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

CHAPTER ONE6

INTRODUCTION6

I. Introduction6

A. Background6

i. History of St. John the Baptist Parish6

B. Needs9

ii. Background: St. John the Baptist9

III. BACKGROUND: OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL10

C. Importance to Ministry11

i. St. John the Baptist Parish: serving the Churches of Our Lady of Good Counsel and St. John the Baptist11

II. Issue of Concern15

i. History of Black Caribbean Women15

E. Clinical Principles (hospice care, community, and mental health Hospital)24

III) Execution of actual project27

F. Formulation of group27

i. Private Direction27

ii. Sovereign Pontiff29

iii. Catholic literature32

CHAPTER TWO36

LITERATURE REVIEW36

Taking the red pill40

Existential spiritual practices42

Rites of passage44

CHAPTER THREE47

METHODOLOGY47

IU) Pre evaluation of implemented Services47

i. Research overview and hypotheses47

ii. Study48

iii. Participants and design49

iv. Materials and procedure50

v. Dependent measures51

Vi. Other measures52

VII. PRELIMINARY ANALYSES54

V. CONCLUSION56

REFERENCES61

Chapter One

Introduction

I. Introduction

A. Background

i. History of St. John the Baptist Parish

In the past 20 years, interest in religiousness and spirituality has increased, and a large number of social scientists have attempted to define, study, and theorize about these two terms (Benner, 1989; Ingersoll, 1994; Shafranske & Gorsuch, 1984; Spilka, Shaver, & Kirkpatrick, 1985; Zinnbauer, Pargament, Cole, Rye, Belavich, Hipp, et al., 1997). The literature provides an overview of some important studies that have determined that spirituality and religion can have an important influence on human health and behavior (Koenig, 1998; Levin and Chatters, 1998; George, Larson, Koenig, & McCullough, 2000). Over the past 10 years, women's health increasingly has been recognized as an important focus (Kornstein & Clayton, 2002). Over the same period of time, interest and ...