Presence, Paying Attention,
& Prayer:
Pastoral Care Fundamentals
Reflecting on the elements of caring presence, paying active attention to others’ needs, and prayerfully coming alongside them we will identify and practice a range of pastoral care skills.
The love of neighbour is a calling for all disciples of Jesus. Indeed we are commanded to it. Yet, somehow by framing it as “pastoral care,” we have often reserved this ministry to “pastors” and separated it from daily life. Reflecting on the elements of caring presence, paying active attention to others’ needs, and prayerfully coming alongside them we will identify and practice a range of pastoral care skills. These will include scriptural grounding, active listening, self-awareness, boundaried pastoral practices, and discerning the role of prayer.
What You’ll Learn
How it works
Learn together
Participate in eight two-hour sessions with Terry and the learning community.
Practice in your context
During the course you will be encouraged to apply your learning in your context in order to deepen your understanding.
Reflect in community
Your new knowledge and experience will become even more meaningful when shared with other learning practitioners like yourself.
Instructor
Terry is Rector of St Paul’s, Westdale, and Regional Archdeacon of Hamilton-Haldimand. He has served in ordained parish ministry in Niagara since 1983 in every size of congregation, in almost every region of our diocese, and in “settled” and interim ministries alike. He recently retired from the role of Director of Human Resources at the Diocese of Niagara. He has taught and served as a teaching assistant in theological schools, in pastoral theology and field education and in his field of academic study, philosophical theology. He is passionate about and dedicated to many aspects of ministry including preaching, pastoral care, liturgical renewal, social justice, spiritual direction, vocational discernment and ministry formation, scripture study and faith development, and ecumenical collaboration, all as contexts in which he seeks to live out our call to love our neighbour.