Pastoral Care Praxis in Isintu Communitarianism
Rev. Dr. Herbert Moyo
Introduction
Pastoral care is a ministry of the church that applies to the church and community. The church or church members are part of the wider community where the church is located. The pastoral care ministry of the church has a direct impact on church members who are viewed as direct beneficiaries of the pastoral care ministry of the church. The pastoral care ministry of the church has impact also on the wider community. Pastoral care is that aspect of the church, through pastoral care givers, which offers services to the community. Pastoral care is the proactive and reactive responses to contextual needs. In the African setting, the context which is mainly in community is central for meaningful pastoral care. This presentation is going to locate the understanding of pastoral care in Isintuism and communitarianism. The paper will define pastoral care, isintuism, and communitarianism. The paper concludes that in the African Nguni setting, the community is central for the ministry of public pastoral care. The importance of public pastoral care does not in any way devalue individualised pastoral care. The paper concludes that individuals can best be understood in community. The individual is an integral part of the community and the community is a product of the combination of individuals who are part of that community.
Functional definition of pastoral care
To comprehend the pastoral care praxis among the Nguni people, it is important to understand the communitarian identities of pastoral care givers in Isintuism. This section gives an exposition of the pastoral care givers’ identities that determine communal expectations from pastoral care givers and defines what can be seen as good pastoral care from an Isintu perspective. The pastoral care giver identities are both Christian and cultural, from the world views of the Nguni people. The community understands the pastoral caregiver as Umalusi[2] and the functional role as ukwalusa.[3] Pastoral care is a shepherding. In my language, pastoral care is ukwalusa. Ukwalusa is looking after animals such as goats, sheep and cattle. The pastor in my community is understood as Umalusi. Umalusi looks after the master’s animals or parents’ animals as his/hers. In my contextual community setting, Umalusi endures joys and challenges associated with ukwalusa (shepherding/pastoring). Umalusi protects, provides, nurses/nurtures the animals all the time. At times, the animals do not demonstrate any realisation of the presence of the Umalusi but Umalusi keeps loving the animals. At times, the animals can put Umalusi under danger or cause harm to the Umalusi but despite all this Umalusi does not abandon the animals he/she continues to love, nurture, protect,and provide for the animals. The Umalusi gives it all for the sake of the animals come rain, snow, sunshine and storms. This approach of Umalusi of animals is juxtaposed with the Umalusi as in a pastoral care giver.
The community in the African setting, especially among the Nguni, also identify Umalusi as umfundisi or inceku yenkosi or what can be called a Priest in English. Umfundisi is directly translated as the teacher (the Rabie) or the one that teaches. Inceku yenkosi is deeper than umfundisi as it refers to the servant of the lord. In the Nguni culture, the servant of the Lord is respected as the Lord. Disrespecting the servant is tantamount to disrespecting the Lord represented by the servant. The servant of the Lord, inceku yenkosi has the authority of the Lord. In the absence of the Lord, the Inceku yenkosi is the reference point. Inceku yenkosi represents the Inkosi (Lord/King). This places very high expectations on the inceku yenkosi. In the Nguni culture, those who have access to the spirit world are Sangomas[4] and izinyanga[5] or spirit mediums (mainly for ancestors). These are also held in very high esteem as they represent the spirit world which is not accessible to the ordinary person.
The Priestly Office, the concept of Spirit Mediums, and the practice of Pastoral Care have contextual spiritualized meaning and relevance in isintuism. In Isintuism the functional understanding of the Priestly Office is synonymous with the traditional understanding of the role of spirit mediums who give answers to challenges beyond human comprehension. Spirit mediums are caregivers to individuals and communities in response to that which is mainly spiritual and mysterious to normal human beings. In the mind-set of one with a traditional understanding of a person called by God as a priest, then the priestly office becomes an avenue for caregiving to people on issues beyond human comprehension. To fully understand the characteristics of an ideal pastoral caregiver (the priest) in isintuism one needs to understand the traditional understanding of spirit mediums and Sangomas among the Nguni.
