A congregation-based pastoral care to the victims of shack fires in the African context

Alfred R Brunsdon

doi:10.4102/ve.v41i1.2101

Abstract

The focus of this article is on a congregation-based pastoral care to the victims of shack fires in the African context. Deviating from traditional individualistic notions of pastoral care, it argues that congregations can contribute significantly to the spiritual healing of victims of this growing phenomenon characteristic of informal settlements. The article offers a phenomenological perspective on shack dwelling in the (South) African context. The structural and spatial vulnerability of shacks is investigated in order to arrive at the notion of the multi-dimensional vulnerability of shack dwellers as victims of shack fires. The occurrence of shack fires is discussed whereafter a congregation-based pastoral care is explicated. The notion of a congregation-based pastoral care is imagined in practical terms as an approach that revolves around sensitising congregation members to the unique and total loss incurred through shack fires, leading the congregation members to practise a ministry of presence, solidarity and sharing towards the victims of shack fires. This research contributes to the discourse on the contextualisation of Practical Theology and pastoral care in the African context. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: By engaging contemporary psychological, sociological and anthropological–phenomenological insights from a practical theological stance, the research challenges traditional individualistic views of pastoral care. The resultant congregation-based pastoral care has implications for pastoral theological theory formation, congregational studies and missiology.

Highlights

Not unfamiliar in other parts of the world, the African continent is known for its high density of informal settlements that exposes inhabitants to many risk factors, usually not associated with conventional urban areas
This article focused on a congregation-based pastoral approach to the victims of shack fires in the African context
Unable to withstand natural or man-made destruction, it is inhabited by marginalised South Africans whose vulnerability was described as multidimensional

Summary

Introduction

Not unfamiliar in other parts of the world, the African continent is known for its high density of informal settlements that exposes inhabitants to many risk factors, usually not associated with conventional urban areas. Congregation-based pastoral care denotes a pastoral approach that relies on members of the faith community to provide care to the victims of shack fires spiritually, emotionally and physically to help them to come to terms with the total loss incurred during a disaster of this type This approach is contemplated mainly because the African church in its many expressions is ideally situated and the best-represented institution in communities with a high concentration of African people (Choabi 2019:53), such as informal settlements. It is suggested here that a congregation-based pastoral care to the victims of shack fires will be initiated by sensitising congregation members to the unique and total loss incurred through this tragedy This argument departs from the notion that permanent exposure to the poverty characteristic of informal dwelling may render shack dwellers numb about this type of affliction. Members from African faith communities in informal settlements have the potential to become agents of an extensive network of caregivers to provide emotional and physical relief through a congregation-based pastoral care

Conclusion

Findings

Data availability statement