The Association for Pastoral and Spiritual Care and Counselling (ASPCC) was instrumental in the 1970s in promoting standards of good practice in pastoral counselling. Amongst its founding members were pioneers who began the Westminster Pastoral Foundation, the Bridge Pastoral Foundation, the Raphael Society providing counselling in the Jewish community, and the Dympna Centre which provides counselling for Roman Catholic priests and religious.

APSCC with the Association for Student Counsellors was instrumental in founding the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), BACP has done a great deal of work in promoting good standards of practice, training and supervision for counsellors.

Glossary of terms
The following words are used in specific ways in this document as follows:

Pastor A generic title for anyone, whether male or female, ordained or lay, paid or unpaid who provides pastoral care to another person

Person Denotes the individual receiving pastoral care. The word Person has been chosen in preference to many other possible words, such as ’parishioner’, ’recipient’, ’church member’, or ’client’. Person is used to show that each individual is entitled to be treated by the Pastor with dignity, respect and sensitivity as an equal and unique child of God

Pastoral The caring role in the context of a religious congregation or community. It does not include the wider secular use of ’pastoral’ as in pastoral tutor.

Pastoral Care Includes various counselling skills together with a wide range of supportive and helping acts. As used here, it does not include the specific role of Pastoral Counselling, which involves counsellor and client entering into a contractual agreement, nor does it cover Spiritual Guidance, which requires a Code of Practice.

Pastoral Care may include any of the following:

The Ministry of the Cure of Souls - The responsibility entrusted at ordination to ministers of the church. A widely used definition of Christian Pastoral Care is given by Clebsch and Jaekie in their ’Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective’ (Jason Aronsun, USA 1975) quoted in ’Roots and Shoots’ by Roger Hurding, Hodder and Stoughton, 1985, page 16.

"The ministry of the cure of souls, or pastoral care, consists of helping acts, done by representative Christian persons, directed toward the healing, sustaining, guiding and reconciling of troubled persons whose troubles arise in the context of ultimate meanings and concerns" We have incorporated part of this into our Mission Statement.

This ministry can be exercised in many different ways. It includes Spiritual Direction, preparation for sacramental ministry of confession and reconciliation, baptism, confirmation, marriage, or anointing, and general caring contact. It also includes liturgy, teaching, evangelism, contact face to face or by phone, letter or electronic mail. It may include giving practical help, information or advice. It also includes any of these roles which are shared with members of the church who are not ordained.

Christian listeners - groups of Christians who are trained in skilful listening such as the initiative described by Anne Long of Acorn Trust in her book "Listening" (Darton, Longman & Todd 1990). These will include teams of people who make contact with people who are bereaved, long-term carers, or are housebound. It will include those who on behalf of their church visit people in hospital, residential homes, schools, refugee centres, prisons or other centres

Caring work - work with specific groups of people such as work with children, youth activities, singles groups, or enquirers. It includes specialist community care work, and caring work with offenders, homeless people, and many other groups of people with particular needs.

Pastoral Counselling Is counselling done within the context of the faith community for which Codes of Ethics and Practice for Counsellors apply.

Mission Statement
Pastoral care happens when representative Christian persons recognising a transcendent dimension to human life, help others by listening, responding, praying, or providing caring support. Pastoral care seeks to foster people’s growth as full human beings together with the development of ecologically holistic communities in which all persons may live humane lives. This role can range from sensitive listening and sharing as a friend or neighbour, to specific ministries to people who face crises, traumas, loss or personal dilemmas. It may be expressed in many different ways form counselling centres, churches or home to groups for people with particular needs. It has common areas with the specific responsibilities of ordained persons, but also includes less formal helping relationships.

Guidance for christian pastoral care

1. Values and Goals
   
   1.1  The basic goal of pastoral care is to help Persons live life in all its fullness. (John 10:10) in the strength of, and according to, the example of Christ
   
   1.2  The values of pastoral care are the qualities commended by the Apostles in the New Testament scriptures. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-3) together with compassion, humility, tolerance, forgiveness and thankfulness to God (Colossians 3: 12-17). They are to be practised with an emphasis more on listening than speaking (James 1:19-27).
   