In Isintuism a spirit medium or Sangoma is a representative figure of the gods or ancestors.[6] The spirit medium is endowed with the powers of the gods as long as they are filled by spiritual powers.[7] Similarly, when the Nguni see Umfundisi they imagine seeing God through the Umfundisi. The Umfundisi is also viewed as a representative figure of the presence of the Christ. As a result of the above Osunwokeh argues that “So, it is logical to conclude that there is no other basis, no other point of reference that can be adduced for priestly dignity other than the highly dignified priesthood of Christ that a priest shares. So, one may conclude […] that there is one priesthood, that is Christ and that there is one source of the priesthood that is Christ”.[8]
The term ‘priest’ is not popular in my area of research, people use the word Umfundisi or inceku yenkosi. The Umfundisi must remain connected to Christ for authenticity. All mysterious and strange performances by Umfundisi must be done in the name of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit to avoid being viewed as a magician. The source of the dignity of the Umfundisi is the Christ.[9] A priest must be Christ-like but at the same time must be like the spirit mediums who are able to respond to extra ordinary human needs. Osunwokeh says that Umfundisi shares the dignity of Christ “…which no earthly instrument could alter; mankind, nature, luck or fate. All through his earthly life the divine will of the Father was upheld, and the dignity remained intact…This is also a dignity which is not determined by his human person, possession, and state but by his essence as a priest ‘alter Christus’”.[10]
Pastoral care in community by church elders
Based on the above understanding of the identity of a pastoral care giver, pastoral care is a central role by umfundisi who is, in essence, Umalusi for the community. Pastoral care as a community frontline ministry is expected to intervene practically to address people’s holistic needs. Pastoral care can practically be performed at the intersection of public theology and community development. Pastoral care performed at this intersection is termed public pastoral care. In terms of pastoral care in the form of counselling is designed to provide the church community with professional Christian counsellors with bio-psycho-social-spiritual understanding of congregational care and community counselling. In my context, we have a shortage of pastoral caregivers who are ordained ministers. At times you find one pastor being responsible for a parish with five or more congregations. This may mean that a pastor is responsible for more than 500 people. The church in Africa, especially among indigenous people, cannot afford many pastors in one parish. In other words, if pastoral care is to impact the church and the community, then pastors need support from the laity.
I do offer pastoral care training to lay people to complement the work of the umfundisi in the church and the community. There are some parishes and congregations that elect/appoint elders as lay ministers but do not offer these elders training to skill them in pastoral care. In my view, this is a misnomer that should be corrected. Elders should be offered some skills in pastoral care. In response to the need for the skilling of lay ministers I offer a short course to equip and skill them for pastoral care. Through a contextual model of Clinical Pastoral Education, I offer training to church elders which offers skills for individual and community counselling and general pastoral care as Umalusi or umfundisi would do. Church elders live in community and, because of their numbers, they are more accessible to the community than the ordained Umalusi. In fact, many congregations in the Lutheran church are led by elders on most Sundays; few are led by ordained pastors. So, pastoral care happens through trained elders who are commissioned by Umalusi. Remember, the messenger carries the same authority as the sender in the absence of the sender. So, these trained community-based pastoral care givers have the authority of the Umalusi. Empowering church elders is, in a way, empowering the whole community. Nothing for the community without the direct participation of the community. Church elders are part of the community, and their pastoral role makes our pastoral endeavours be co-owned by the church and the community. In fact the involvement of trained community members who are elders of the church locates counselling in particular and pastoral care in general. The elders also do a number of other ‘pastoral care’ duties such as conducting funeral services in the absence of he ordained minister, conducting Sunday services and doing diaconal work. In the Nguni villages, all funerals are conducted according to some church liturgy. This includes funerals for non-believers in the community. The presence of trained elders makes this possible. It is important, therefore, to train the elders to have the theological and psychological understanding of community. The congregation as a community is a place where healing takes place. The congregation is a place of refuge for those in any form of bondage and are seeking for liberation. Through CPE training the pastoral caregivers transform the congregation to a healing and caring community where the social-justice responsibility of the church towards the local neighbourhood is realised.
The trained elders should not be confused with ordained ministers that have gone through theological training are professionals in many spheres of their ministry. Even though they are not comparable to ordained ministers, the elders’ training offers them the basics of ministry, emphasizing group dynamics, ethical considerations, working as care-groups in church, creating para-church groups, and emphasizing the understanding of community settings. The training offers elders some skills in fostering psycho-social-spiritual nurturing of community members. From the perspective of isintuism’s communitarian foundations, the church is seen as part of the “village” that is endeavouring to become a community of abundance. CPE provides pastoral care givers with the theory, skills and tools to practice as Christian givers in their church and community.
