SPIRITUAL DIRECTION TO AFRO CARIBBEAN WOMEN

Spiritual Direction providing pastoral care to groups, and individuals among Afro Caribbean Women of Faith

Abstract

The Paper discusses that without a clear knowledge and understanding of the social structure of the family system, the church will fail to provide proper pastoral counseling to the family in crisis—whether in Africa or other parts of the world. Within the entire African continent, the family system is changing due to urbanization and industrialization. Nevertheless, old habits die hard. Thus, African family crises cannot be dealt with adequately within the framework of western family systems, especially those of Europe and North America. That does not mean Africa has nothing to learn from the way the western family operates, just as the west can no doubt learn from Africa. As an African and a pastoral counselor, educated in part in the west, the problem I encounter is how to integrate my Christian pastoral training with my African cultural identity in order to help in the family social context. Our overall attempt in this study is to rediscover potential resources in the traditional African family structure that can be utilized in the contemporary church's ministry of healing and counseling. The changes currently taking place in the continent do not accommodate the pure African family system. A new family model is required, one that retains traditional values while accommodating insights from other cultures and taking into account the rapid changes in family, politics, religion, and economy. A pastoral counseling model for contemporary Africa must combine the insights of traditional African life care and modern family counseling systems.

Table of Contents

Discussion and Analysis5

St. John the Baptist Parish: serving the Churches of Our Lady of Good Counsel and St. John the Baptist5

St. John the Baptist Parish has become a focal point in the community, cradling and nurturing the human spirit in the midst of chaos.6

Background: Our Lady of Good Counsel6

Spiritual Direction for Black Caribbean Women of Faith7

Issues of Concern8

A. Theological Principles8

Dependent measures9

Other measures10

Preliminary analyses17

CONCLUSION23

Chapter Four

Discussion and Analysis

St. John the Baptist Parish: serving the Churches of Our Lady of Good Counsel and St. John the Baptist

A voice cries in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord. St. John the Baptist eagerly awaited the coming of the Kingdom of God and the new beginning that it would bring. In this same spirit, St. John the Baptist Parish is an oasis of hope for the community of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York.

Poverty, violence, unemployment, and fear are words which many others authors have used to characterize this community. These harsh realities are a cancer that threatens to consume us as a society. Some people have become its victims. Others have even given up hope. But the story of St. John's is an account of a people who have refused to surrender to the problems that engulf their neighborhood. It is the story of the struggle of a community committed to create a better life for itself and its ...