   1.3  In practising these values given in the Bible. Pastors will also seek to follow best practice from the modern specialist disciplines. They will give careful thought to whether their pastoral work is centred on the Person they are helping, or on their faith.
   
   1.4  A pastor, whose work is centred first on the Person, begins with current needs and concerns of the Person and helps them to discern the right way forward for them. This may or may not lead to greater faith and discipleship identical to the Pastor’s own convictions. The concern is to help the Person be who and what they wish, or feel called, to be.
   
   1.5  A pastor whose work begins with faith and the revelation of God seeks to help Persons find their right relationship with God. The Pastor needs to recognise that the right relationship with God for one Person may be different from what the Pastor hopes it might be. Pastoral care is about caring, teaching and inviting: it is not about compelling.

1. Safety for the Person
   
   2.1  Pastors must respect the personhood and the views of every Person to whom they provide pastoral care. Any changes the Person makes should be by their own free choice, willingly made, after careful consideration of all the issues. (Mark 10:17-22) Such careful consideration may include consulting with people other than the Pastor.
   
   2.2  Pastors will take steps to safeguard the Person’s safety and not take advantage of a vulnerable Person. Pastors will not exploit any Person financially, emotionally, or sexually. (Luke 3: 7-14) Pastors will seek to listen and understand each Person’s own priorities and concerns such as personal and family needs, work, financial and care responsibilities, and not seek to impose new priority obligations on the Person against their will. A Person may be invited to re-order their priorities: if they do, it must be with their willing agreement and not as a result of moralistic pressure.
   
   2.3  Pastors will treat every Person, who asks for or is offered pastoral care, as a unique individual, equal with them in the sight of God. They will seek to help each Person express themselves and to develop their own potential. Pastors do not seek to treat one Person with less respect dignity and opportunity than another because of their race, language, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, age, size, income, disability, health, abode, or criminal record (Matthew 11: 25-30 & James 2: 1-13).
   
   2.4  Pastors will respect even those with whom they disagree. Whilst maintaining set boundaries, they will be patient, with those who are aggressive, or unwilling to listen and discuss options.
   
   2.5  Pastors will take care to deal cautiously with Persons who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and Persons who are suffering from mental illness or impairment. Pastors will not put their personal safety or that of others at risk.
   
   2.6  Pastors will try to be honest, open and assertive but not aggressive.
   
   2.7  Pastors must not be sexually intimate with a Person for whom they are providing pastoral care.
   
   2.8  Great care must be taken by Pastors providing pastoral care for children and young people and should follow the guidelines provided by local child protection committees. Physical contact between an adult and a young person can often be misconstrued, and should only occur in appropriate public circumstances. Pastors should be careful to offer a healthy example of personal relationships and self-control, and should avoid any action that might encourage young people to develop addictive habits with alcohol, nicotine or drugs.
   
   2.9  Pastors will not subject any Person, whether employee, volunteer, church member, or anyone else to physical, psychological or verbal harassment and will not tolerate such behaviour by others. Harassment can include physical or mental abuse; insults; unwelcome sexual behaviour, language or jokes; display of offensive materials; and many other written, or spoken words, pictures, symbols, behaviour, gestures, or signals.

1. Safety for the Pastor
   
   3.1  Pastors should be trained and emotionally equipped for the work they do. For example recently bereaved Pastors should consult with other experienced Pastors before starting or returning to do pastoral work with bereaved people. This is as important for the well being of the bereaved Person as it is is for the bereaved Pastor.
   
   3.2  Pastors can sometimes find themselves in unsafe situations when visiting homes or other premises when working with volatile or unstable people. Those who train Pastors should alert them to the possible dangers, how they should assess risks and what safeguards they should put into place for their own and others’ safety.