In most cases, the elders respond to communal needs, family needs, and group needs more than individual needs. In cases where the elder must respond to some individual needs, they are encouraged to contact the local Umalusi/umfundisi, especially if the need is counselling related where confidentiality can be an issue. The elders are not as competent as the umfundisi in counselling. However, he elders are also offered training in counselling and confidentiality. I should have mentioned that the selection to become a member of the healing team is stringent is that we require church members of integrity who are well respected in the church and in the community. We found it easier to train people who are already professionals in their own right, such as teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, psychologists, legal practitioners, and experienced, committed church members who understand issues of confidentiality. Every year, the church conducts a skills audit of its membership to know the wealth of skills available in the congregation. It is such people that are offered CPE to assume pastoral care responsibilities complementing the trained umfundisi.
The elders are offered support by the church and the Umalusi/umfundisi of the congregation or parish. The local umfundisi has debriefing sessions with the elders so they can offload heavy experiences to an experienced minister. In fact, the door to the umfundisi is always open for the elders to be able to debrief through telephonic or virtual or physical means. The confidentiality issues should be understood from an African communitarian perspective where the elders are working in settled communities where people know each other inside and outside of the church, the community is characterized by long-term blood and neighbourly Isintu relationships, where there is very limited confidentiality, and where there is existing Christian-cultural based support lay persons give each other. The elders are working with familiar people in a familiar communitarian cultural context which limits relational complications.
Pastoral care in Isintu communitarianism
In general, Africans are communitarian. Africans are socialised to understand Isintu philosophy. The Isintu philosophy is Isintuism. This is the totality of the African way of life especially for the Nguni people of Southern Africa. The philosophy espouses the “I am because you are” which can be said in Ndebele (also Zulu, Xhosa and Swati) “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (the being of a person is, because of the others in community; a person is a person because of other persons). In this way of life, the group is important, at times above the individual. The individual is important in community. The individual gets their identity from the community. I understand myself because of my relationship with others. In isintuism individual problems become community problems. Even the individual achievements are celebrated as community problems. You can hear people saying, “in our community we are educated; we have a Professor; he comes from us.” In fact, there is an old adage that says that it takes the whole community to raise a child. In other words, the socialisation of children is done in the community, and children actually belong to the community. The failure of one child is the failure of the whole community and vice versa.
In Isintuism my neighbour’s problem is my problem. When we greet, we do so in the plural, even if I am talking to one person. Sanibonani or Salibonani (hello, in the plural) and the Ninjani (how are you? - in the plural). In other words, we greet this person we are meeting together with all these connected to the person such family members, neighbours and work mates. If any of the above is not well, the person will say, ‘we are not well, my neighbour is suffering through...’ In pastoral care, we have linked Isintuism to the biblical text on ‘…love your neighbour as yourself.[11]
Isintuism is the foundation for a caring community. A community that cares for each other is practising the Christocentric principle of love to the neighbour. The Isintuism is negatively impacted by some global trends like capitalism, which leads to individualism. People in capitalism want to amass wealth at all costs for selfish ends. The pastoral care ministry of the church then teaches lay elders to champion Isintu values of communitarianism. In the traditional sense of communitarianism people helped each other to grow crops for food, ‘the have and the have not’. Individualised approaches to human development are not easily accepted in Isintuism as the worldview is associated with communitarian values. We have also noticed in this context that pastoral care givers visiting the sick, the traumatised, and those happily celebrating positive life events, do so in most cases as a community. The pastor visits together with the congregation. Individualised phenomenon is a foreign principle which is slowly being introduced by capitalistic-minded agents that are killing isintuism. However, in pastoral care, we have contextualised in a manner that respects Isintu communitarian lifestyles.
