Theological Reflection in Pastoral Supervision

The paper presents supervision as a discipline that can help pastoral workers cope with the demands of their profession. Based on the characteristic of supervision in helping professions the text considers its important specificities for the field of pastoral work. A prerequisite of pastoral supervision is its theological and spiritual understanding of the field of pastoral work as well as the world of the pastoral worker. This paper presents suggestions on how to conceive theological reflection in pastoral supervision.


Magdalena Ehrlichová
In recent years the sphere of pastoral care in the health care system has developed markedly in our country. The Agreement on Spiritual Care and its Supplement of 2011 1 have made participation of hospital chaplains in the operation of health care establishments possible. 2 In 2011 the Association of Hospital Chaplains (further only AHC) and in 2012 the Catholic Association of Hospital Chaplains in the Czech Republic (further only CAHC) was founded. The associations' task is to support the activity and professional education of hospital chaplains and coordinate and publicize spiritual care including cooperation with important subjects in this sphere.
The statutes of both associations mention supervision as one of the forms of support of the work of chaplains and volunteers. AHC includes in its activity providing professional care of chaplains and volunteers in the form of meetings and supervisions. 3 In its statutes CAHC mentions as one of its aims providing consulting assistance and supervision to those who work in pastoral care in health and social services. 4 As at present the associations are devoting much of their strength to developing the network of hospital chaplains and their education, solution to the question of providing supervision is left aside. Hospital chaplains can encounter information on the mission and possibilities of supervision, or supervision itself, as part of their formation-educational meetings. A conceptual solution of the manner of providing supervision and requirements on the supervision provider has as yet not been elaborated for the above reason. It still holds that supervision as a form of professional accompanying in this country is well outlined primarily in the field of social work and psychotherapy, while in other areas, such as health care or pastoral care, it remains undeveloped.
The situation described above was one of the incentives for this paper, which wants to show the possibilities of supervision and its specific features precisely in the sphere of pastoral care, i.e., how pastoral care proper can be reflected. The text presents two models which can help consider theologically important incentives affecting the work of pastoral workers in supervision. The first model, described by the German pastoral theologian Isidor Baumgartner, is based on reflecting pastoral work from the point of view of the four basic functions of the Church. The paper also presents another, newly conceived model, which builds its reflection on the structure of the pastoral concept of the supervised person.

2015
Besides Czech sources this paper makes use of incentives from the German and English speaking milieu, where supervision as instrument of professional growth in the sphere of helping professions, including pastoral work, is often employed. 5

Supervision environment
Supervision is a space where reflection, interpretation and evaluation of professional acting takes place. It is a process that helps to ensure the efficiency and humanity of professional practice through support of personal, social and expert competences. 6 The actors of the supervision conversation are the supervisor and the supervised. The supervised person is a worker (individual or group) who comes with a topic from his work environment, which he wants to reflect on in the conversation and for which he wants to find possibilities of solution. The supervisor is in the position of the one directing the supervision process. 7 A glimpse in history Supervision 8 as one of the forms of accompanying in practice is not a new discipline. Exemplars for what is called supervision can be discovered already in situations when man first begins to think of his social relationships and is forced to communicate with others about his work. We can find roots of supervision proper at the end of the 19 th century in the sphere of health care and social work. It is often within introducing new workers to the profession, where the newly coming worker is assigned an experienced co-worker, "supervisor", who introduces him to his work, accompanies him and oversees the correctness of his procedures -especially in the beginnings of his work placement. Besides this style of supervision we can find one other model in history, namely the conversations of Vicar Samuel Barnett with students who together with him took part in charity work in London, to whom Barnett offered the possibility of one-to-one conversations as support in their work. 9 Under the influence of psychoanalysis the emphasis in supervision shifted in the first half of the 20 th century from checking the correctness of procedures and professional education to the person of the client and solving his situation. 10 Later, partly also under the influence of social development in the sphere of hierarchy and authority dissolution, the aspect of control in supervision has moved almost to the background and support and development of the 5 Literary sources on the topic of supervision in pastoral care from German-speaking countries come mostly from the 1980s and 1990s, since at that time supervision in this field was a fairly new discipline and much attention was therefore devoted to it. At present German expert literature focuses on the topic of supervision and coaching as support of workers across the helping professions. 6  7 A prerequisite of a supervisor's activity is knowledge and skills in leading the supervision process. In our country a number of supervision trainings are offered with different requirements for passing them. It is due to the fact that unified qualification requirements have not yet been set in this country. The courses have different hour allocations, ca 250-500 hours, including both acquiring theoretical knowledge and development of practical skills. Persons attending these trainings come from the sphere of the helping profession -most frequently from the field of social work, psychology, medicine, pedagogy. Some courses focus on education in supervision of a particular field. 8 The term "supervision" first appears in mid-16th century in legal and Church documents in the sense of guidance and control. The term is derived from two Latin words "super", i.e., "above, most", and "visio", i.e., "seeing, apparition, view". In English the word "supervision" means control, guidance. Cf worker has got to focus. Creativity and autonomy is strengthened and the work process is more markedly reflected against the backdrop of relationships appearing in it. 11 The supervision conversation Supervision is based on conversation taking place in a secure environment and built on respect and co-responsibility of the persons involved. In the course of the supervision conversation relationships between the personal and the social system are reflected, based on which the personal, social and expert competences and activity of the person supervised can then be transformed. 12 An example that can illustrate the process is the Socratic dialogue well-known from antiquity, in which Socrates as teacher refused to play the game of question-answer with his pupil and reacted to questions with counter-questions. Such manner of study led the pupil to reflect the background of his own questions and thereby generally life. Such procedure is close to contemporary professional reflective methods of supervision. 13 The work relationship between the supervisor and the person supervised issues from an equal division of responsibility and participation, from respect to the human being as a unique existence. Supervision in its activity therefore opens up a framework in which every image of the human being finds a place. Only by concretizing actions, procedures or intervention techniques arises a clarification of norms and theoretical understandings that will be reflected on in the supervision. In that it can happen that the supervisor and supervised persons or organizations will start from different notions. 14 Supervision strives to include in its view the physical, psychological and spiritual dimension of the human being, incorporated in the social environment, and at the same time make use of contemporary as well as historical experiences of the supervised person. The foundation for fulfilling the main mission of supervision is the assumption that despite possible limitations man is able to develop.

