Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes the general ministry of care. It explores the fundamental issue of relational space. The principle of closeness-with-space is applied in three different pastoral contexts: community life, spiritual friendship and pastoral conversations. The book talks about the notion that pastoral care is polyphonic in nature. Polyphony is a musical term that denotes the simultaneous singing or playing of two or more melodic lines of equal importance in the overall structure. The book focuses on the notion of hospitality and important issue of the counselling alliance. The practice of establishing a 'three-dimensional' alliance consisting of the counsellor, the counsellee and the support persons will be explored. The loving participation in the Trinity points to a vitally important function of empathy, namely the overcoming of the experience of isolation and aloneness.