Vocational Journey Research Articles

‘This Is the Greatest Thing a Man Can Do’: Vocational Journeys of Recently Ordained Catholic Priests in Australia

‘This Is the Greatest Thing a Man Can Do’: Vocational Journeys of Recently Ordained Catholic Priests in Australia

Everyday People: Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, and the Gospel Tradition

Bruce Springsteen has often referred to Elvis Presley as the primary inspiration in his own vocational journey. This essay considers Elvis’ complex significance over the long course of Springsteen’s career. Elvis has been Springsteen’s most important point of entry into older populist traditions, including the blues, country, and gospel. He has also been, in his later isolation and self-destruction, Springsteen’s main cautionary tale. More recently, Springsteen has seen Elvis as the originator of a version of Rock and Roll that draws directly from gospel—particularly from the interactions between the minister, the choir, and the congregation—to create a “front man” who moves the audience toward a collective experience of restoration and hope. Along with Elvis’ populist eclecticism and his crossing of racial boundaries, this dynamic of gospel redemption has played a central role in Springsteen’s music, from the late 1960s, when he set out on his own career in the midst of the racial uprisings in Newark and Asbury Park, through his most recent albums and some of his most powerful recordings and performances, including “Land of Hope and Dreams.” Throughout, the gospel tradition has shaped Springsteen’s understanding of an American identity with a need for collective redemption grounded in the music and the religious faith of “everyday people.”

The Online Learning Experience of Theology Students in Turkey during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A New Disposition for RE?

Through a quantitative research model, this study aims to understand the general attitudes of theology students in Turkey regarding online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In examining the determinant factors on their attitudes, research findings include: previous online education experience, the frequency of participating in synchronous courses, the qualifications of the instructor, the assessment and evaluation procedures, the orientation training programs and the infrastructure opportunities of the universities. Interpreting these factors enables the authors of this article to suggest a conversational relationship between RE and Islamic sciences with some shared objectives that leads to naming guiding principles in a manner that significantly supports students’ vocational journey.

Discerning the body: Recentering Christian community in the vocational formation of university undergraduates

We report and analyze undergraduate students’ perceptions of vocation and propose constructive responses that prepare students for purposeful Christian lives. Discussion in focus groups elicited accounts of vocation as oriented toward positive relational impact but shaped by a latent individualism and an underdeveloped sense of the vocational implications of Christian community. We propose expanding on this relational orientation by helping students to “discern the body” in three ways: reflecting on their own embeddedness in the body of Christ, participating in the body through mentoring relationships, and grounding their future vocational journeys as part of a body shaped by Christological hope.

Gender, Judicatory Respect and Pastors’ Well-Being in Closing Churches

This study of over 130 clergy in five old-line Protestant denominations (Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist, Presbyterian and UCC) who dissolved their congregations examines the relationships of gender, judicatory respect and pastors’ well-being in their experience of closing a church and vocational transition afterwards; respondents completed a written survey and most also participated in in-depth interviews. Survey results show significant gender differences in the experience of respect from and satisfaction with relationships with the middle administrative part of the wider church called here the judicatory (e.g., synod, conference, diocese or presbytery), and with the experience of stress after their churches closed. Women clergy experienced greater loneliness and isolation, financial strain and thinking that closure affected their job search; their job search was also significantly longer than that of men. Respectful judicatory relationships are negatively related to many but not all vocational stresses. Comparisons with the experience of secular professionals suggest the stigma of closing a church adversely affects women clergy’s vocational journey more than men’s. The paper closes with implications for judicatory support of clergy leading churches to closure.

Deepening Andre Delbecq’s legacy: Inspiring undergraduate students to serve humankind

In the past, the typical business school professional saw little need to even broach the spiritual calling. However, Andre’s vocational journey as a scholar-teacher significantly contributed to this change, and many of his colleagues are continuing and looking forward to the possibilities of Andre’s work. Through a Jesuit-lay friendship with the second author, the first author began to take Andre’s call in integrating business as a noble vocation at the undergraduate business level. In connecting classroom assignments and activities with Andre’s scholarship, undergraduate business students were invited to consider what kind of person they would want to be and what kind of world they would want to live in. Here, the article chronicles the work of Andre that inspired changes in the first author’s pedagogy toward coursework that embraces the discipline to make profits along with the discipline to be human – crossing geographical, political, cultural and religious boundaries – in order to meet the world’s needs.