Public pastoral care intervention
In my pastoral care I view practical theology as a continuous interface between theory and practice which now referred to as praxis.[12] The practical theological praxis takes place mainly in the church community and the community that houses the church. Because of the communitarian nature of isintuism, pastoral care should concentrate on communal needs. In order to solve individual issues, you do must understand the community that produces the challenges that make these people what they are. This calls for public theology and public pastoral care. Koopman defines public theology as an attempt to ‘redefine and contextualise the calling and role of Christian faith and churches in public life’ (Koopman 2012:1).[13] Public theology is theology that seeks discourse with social situations and human contexts.[14] Pastoral care givers that value the community approach then respond to the myriad of challenges that face the community such as poverty, pandemics, natural disasters, and death and dying. Jesus began his ministry by interacting with peoples’ situations, stories and communities. He focused his public ministry on the poor and the oppressed.[15] A theology that is unable to address human challenges may be useless in the pursuit of addressing human transformation.[16] Public pastoral care should effectively interrogate social issues in order to imagine and implement effective community pastoral care interventions. In the African setting, pastoral care givers are always confronted with the question of how the church should intervene or respond to community challenges such as poverty, poor service delivery by government, political violence, gender-based violence, crime, corruption, and refugees.[17] This is very important as most individual pastoral care needs are a result of community pastoral care needs. Bridging the gap between the church and social issues is indeed the task of public pastoral care as a form of public practical theology. Practical theology is interconnected with public issues. Osmer and Schweitzer maintain that practical theology includes a public dimension in its work.[18]
Public practical theology is, therefore, a practical theology approach where the focus is explicitly on public issues. In public pastoral care, the concern is our focus on how practical theology engages everyday community concerns and issues, which entails intentional focus on making the church interface with non-ecclesial communities. The church and community engagement on social issues implies an intervention driven by the congregation through pastoral care elders and umfundisi. Public pastoral care should be able to identify and adequately respond to both the problems facing the church and those facing the community at large. Well-advanced public pastoral care initiatives can look at issues of bondages beyond the local community. This is why one can receive donations for diakonia from churches in other countries. Those donor churches will have understood that their public pastoral care goes beyond the boundaries of the local community. Public pastoral care educates believers to be advocates for transformation. Liberation theology is premised along the same line in that in situations of human bandages umfundisi cannot liberate church members and ignore members of communities where the church is housed. The church becomes proactive in some issues while reactive to others. This type of pastoral care seeks to move away from the ambulance type of intervention where the church deals with the consequences of poor service delivery without participating in the prevention of the development of such consequences. Public pastoral care seeks to promote human flourishing. When an environment that promotes human flourishing is established, our theology ceases to be a church theology but a public transformational voice. My approach to ministry is that umfundisi is not necessarily called only for the church but also to be a public shepherd who is called and sent to ukwalusa the church and the community towards human flourishing. We are aware that human life is a mixture of good and bad experiences, hence the need for public pastoral care givers to be equipped with counselling skills to enable the unfortunate coping mechanisms. Williams stated that “Public theology is concerned with how the Christian faith addresses matters in society at large. It is concerned with the public relevance of Christian beliefs and doctrines. Theology is a perennial contextual enterprise.”[19] This argument is furthered by Koppel, who says, “Practising public theology asks that pastoral care practitioners and theologians take seriously and engage mindfully with issues that concern groups of people and whole populations, rather than individual persons in isolation.”[20]
The church’s ministry of liberation through Christ should be visible in praxis in public pastoral care. The fact that Christ came so that we may have life in abundance[21] should be seen in the church’s public pastoral care pushing hard in public engagement, especially in the African context where there is deplorable public service delivery, leading to transformation and development of communities. Where the community is hit by traumatic experiences, the church should be visible through word and action, offering pastoral care in the form of diakonia and pastoral counselling.
In my community pastoral care givers are seemingly not convinced that they are equipped or welcome to think or give care in the public arena.[22] Leslie, quoting DeLauro, succinctly explains that the voices of public pastoral care givers remain barely audible because they are not adequately trained on ‘how to engage the arguments about the role of religion and faith in the public square’. The church and its pastors may ‘not feel equipped to translate our discipline into communal, public, and political arena, we do not write or speak up’.[23] Inadequate equipping of the church and its pastors will make public pastoral care theology ‘stand either out in front or on the edge of their communities of faith’.[24] This is where my program of contextualised CPE comes in to equip pastoral care givers with knowledge and skills so that their public pastoral care can be able to articulate sources of human suffering and respond accordingly. Practically, the church forms a context in which the gospel “…can be mediated and realized. As an embodiment of koinonia and of the fellowship of believers, the congregation forms the context in which a pastoral encounter can take place. Encounter means the communication process that takes place between God and humanity within a real situation where they discover meaning through faith and are guided by scripture. Pastoral encounter is humane and contextual.”[25]
Conclusion
Isintuism is premised on communitarianism. The church’s pastoral care ministry should be contextual relevant to the Isintu worldview in order to be pastoral effective among the Nguni people of Southern Africa. The isintuism calls for a pastoral care praxis that espouses communitarianism.
