Caring for Our Communities Post-Quake

04 Dec 2010

Dealing with the emotional and spiritual fallout from Canterbury’s earthquake is likely to be harder than clearing away fallen bricks and silt, according to two professional counsellors in the diocese – who threw out a pastoral challenge to parishes during synod.

Don Fergus and Graeme Warburton made a plea for churches to recognise, and start to address, the longer-term effects of the natural disaster. “What the church needs to be thinking about, pastorally, is how we go on responding and go on supporting people and helping people find hope over the next couple of years,” says Graeme, speaking from his counselling practice in the suburb of Phillipstown. “The financial and emotional – and therefore spiritual – effects are going to be continuing; we’re only just really seeing the beginning of them.”

Don agrees. His assessment – from talking with Earthquake Commission assessors, builders and clergy and by reading and listening to people’s experiences – is that there is a long journey ahead to recovery. “Many people are imagining that the worst is over and done with; my point is that I think the difficult bits are just beginning,” he says. Don, who was a registered psychologist for more than 25 years, now works as a pastoral counsellor and clergy supervisor in the central city.

The duo made their presentation to lay representatives and clergy who attended the rescheduled synod at the end of October. The annual diocesan gathering was to have happened on September 4th, but was a casualty of the events of that day.

Don briefly outlined the context of disruption and displacement for hundreds of families and people’s likely responses during the rebuilding and recovery process. He asked parishes to think about where they fit into that recovery process and how they can contribute to people’s recovery. “Are we prepared for a long-term ministry within a culture characterised by displaced people?” he challenged.
Graeme then outlined one practical response parishes could take to help people deal with ongoing emotional issues that are the result of such things as job losses, house damage, relocation and rebuilding. “I’m talking about a specific project for parishes,” explains Graeme, who is also an ordained priest. “A short-hand way of talking about it is ‘doing hope together.’ What I’m proposing is that we have professional counsellors working alongside small pastoral care teams – the pastoral carers and clergy in parishes.”

He is advocating that parish pastoral teams, with the support of the diocese, be trained to work alongside a counsellor so that they can assist individuals, small groups and families to deal with the longer-term consequences of the earthquake. “I think we’re seeing increasing levels of frustration in the community about just how long it’s taking to process 100,000 insurance claims. I really feel for the Earthquake Commission: how the heck do you process that many applications in a rush? There’s a lot of frustration building up in the community,” he comments.

Graeme sees the partnership process as a way of “releasing” the pastoral care capacity of parishes and of encouraging the wider Church to reclaim some of its advocacy and prophetic role. “When we send people off to counselling, we lose the chance of publicly speaking out about the difficulties people are facing and we don’t address the structural difficulties that people are experiencing in their lives,” he observes. “The church is increasingly losing its prophetic and pastoral edge because we rely more and more on sending people off to counselling,” he says. By partnering with other agencies and professionals, he believes the church can act as a witness to people’s pain and suffering. Listening to, and acknowledging, people’s difficulties – whether the difficulties are caused by an earthquake or by other devastating events in people’s lives – is a way to offer them hope, he says.

He is also calling on parishes to recognise the level of trauma and anxiety that is present in the community and not to underestimate the effects of continued aftershocks. “The aftershocks are very random and they have the capacity to unravel people’s normal coping skills and strategies,” he says.

Graeme has been working with Peter Carrell, the diocese’s Director of Education, on developing his pastoral team concept. “I think what’s happened to date is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the response we are going to have to make to those who are affected. It’s the medium- to long-term that I’m focusing on. I am hoping the diocese, and parishes, are going to reach forward and think about ways in which we can begin responding to people.”

WORDS: Megan Blakie