Dusty Shoes: Appalachia Wisdom Fertilizing the Future of Religious Leadership.

Dust from their journeys through the hills and hollows of Appalachia clings to their shoes and has forever shaped their vocational journeys. This is a refrain I have distilled from the reflections of students who have participated in Wake Forest University School of Divinity’s multicultural contexts course that includes a 10-day sojourn in the mountains of North Carolina.

Wounded Heroes and Heroic Vocations: Heroism and the Storied Lives of Therapists

For many the world can be a dangerous place. Life is random. Survival is conditional, and individuals inevitably sustain physical and psychological wounds along the way. Challenged by change, human beings seek meaning in the making and remaking of personal myths that acknowledge both failure and the heroic achievement to endure and flourish. Revealing the heroic character of their creators, this impulse to make and share stories also elevates prosaic, day-to-day struggles into inspirational tales that can transcend context and speak into others’ lives. The sharing of stories permits others to purposefully consider their own struggles and can inspires them to make changes in the world. By applying the narratives of heroism science and humanistic psychology to the vocational and personal lives of therapists, this article suggests that they are heroic, not least because many may have discovered their vocations by transforming their personal wounds into healing for others. It is suggested that, by using critical autoethnography to capture and analyse therapists’ personal and vocational journeys, the phenomenon of the story and the heroic role that it plays in changing and directing therapists’ lives may be more thoroughly acknowledged.

They do care: An interview with William Damon and Anne Colby on moral development

ABSTRACTWhat follows is an interview with William Damon and Anne Colby, pioneers in the fields of moral psychology and education. Throughout their careers, they have studied, moral identity, moral ideals, positive youth development, purpose, good work, vocation, character development in higher education, and professional responsibility. In their words, they are interested in the ‘best of humankind’—not only the competencies, but also the character necessary for living a good life—not only for the sake of the individual, but also for society. They have received numerous academic and civic awards and honors. Their publications include Some Do Care, Greater Expectations, Educating Citizens, The Path to Purpose, and most recently, The Power of Ideals—in addition to editing, for example, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development and The Handbook of Child Psychology. As a married couple, their vocational journeys have mostly been separate, but have always complemented each other and sometimes converged. This interview asks about reflections on their careers, their own sense of purpose, their greatest contributions, current needs in our field, and advice to emerging scholars.

In the robes of Christ

A pastoral sabbatical season is a significant commitment for both the pastor and the congregation. Accordingly, the good made possible by sabbaticals extends far beyond the few months during which the congregation absorbs the pastor’s typical ministerial responsibilities. Done well, these seasons are vital for pastoral longevity in just the way that sabbaticals give pastors the space and opportunity to reflect on their own vocational journeys and identities. This article reflects on one pastor’s sabbatical experience at Taizé, in the steps of St. Francis, and at a monastery while framing an evolving vocational identity through three stages in an adult life. It also reflects on George Herbert’s poem “Aaron,” in which Herbert traces the pastoral identity from its paucity in the face of the ideal image of priestly ministry toward Christ’s infusion of ministerial grace. He “lives in me” declares Herbert finally. This article also introduces a surfing monk, whose (apparently) grudging submission to authority is both the challenge and beauty of the pastoral vocation with the local church. Following a personal experience and George Herbert, the author employs “robes” as the image of pastoral vocational identity.

Book Review: Rehearsing God's Just Kingdom: The Eucharistic Vision of Mark Searle