Supervision goals
The main goal areas at which supervision in helping professions aims, are according to Christine Böckelmann the following: In the sphere of maintaining and increasing professional competences it is primarily reflection of own work and extending professional knowledge in work with the target group. Another thematic sphere she identifies is the topic of relationships to the selected target group, to which she counts e.g. analysis of one's role in relationship to clients, illumination of relationship with clients, coping with the expectations and requirements of clients, or searching for a limit in emotional distance from clients. Supervision also comprises the topic of incorporating the worker in the milieu of the organization, which means appreciating and coping with the requirements and goals of the employer and the institutions with which he cooperates, the question of loyalty, possibilities 11  of cooperating with colleagues. The fourth sphere covered by supervision mentioned by Böckelmann is the sphere of solving own professional identity, which includes reinforcing own professional role, coping with the personal aspect of the vocation, own notions, possibilities and limits of own acting, solving ethical questions of the profession. 15

Pastoral supervision
Pastoral activity, in which the Church realizes its mission, is formed based on various life situations and from the Church's answers to them. It is a dynamic process, in which acquired knowledge and experience is incessantly collected and theologically reflected and deepened. 16 The specificity of pastoral supervision is its theological richness together with theological and spiritual appreciation of the work and worldview of the supervised person. This is due to the fact that the spiritual plane itself is part of the contents of pastoral work, and also to the fact that supervision is interested in the value scale and religious faith of the supervised person, 17 i.e., it touches on both the pastoral and spiritual identity of the worker. The task of supervision is to distinguish between the two aspects and be able to work with them separately and in context, since the spiritual and pastoral identity is commonly interconnected in the pastoral worker's activity. 18 Here it is good to add a note. As it is necessary to distinguish between e.g. supervision and counselling or psychotherapy, it is necessary to be able to distinguish between pastoral supervision and spiritual accompanying. Supervision will always work with the personal or spiritual aspect of the supervised person to the extent to which it concerns his work. If the supervised person will need the help of a therapist or spiritual leader to a greater extent, it is the supervisor's task to recognize this, discuss it with the supervised person and refer him to the help of the relevant expert.
How is it then possible to reflect the theological dimension of pastoral work in supervision and not fail to take into account the spiritual identity of the worker? In practice one can encounter such form of supervision that makes use of generally known concepts, e.g. from the field of supervision in social work or psychotherapy, and transfers them to the pastoral sphere. 19 Within such supervision the question of theological reflection is not marked -the goal of the work aims especially at support and search for security of the supervised person in his professional role without the possibility of deeper treatment of connections to the life of faith of the supervisor himself and of the supervised person. The goal of such supervision is becoming oneself. Besides that it is possible to present a kind of supervision which makes it possible to recognize, make use of and express theologically significant stimuli in own reflection, which can then affect the pastoral activity of the person supervised. Supervision work is thus not expressed only in communication of man with man, but by including God in the work relationship and effort to look at the realities discussed from his perspective. 15  Baumgartner characterizes the goal of such supervision as becoming a subject in Gods eyes. 20 This other form of supervision work, which is based on theological reflection of pastoral work, places greater demands on the supervisor himself. Besides the necessary skills in the sphere of supervision he should be capable of theological reflection and reflecting his own experience of faith. In order for the supervisor to be able to efficiently accompany pastoral workers, he must understand the essence of Christian life and ethical values essential in the life and work of the supervised persons, know the mission and milieu of the church to which they belong. This demand gives rise to requirements on the preparation and education of supervisors in this sphere. Since in the Czech milieu requirements on the profession and education of supervisors in the pastoral sphere have as yet not been specified in any way, the paper at this point presents two examples from abroad.
In Britain the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education has recently been established, systematically developing the field of supervision in pastoral work, at whose foundation there were representatives of the individual Christian denominations in the country. Someone who already has experience in the sphere of pastoral work becomes a supervisor there. A supervisor is at the same time expected to have a certain spiritual and religious orientation and expressed interest in the doctrine of faith, as well as in the faith of those who come for supervision. 21 The course of pastoral supervision provided by this Association includes in its core the psychological and theological foundations of pastoral service. 22 Another example may be Germany, where in most episcopates pastoral workers and catechists receive contact information of their own advisors and supervisors or coaches. Some episcopates have also published their own measures concerning supervision of persons in pastoral care. E.g. a measure released by the arch-episcopate of Berlin includes in its content also basic requirements on the person of the supervisor, among which belongs passing an accredited course of supervision, 23 professional and organizational competences, responsible attitude to the Church's mission and ability to appreciatively, critically and inspiringly accompany church workers against the background of their situation of faith through reflection of their own history of faith. 24

