Although the responsibilities of ministry have broadened, the pastor role remains primary. Pastoral care can take many forms depending on the needs of the individuals, groups, and congregation as a whole. It means accompanying people in times of struggle, listening compassionately, and asking questions that help people find and create meaning. I have been a pastoral presence in my church, internship site, CPE and community sites for many years. In 2018, I formed a Pastoral Care Team to more thoroughly and broadly attend to the needs of members and friends of the church. I support and train the lay pastors to reach out and accompany those in need with compassion and clear boundaries. I enjoy building this collective trust with the team and with the congregation. It's one of the things that comes most naturally to me as a minister.
I help congregants and staff hold the challenges of life - grief, transition, group dynamic, expectations, self-doubt - with tenderness and in covenant.
My Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) experience, from September 2013 through March 2014, was at St. Paul's House, a senior care and rehabilitation facility in Chicago. My Site Supervisor was Rev. Matthew Smucker. The program was facilitated through Urban CPE Consortium, supervised by Sister Barbara Sheehan. The experience utilized a social justice, equity, anti-racism/anti-oppression lens throughout.
I met one on one with patients who were recovering from surgery, illness, and some who were in the process of dying. One man, who I met within the first few weeks, bestowed upon me an astonishing level of trust, sharing his deepest spiritual questions at the end of his life. I will never forget him. Companioning individuals in times of vulnerability and profound, spiritual questions was a deeply transformative experience. The poem below illustrates my theology of relationship and explains why I cherish the deep connections formed with individuals during CPE and in the communities of faith I serve.
I help congregants and staff hold the challenges of life - grief, transition, group dynamic, expectations, self-doubt - with tenderness and in covenant.
My Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) experience, from September 2013 through March 2014, was at St. Paul's House, a senior care and rehabilitation facility in Chicago. My Site Supervisor was Rev. Matthew Smucker. The program was facilitated through Urban CPE Consortium, supervised by Sister Barbara Sheehan. The experience utilized a social justice, equity, anti-racism/anti-oppression lens throughout.
I met one on one with patients who were recovering from surgery, illness, and some who were in the process of dying. One man, who I met within the first few weeks, bestowed upon me an astonishing level of trust, sharing his deepest spiritual questions at the end of his life. I will never forget him. Companioning individuals in times of vulnerability and profound, spiritual questions was a deeply transformative experience. The poem below illustrates my theology of relationship and explains why I cherish the deep connections formed with individuals during CPE and in the communities of faith I serve.
Between
By Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
God is not in me
Nor in you
But between us.
God is not me or mine
Nor you or yours
But ours.
God is known
Not alone
But in relationship.
Not as a separate, lonely power
But through our kinship, our
Friendship,
Through our healing and binding
And raising up of each other.
To know God is to know others,
To love God is to love others,
To hear God is to hear others.
More than meditation,
More than insight,
More than feeling,
Between us are
Claims, obligations, commandments;
To act, to do, to behave our beliefs.
I seek God
Not as if God were alone,
An isolated person, He or She,
A process, a power, a being, a thing.
I seek God
Not as if I were alone,
A thinker, a meditator, a discrete entity.
I seek God in connection,
In the nexus of community.
I pray and celebrate the betweenness
Which binds and holds us together.
And even when I am left alone,
I am sustained by my
Memory of our betweenness
And the promise of our betweenness.
God is not in me, or in you, or in God’s self,
But in betweenness
And it is there we find the evidence of
God’s reality and our own.
By Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
God is not in me
Nor in you
But between us.
God is not me or mine
Nor you or yours
But ours.
God is known
Not alone
But in relationship.
Not as a separate, lonely power
But through our kinship, our
Friendship,
Through our healing and binding
And raising up of each other.
To know God is to know others,
To love God is to love others,
To hear God is to hear others.
More than meditation,
More than insight,
More than feeling,
Between us are
Claims, obligations, commandments;
To act, to do, to behave our beliefs.
I seek God
Not as if God were alone,
An isolated person, He or She,
A process, a power, a being, a thing.
I seek God
Not as if I were alone,
A thinker, a meditator, a discrete entity.
I seek God in connection,
In the nexus of community.
I pray and celebrate the betweenness
Which binds and holds us together.
And even when I am left alone,
I am sustained by my
Memory of our betweenness
And the promise of our betweenness.
God is not in me, or in you, or in God’s self,
But in betweenness
And it is there we find the evidence of
God’s reality and our own.