Rehearsing God's Just Kingdom: The Eucharistic Vision of Mark Searle. By Stephen S. Wilbricht. A Pueblo Book. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2013. xiv + 240 pp. $29.95 (paper).Stephen Wilbricht provides an excellent entryway into Mark Searles body of work, an extensive contribution to work of liturgical study and eucharistie theology in Roman Catholic tradition. Weaving in Searles vocational journey from Franciscan priest and teacher to liturgical scholar, as well as Searles valiant, terminal battle with cancer, Wilbricht creates a portrait of Searie as someone who was completely immersed in liturgy as a way of life. Searie saw it as his life's work to bring to full fruition liturgical reformation initiated in Vatican II-calling for a new liturgical movement that did not necessarily need to change eucharistie rite but instead improve church assembly's full, active, and conscious participation in liturgy, which Searie saw as obligation of faithful.Wilbricht, in his careful review and study of Searles work, aims to amplify Searie s call for liturgical renewal, emphasizing two core concepts found in Searles writing: (1) Searles foundational principle of liturgy as the of Christian attitudes, emphasizing great significance of engaging in regular, repeated ritual activity as body of Christ; and (2) Searles view of liturgy as church's privileged locus for calling on and bringing forth justice of (p. 11). Wilbricht expands upon these two concepts by going into four main parts of Roman Catholic Mass: gathering as Christ's body; listening to God's Word; participating at altar (living with an attitude of sacrificing); and communing or seeking a oneness with God and all of God's creation.In each of these areas, Wilbricht upholds Searles vision for liturgy as place where people of God are repeatedly rehearsing (practicing, embodying) Christian faith, engaging in rehearsals of of obedience and surrender, exercises and celebrations of our self-abandonment to God in Christ (p. 28). As Searle sees it, this rehearsal of Christian attitudes (and here Searle is influenced by ritual theory work of Suzanne Langer, see pp. 17-26) has to do with our habitual ways of thinking, judging, and acting in world, with how we relate to ourselves, and how we respond to world around us. Liturgy has power to shape how people as individuals and as communities of faith see, think, and act in world. …

Charles De Foucald's Vocational Journey and Religious Formation

Charles De Foucald's Vocational Journey and Religious Formation

Recourse to Psychology within the Vocational Journey

Recourse to Psychology within the Vocational Journey

Keeley's journey: From service user to service provider

This paper presents the vocational journey of a young British woman, Keeley, who changed her career aspirations to become a mental health worker following an episode of significant mental health difficulties. Keeley's story illustrates the application of the locally developed WORKS framework in conceptualising and supporting Keeley's vocational recovery. A narrative approach highlights the partnerships that developed between Keeley, the Occupational Therapist, Sally, and the User Support and Employment Service. The WORKS framework supported Keeley and Sally to collaboratively develop a successful employment pathway. Strategies, including attention to Keeley's view of her capabilities and aspirations, volunteer placements, support of peers, employer engagement and planning for sustainable employment, assisted Keeley to establish her chosen career. Keeley's journey highlights the leadership role that mental health services can assume by providing paid work for people with experience of mental health difficulties.

Stories of Vocation: Education for Vocational Discernment

Women's stories often have unplanned vocational twists. In oral histories with thirty-four women from diverse contexts, Moore discovers the power of narration to reveal and shape women's vocational journeys. Analysis uncovers qualities of the women's journeys: facing unexpected turns; trusting spiritual-intuitive knowing; analyzing and responding to social contexts; standing for justice; committing to make a difference; helping others be who they can be; building bridges; practicing hospitality; valuing women's communities; caring for self; and practicing humor. By clustering these qualities, five narrative processes emerge. The corresponding educational practices are valuable for religious educators who engage with people in vocational discernment.

Through pain and isolation to acceptance

The importance of employment for people who use mental health services has been highlighted with the release of the Mental Health and Social Exclusion report (SEU, 2004). However, what remains less clear is what this process actually involves for service users and vocational rehabilitation staff. This article describes the process from the perspectives of a person receiving mental health services (Shaun Williams) and someone working in a vocational support role (Mark Bertram). Both accounts highlight how crucial supportive relationships and time are in helping people on their vocational journeys.

WHERE SHALL WE SIT? THE VOCATIONAL CONVERSATIONS OF A RELIGIOUS EDUCATOR

Looking back on his vocational journey, the author explores three “conversations” among academic and local church religious educators originating in teaching practice that culminate in a discussion of religious education as a field of study. These conversations focus attention on teaching in the transformation of persons and communities, on community as context and agency of teaching, and on public life as the setting for teaching to live responsibly into the providential intent of God. From this perspective religious education is described as an inherently theological practice emerging from the engagement of teachers and students in faith communities at the edges of our collective ignorance of the “intent of God” and at the intersection of our various religious traditions.