journeys. This research document is viewed through the lens of a postmodern epistemology that builds on social constructionist and poststructuralist perspectives. Thirty-three participants embarked on this feminist narrative participatory action research journey, not only to tell their stories, but also to negotiate and challenge ways of training pastoral caregivers within a participatory practical theological and pastoral approach. This research document informs the church, theological institutions and broader caregiver practices through narratives about what the participating members of various congregations find helpful in the co-construction of participatory pastoral training and what they do not find helpful. The methods used to gather the recollections of the participants were multiple reflexive conversations and the discussion of a semi-structured questionnaire. This research journey therefore offers a deeper understanding of the experience of being part of a postmodern construction of training for participatory pastoral caregivers that has the transformation of society as its theological aim. / Practical Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology - with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

This research project arose from my journeys with Protestant Christian women who were living in sexually unhappy marriages. In South African Protestant faith communities there is the expectation that Christian marriages will experience sexual fulfilment. For many Christian women however, sexual unhappiness becomes their reality. Sexuality is cocooned in silence not only within the church, but also in many Christian marriages. This leaves many Christian women (and men) with little or no recourse to address sexually unhappy marriages. My research journey briefly explored the social construction of sexuality within the history of Christianity to see which discourses underpin current constructions of White Christian female sexuality. This participatory feminist action research journey centralised the voices of present-day contexts: Protestant Christian women, as well as clergy, were invited to share their understandings and interpretations of matrimony and sexual practices in relation to their faith. With the help of narrative therapeutic practices, some of the dominant social and religious discourses that constitute White Christian female sexuality were explored, deconstructed and challenged. This research journey aimed to penetrate this silence and to invite Christian women, who are living in sexually unhappy marriages, to share their experiences. This exploration included the faith predicaments and relational complexities, challenges and dilemmas Protestant Christian women experience when living in sexually unhappy marriages. This feminist-grounded action research explored the effects and consequences which living in sexually unhappy marriages held for the cosearchers. / Practical Theology / D.Th. (Specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

The South African education system is in crisis; with low matric pass rates, high dropout rates, teacher strikes, rising pregnancy rates among teenaged learners, and assaults by learners on educators and other learners. The system is unable to cope with the multiple demands placed on it and a number of NGOs are stepping in to aid the system. This study is an evaluation of an NGO aimed at developing learners through the application of the Appreciative Inquiry approach. The Appreciative Inquiry approach is a method for generating change within an organisation by looking at what works in the organisation and facilitating active participation. The main findings from this study were that the programme seems to have positively affected learners‟ performance both academically and behaviourally; the programme was perceived to have raised the general standard of academic performance at the school. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

In this dissertation, the researcher presents the findings of a discourse analytic enquiry on the construction of femininity within a contemporary South African magazine. It is argued that gender is a social construction and that women’s magazines provide a channel through which discourse of femininity reaches women. These discourses in women’s magazines are often narrow and stereotypical in nature which may limit the development of women’s feminine gender identities. A discourse analytic approach was utilised to reveal the different discourses of femininity within a contemporary women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan, as well as to indicate how they may contribute to the construction of femininity. From the magazine, relationship-focused articles were selected, from which three predominant discourses of femininity were identified which includes femininity as heterosexual, nurturing, and managerial. An important finding is that competing discourses of empowerment and traditional femininity were evident. This points to the highly complex ways in which gender, specifically femininity, is constructed in the magazine under study. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)