Evangelism & Pastoral Care

Daisy Stephens, from St Johns Seven Kings, with Archbishop Rowan at the Present & Engaged Study Day

I said that I would post a summary of Ann Morisey's excellent presentation on 'Evangelism and Pastoral Care' given at the Present and Engaged study day. There was much that resonated with me in Ann's talk so much so that, at times, it felt as though she were describing what I aim to practice (although consistently falling well short) in my ministry.

My summary of Ann's presentation is below. Other material from the day has also been published including the insightful sermon that Archbishop Rowan Williams gave later in the day to launch the Greater London Presence and Engagement Network (http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2464). For a full set of materials from the day, email Angus Ritchie, Director of the Contextual Theology Centre, at director@theology-centre.org.

Anne said that: "We are living in troubled times and people have become bothered and bewildered by fragmentation and are tempted into a neo-tribalism. These dynamics have been exposed very clearly in the European elections. Anxiety and fear easily gain momentum and under such conditions our instinctive response is scapegoating and death-dealing.

René Girard begins his explanation of the dynamic of scapegoating by postulating the ‘mimetic of desire’, which is basically a kind of jealousy, but with a twist: we learn what is desirable by observing what others find desirable. Having ‘caught’ our desires from others, in a context of scarcity, everyone wants what only some can have. This results in a struggle to obtain what we want - which in turn produces a generalised antagonism towards the individual or group that seems to be responsible for this disappointment.

The vicious riddance of the victim has the potential to reduce the eagerness for violence, and if not, then the assumption is that more scapegoats need to be sacrificed in order to achieve a sense of appeasement and restoration of the status quo. The removal of the victim or victims – the lambs to the slaughter, gives a temporary re-assurance of the crisis disappearing, and the sensation of renewed possibility. This is a description of cheap solidarity and cheap hope.

Girard concludes his anthropological and literary analysis of scapegoating by examining Judeo-Christian texts, and traces the movement away from the dynamic of scapegoating through the Old into the New Testaments. It was this experience that contributed to Girard’s conversion to the Christian faith. His analysis of the Bible ‘as literature’ led him to conclude:

• That Jesus is the final scapegoat.


• The New Testament is ‘on the side of’ Jesus, the scapegoat. The Gospels are unusual because here is literature that encourages people to see the world through the eyes of the scapegoat.


• The scapegoat in the Gospels refuses to let death be the final word and he rises again triumphant.


• The followers of the scapegoat enact the seizing of the scapegoat, and the scapegoat’s triumph over death, in Eucharistic celebration.

I focus on Girard for two reasons: The obvious one - because of the relevance of his ideas to our context where ‘difference’ – whether faith or ethnicity, easily becomes a threat. But for a further reason: Girard is not a theologian! He, as an anthropologist, is more likely to pass what John Rawls terms “the test of public reason” than the theologian or the clergy, or the committed lay person for that matter. Let me re-code – or decode Rawls’ term “the test of public reason”…. ‘Self-praise is no recommendation’! And of course – in our secular world, all faiths have to submit themselves to the test of public reason if they are to have a right to a public platform.

So on the public stage it becomes possible to offer a new aspect of the gift of salvation that Jesus brings to us: it brings insight into our hatred and murderous behaviour, and endeavours to help people move beyond the anxious laden response of scapegoating – and importantly, it is not just theologians and the churches who say so! The missionary challenge is to find creative ways of helping people to hear and explore this insight, and the pastoral challenge is to help people appropriate, or take this gift of insight into their (our) practice.

Jesus, through his death and resurrection rescues us, as Girard suggests, from scapegoating but Jesus also bring salvation to us by the way in which he lived his life. In his actions and teaching, Jesus shows us how we can participate in a reliable economy of abundance. The tendency has been for the church – and others to assume that economy of abundance belongs to the realm of Heaven rather than earth. This is a mistake.

Jesus lived his life in a very distinctive way. This included: eschewing Power; willing to risk being overwhelmed ; subverting the ‘status quo’; wide ‘fraternal’ relations; avoiding tit-for tat’ behaviour; and investing in the most unlikely. My thesis is straightforward: When we muster an intention to do things like Jesus i.e. to follow Jesus – even in the most modest of ways, we arrive at the portal into the economy of abundance – where virtuous processes flow and grace cascades.
In our troubled times the faiths have to forego investing and promulgating ‘hard-to-believe’ formulaic faith – which for post-modern and troubled times are so hard to believe that the come close to a fresh expression of …. Gnosticism. So for the Church there is a new evangelistic challenge: To enable people to weigh-up whether the example of Jesus can provide a way of making sense of their lives, within a hope filled rather than gloomy future.

However, in troubled times, the expression of pastoral care also brings arduous challenges: by caring and loving, more than ever, we risk having our hearts broken … as much as finding fulfilment; compassionate responses risk being judged as naiveté; and we need the capacity to coach people in the neglected practice of self discipline if not to be imprisoned by our circumstances. And this carries a major challenge to authenticity…

Such vulnerability is essential – because this is the foundation for boundary breaking compassion that can embrace rather than scapegoat the stranger. The solidarity that is rooted in shared vulnerability makes for courageous compassion – and this combination of courage and compassion has not, so far, been called out of our Christian generation.

A resilient theology insists that current hopelessness and passivity are not the final word. A resilient theology enables us not just to see new possibilities, but to garner the intentionality to practice these possibilities. But even more than this, resilient theology continually acknowledges human frailty to the extent that perfection is never expected, otherwise the wonderful, liberating generosity of being treated better than we deserve - this ultimate ‘alternative performance’ that Jesus offers, becomes unnecessary.

Such a resilient theology only becomes possible when evangelism and pastoral care are held together."

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Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Going In The Right Direction.