What is it about?
This paper presents a model of pastoral care based on recognizing death not just as an event that ends life but as a presence interdependent with life. It proposes that we constantly respond to the presence of death in life by encountering it or escaping it. An encounter response teaches relationship-oriented caring. A case presentation demonstrates a way of doing pastoral care based on an encounter response to the presence of death.
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Why is it important?
This paper serves to awaken the pastoral care community to the difference between death as a single event that serves only to end life and that pastoral care revolves around helping people cope with dying. When also seen as a presence interdependent with life then death has much to teach us. It can be used as a model of care that helps people with various struggles better understand their situation, themselves and how to cope.
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This page is a summary of: Encountering the Presence of Death: A Model of Pastoral Care, The Caregiver Journal, January 1995, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/1077842x.1995.10781717.
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