Discussion points
1. Public pastoral care praxis resonates with the Nguni Isintu values and principles. Discuss
2. What are the challenges facing the church in attempting to do public pastoral care in situations of political instability and violence?
[1] Umfundisi Solwazi Herbert Moyo is an academic at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics. His research interests are Isintuism, pastoral care in context, pastoral ethics, general practical theology, and the theologies of the Twelve Apostles’ Church in Christ.
[2]Umalusi can be translated to the word Shepherd or the shepherd.
[3]Ukwalusa can directly be translated to mean shepherding in English, notwithstanding the weaknesses of direct translations. I prefer to use the word Ukwalusa as it resonates with my experiences than the word shepherding.
[4]Isangoma is also referred to as Isanuse. Both words refer to one with spiritual powers to see beyond human comprehension. One who can operate and communicate at the spiritual realm.
[5]Inyanga is a healer/Doctor.
[6]Wreford, Jo T., 2005. Ukusebenza neThongo (Working with Spirit): The Role of Sangoma in Contemporary South Africa. Cape Town: Doctoral dissertation. open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/14073 (01. 12. 2021).
[7]Jonker, Ingrid. 2008. A Study of How a Sangoma Makes Sense of Her ‘Sangomahood’ through Narrative. Pretoria: Doctoral dissertation. https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/26475 (01. 12. 2021).
[8]Osunwokeh, Clement I. 2014. “Priestly Dignity in the African Religious Context.” International Journal of Social Science Research 2:166–178.
[9]Osunwokeh, Clement I. 2014. “Priestly Dignity in the African Religious Context.” International Journal of Social Science Research 2:166–178.
[10]Osunwokeh, Clement I. 2014. “Priestly Dignity in the African Religious Context.” International Journal of Social Science Research 2:166–178.
[11] Matthew 22:39
[12] Moyo, Herbert. 2019. “The Ritualization of Death and Dying: The Journey from the Living Living to the Living Dead in African Religions.” In Death and Dying: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion, edited by Timothy D. Knepper, Lucy Bregman, and Mary Gottschalk, Cham: Springer, 115–124.
[13] Koopman, N., 2012, ‘Public Theology in pluralistic societies? Lessons from the theology of Etienne de Villiers’, Verbum et Ecclesia 33(2), Art. #773, 6 pages. doi. org/10.4102/ve.v33i2.773
[14] Dreyer, J.S. & Pieterse, H.J.C., 2010, ‘Religion in the public sphere: What can public theology learn from Haberma’s latest work?’, HTS Teologiese Studies 66(1), Art. #798, 7 pages. doi.org/10:4102/hts.v66i1.798
[15] Masango, M.J., 2010, ‘Is prophetic witness the appropriate mode of public discourse on the global economy?’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 66(1), Art. #772, 3 pages. doi.org/10.4102/hts.v66i1.772
[16] Juma, F., 2015, ‘Public theology in the face of pain and suffering: A proletarian perspective’, Consensus 36(2), Article 6.
[17] Osmer, R., 2008, Practical Theology: An Introduction, WB Eerdmanns, Grand Rapids, MI.
[18] Osmer, R. & Schweitzer, F., 2003, Religious education between modernization and globalization: New perspectives on the United States and Germany, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI.
[19] Williams, B., 2014, ‘Prophetic Public Theology’, Review & Expositor 111(2), 159. doi.org/10.1177/0034637314525008 (P. 159).
[20] Koppel, M.S., 2015, ‘Practicing public pastoral theologies in contexts of difference’, Journal of Pastoral Theology 25(3), 151–152, doi.org/10.1080/10649867. 2015.1123923 (P.151).
[21] John 10:10
[22] Leslie, K.J., 2008, ‘Pastoral care in a new public: Lessons learned in the public square’, Journal of Pastoral Theology 18(2), 80–99.
[23] Leslie 2008:84
[24] Leslie 2008:84
[25] Louw, D.J., 1998, A Pastoral hermeneutics of care and encounter a theological design for a basic theory, anthropology, method and therapy, Lux Verb, Wellington. (P. 70).
