The annual retreat for the BC Conference Spiritual Care Network was held in April at Rivendell Retreat on Bowen Island. Gathered to consider the nature of spiritual care and the provision of it through the SCN were conference staff members as well as Order of Ministry personnel from every Presbytery in the province. In the course of our learning and sharing, some aspects of what we consider spiritual care became evident in the vocabulary we used to articulate our experience. Interestingly, not only did we describe some dimensions of spiritual care by what we said, we unconsciously outlined other aspects by what we did not say. This essay describes some areas of our articulated sense of spiritual care and examines an element of care not named in our first analysis.

The gathered group was set two tasks. In the first instance, participants were asked to describe to a chosen partner an experience when they had received spiritual care. After each had related their story to the other, the full group was gathered and asked to report: each partner was to describe, briefly, the experience of the other. In the second instance, with a different partner, each person was asked to relate an experience when they felt they had provided spiritual care. Again, each pair reported one another’s’ experience to the full group. The author of this article made note of the variety of words being used in the description of peoples’ experiences. In considering the resulting collection, a number of themes emerged.

There was a strong element of surprise in peoples’ descriptions. The presence of the Spirit in the provision of care was “unplanned”, “unbidden”, “unexpected”, “unsought”, “unintentional”. This “un-ness” in spiritual care is redolent with the aroma of the “via negativa” of the mystical way that is the foundation of this sort of work.

People felt a palpable sense of trust when engaged in spiritual care, both as providers and receivers. Within that circle of trust, they found the essence of personhood revealed - their own and that of the other. Such holy ground was often come upon in circumstances of crisis - death, grief, depression, illness, pain - and coming away, a sense of humility and sacred privilege was frequently noted.

In describing the general tenor of spiritual care, our vocabulary was what I would describe as the language of permission. Words such as “opening”, “expansiveness”, “longing”, ”freeing”, “broadening”, “spacious” provided the salient images. This is good and an important aspect of our spirituality. But it raised a question: where was the language of restraint? Someone once said that discernment is a two- edged sword: the life of the human spirit at times needs to be loosed and freed, yet there are also those times when the spirit must be held and bound. Only one word employed in our vocabulary - “container” - spoke to the issue of containment of the spirit. To juxtapose an imaginary vocabulary of restraint with the evident one of permission, words like “closing’, “narrowing”, “satisfaction”, “binding”, “refusal” were not part of our discussion and hence not an aspect of experience which we named as spiritual care.

It is important to be clear about this last point: because the vocabulary of containment was not in evidence at the SCN retreat does not mean that we are not engaged in this aspect of spiritual care. Quite the contrary. Originating in the women’s movement, “’No’ means ‘No’” has become an assumed standard in our communities: the work of the Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct is only one example of our engagement in this kind of spiritual work. Other examples are evident in a more general vocabulary: “Enough is enough”, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. The acute cultural consciousness around environmental degradation and responses such as the greening of the church are testimony to our engagement with the spirituality of restraint. Likewise, in more personal terms, knowing one’s limits - the boundaries within which one must live, professionally as well as personally, is crucial to living a life of integrity. Perhaps the challenge is to name our experience of limits - environmental, social and personal - as an equal part of what it is to be engaged in the work of spiritual care.

Many other issues and insights were ours at the SCN retreat this year. These aspects of spiritual care were only one part of the larger life of the network with which we were engaged. We trust that the presence of the Holy Spirit will continue to move among us as we live out our faith in the Christ, Jesus, as servants of the Living God.