Kate Litchfield, Tend My Flock

Kate Litchfield, Tend My Flock: Sustaining Good Pastoral Care (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2006)

This is a practical rather than theoretical guide to sustaining good pastoral care as a priest in the Church of England.  It comes across as a little dated, and I imagine some parts of the book – especially those related to disclosure and confession – may have changed since it was originally published in 2006 [second printing 2011].  The approach to themes such as homosexuality and gender give the impression that they were modern and innovative fifteen years ago, but come across as slightly old-fashioned today.  This is a lesson in how quickly attitudes change, perhaps especially in the field of pastoral care.  But the book is full of helpful advice, some of which might be seen as timeless.  It is unlikely, for example, that the need for ministers to take time off, is going to change any time soon; funerals are going to be emotionally draining and bring up personal issues for the officiant whenever they take place.  Perhaps it says something about the approach of the Church to pastoral care that a book such as this looking at the ‘unspoken’ aspects of ministry was so new, so recently. 

While nothing in the book jumped out at me as a huge surprise, it was very helpful in presenting the major issues that arise around pastoral care.  It may be easy to overlook, for example, some of the power dynamics involved in ‘tending the flock.’  There is a sense in the book that ministry is becoming more dispersed among the members of the congregation, and perhaps more could be done to explore some of the less clearly-defined power dynamics that this exposes.  I like the section on ‘The Human Function Curve’ developed by Peter Nixon in 1976, which links effort and performance up to a certain point, but then past this point it drops off and it becomes more effective to try to work less hard:

The main audience for the book is the full-time stipendiary minister, but at least some attention is paid to self-supporting ministry (although this isn’t explored in the detail that it perhaps would be today).  There are going to be some intense experiences ahead as I train for self-supporting ministry, but I get the sense that reading this book will be good preparation for what lies ahead.