The Art of Pastoral Listening (SC8014W)

Content

This unit teaches students how to listen well in pastoral care settings. Through engaging with theory and practice, students develop skills in active reflective listening such as silent presence, reflecting, and use of questions, as well as developing self-awareness and self-reflection in the context of real-life encounters. Students also learn about how to listen to God and self when engaging in pastoral care, and develop a posture of patient, gentle accompaniment. Students assess issues and challenges for church engagement in effective pastoral care and develop responses to engage and equip churches to more effectively become communities of care. Students learn about referral processes, particularly regarding mental health issues, and become reflective about how to engage in professional, ethical practice as a pastoral carer in an explicitly Christian context.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

No prerequisite units

Pedagogy

Lectures, small group discussion, reflective exercises, listening exercises, case studies.

Indicative Bibliography

• Brazier, Caroline. Listening to the other. Winchester: O Books, 2009.
• Brownell, Judi. Listening: attitudes, principles, and skills. New York: Routledge, 2018.
• Funk, Mary Margaret. Discernment matters: listening with the ear of the heart. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2013.
• Guenther, Margaret. Holy Listening. Lanham: Cowley Publications, 1992.
• Hedahl, Susan K. Listening ministry: rethinking pastoral leadership. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.
• Miller, William R. Listening well: the art of empathic understanding. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2018.
• Pickering, Sue. Listening and spiritual conversation: singing God-songs in a noisy world. London: Canterbury Press, 2017.
• Palmer, Parker. Let your life speak: listening for the voice of vocation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
• Pembroke, Neil. The art of listening: dialogue, shame, and pastoral care. London: T & T Clark, 2002.
• Ruffing, Janet. To Tell the Sacred Tale. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2011.
• Steere, Douglas. “On Listening to Another. Parts One and Two” in Gleanings. Nashville: The Upper Room, 1986.

Assessment