1. Confidentiality
   
   4.1  Whatever a Person tells a Pastor, in the course of pastoral care, must be treated with respect and kept confidential. In a formal sacramental confession, a priest is clear that whatever is said by the penitent remains confidential at all costs. Most pastoral care meetings are not that formal, but still the Pastor must seek specific consent of he Person to pass on any personal information to anyone else. Personal information given in pastoral care is given in sacred trust: that trust must not be abused, even accidentally. For example, to pray for someone by name, in the presence of even one other person, invades that Person’s privacy unless they have asked or given their consent to others being aware of their needs and praying for them.
   
   4.2  If a Pastor cannot give an assurance of complete confidentiality, they must be honest with the Person as early as possible in their pastoral relationship. If, for example, the Pastor is under some obligation to pass on to some other person information about drugs, child abuse, or intended suicide, then honesty requires the Person to be informed, so that they know what will happen if they give the pastor any such information, before they do so.
   
   4.3  Any notes made by a Pastor must also be kept secure and confidential. Is is wise to keep personal information such as name, address, phone number, group membership, and case number, separate from detailed personal notes. The notes should have only an individual identification number and date. Bot sets of records should be kept in separate secure places to protect individual identity and confidentiality.

1. Competence
   
   5.1  Pastoral care skills call for training, sensitivity, and support, to practise them well. Pastors should seek to obtain training in their faith, and in the skills they need to use in their particular pastoral work. Pastoral care has the potential to be of great benefit to the Persons to whom it is offered, but unskilled and unsupervised Pastors with insufficient knowledge and training can do harm to those they seek to help.
   
   5.2  Pastors should seek to recognise the limits to their competence, or personal suitability for particular aspects of pastoral work. Every Pastor should regularly continue their education and growth in the Christian faith, practice, and spirituality and in pastoral care skills.
   
   5.3  Where a Person’s needs are recognised to be outside the Pastor’s competence, the Pastor should seek the agreement of the Person to refer them to someone who can offer appropriate help.
   
   5.3.1  It is helpful for every Pastor to have a wise guide, soul-friend, supporter or supervisor. Such a super-visor (one who can take an over-view of their work) can help the Pastor take an objective look at the pastoral work they are doing, their own personal and developmental needs, to encourage, challenge, educate or guide. Getting such super-vision is a safeguard of good practice for every Person for whom they provide pastoral care.

Further reading

Tend my Flock - Good Practice in Pastoral Care - Church of England Diocese of Norwich 1997. Available from Diocesan House, 109 Dereham Road, Easton, Norwich, NR9 5ES, tel: 01603 880853 at £2.00 per copy.

Standards of Practice in Pastoral Care (written by a working party of the biennial Consultation of Diocesan Advisers in Pastoral Care and Counselling) revised February 1995 available from Barbara Hackney, Vaughn College, St Nicholas Circle, Leicester, LE1 4LB

Some Elements of Pastoral Practice - a discussion document published in 1991 for the Methodist Conference by Methodist Publishing House, 20 Ivatt Way Peterborough, PE3 7PG, tel: 01733 332202

Revised Code of Ethics and Practice for Those Using Counselling Skills in Their Work 1997 British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP House, 35–37 Albert Street, Rugby, CV21 2SG, tel: 0870 443 5252

Code of Ethics The Association of Christian Counsellors, 29 Momus Boulevard, Coventry. CV2 5NA Tel: 0845 124 9569/95770 Email: Office@acc-uk.org Website: www.acc-uk.org

Code of Ministerial Practice Pentecost 1996; and the Greatness of the Trust The report of the Working Party on Sexual Abuse by pastors, Easter 1996, published by the Anglican Diocese of Oxford, and available via Diocesan Church House, North Hinksey, Oxford OX2 ONB, tel: 01865 244566

Code of Ethical Standards for priests, deacons and pastoral ministers of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, USA, published in Catholic Herald, 29 September 1994