This article is a particular joy as it came out of research one of my students, Annabel Hawkes did on dementia care chaplaincy. Annie is a social worker, who volunteers as a chaplain and is passionate about dementia care. I supervised her research dissertation on the work of two Anglican chaplains who work in residential dementia care homes. Once the dissertation was completed, I spent a couple of days turning it into a journal article and we found a home for it in Religions. The article explores the idea of personhood and the work of these chaplains as they offered a ministry of personal and sacramental presence to the residents.
Hawkes, Annabel, and Lynne Taylor (2024). “Presence and Personhood: Investigating Christian Chaplaincy Care in Two Residential Dementia Units.” Religions 15 (2): 704 (12 pages).
And carrying on the catch up: my excellent research assistant, Jessica Bent and I published an article last year on preaching during the early days of covid-19. We had analysed the online worship services of three NZ churches, from March 2020 and brought the data into conversation with Neil Pembroke’s work on therapeutic and theocentric preaching. Each of the churches studied balanced the theocentric and therapeutic in helpful and interesting ways.
As we note, “The theocentric related to God’s character and attributes (particularly God’s love, attentive presence and faithfulness), and activity and power. The therapeutic was expressed by lamenting and acknowledging pain, offering words of comfort, and inviting response, including in care for others. For each church, the goal was towards human flourishing: shalom, or well-being even amid difficult circumstances.”
Taylor, Lynne and Jessica Bent (2023). “Theocentric Therapeutic Preaching: Good News During the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society 23 (2): 70-97.
I’ve just sent someone an article that I wrote a number of years ago about older people in the church.
It encourages taking a holistic approach to what it means to be human; looks at the sorts of resourcing a local church can provide to older people; affirms the need for places of connection; and recognises the need for all people to have ways that they can offer themselves and their gifts for a wider purpose.
https://unsplash.com/photos/MMhazsT2wtM image by @tatizanon
Interested? You can download it here (It should go directly to your downloads – if you have any difficulty, flick me an email :))