Including theological reflection in supervision of pastoral activity
Effective pastoral activity depends on pastoral workers' ability to recognize and make use of theologically significant views in a way that will illuminate and form their pastoral activity. 25 The following text presents two particular models of how to work with the theological dimension of the pastoral mission in the supervision process and how to encourage the supervised persons to theologically reflect on their own life and service. One model shows the suggestion of Isidor Baumgartner 26 to base supervision reflection on the basic functions 20  of the Church. The other model, whose conception will be outlined here as new, derives from Doris Nauer's observation that each pastoral worker acts, whether consciously or unconsciously, according to a certain pastoral concept. 27 Precisely the individual points of this concept are used in this paper as the basis of an outline against which theological reflection can be supported.

Theological reflection deriving from four basic functions of the Church
Baumgartner suggests approaching the theological aiming of supervision in pastoral care from the point of view of the four basic functions of the Church: diacony, liturgy, mystagogy and ecclesiology. He construes them as basic spheres which are reflected in the activity of almost every pastoral worker and should as such be according to him reflected in supervision. Supervision should encourage the supervised persons to be open for life of faith and be able to interpret life in a mystagogic-evangelizing way. At the same time supervision will be support for the supervised persons in accepting their own work as service and enable them to see themselves, others and their work in church-social context. Baumgartner expands this briefly sketched idea on the example of supervision work with a chaplain, who comes with the issue of his own insecurity and worries in solving the following pastoral situation: The wife of a man who is not well psychologically as well as physically has requested a pastoral visit from the chaplain. The woman knows that her husband is incurably ill, but with respect to his psychological state is afraid to tell him the truth concerning his illness. The diaconic plane of supervision work would aim at reflection of the role of the chaplain in the particular situation and at what he sees as important: He does not want to be the one to make the decision for the wife whether to tell her husband of the gravity of his state, but is far more interested in how he can help the couple find space in which they will be able to speak openly and perhaps also say good-bye if need be. To this reflection belonged a view of the chaplain's experience so far, his fears and communication skills having to do with the topic of parting. All that to the extent to which it was needed for work with this couple. 28 On the mystagogic-evangelizing plane it was as part of the supervision process considered how the chaplain worked with the topic of faith and hope -hope transcending even death. Thanks to its setting the supervision enabled the supervised person to be in the situation when he is accepted -even though his way of solving the situation had some limitations he could realize that, although he is imperfect, he is nonetheless loved, he could speak of hope and redemption in his life. 29 The supervision referred to the liturgical plane by highlighting the role of liturgical symbols. An example may be a view of the Eucharist as a place of meeting God who grants eternal life, especially in a situation when one's own life is endangered. Similarly e.g. a pastoral worker coming to visit an ill person is a symbol of the community of the Church. 30 With this the view already shifts to the role of the Church as community, which even by the simple act of bringing the Eucharist to an ill person shows how in a quite ordinary situation it is able to capture fears of social exclusion and at the same time refer to the very closeness of God

Theological reflection deriving from structure of pastoral concept
This paper brings one other model of how to conceive theological reflection in supervision in the sphere of pastoral care. This account is inspired by the publication of the German theologian Doris Nauer on work with pastoral concept. The author states that every pastoral worker, whether consciously or unconsciously, carries in him a concept according to which he forms his practice. The concept is formed from the theological definition of the particular method of pastoral care and from the linked image of God and man. 32 Such a concept offers workers practical-theologically justified orientation in how they understand pastoral care and at the same time links the goals, methods and contents of their activity in everyday practice. The pastoral concept serves the workers as a supporting framework in their activity and offers institutions or recipients of their care a legible image of the worker's role and competences. 33 A view structured in this way, which the worker develops based on his knowledge, experience and practice, helps him to form his own pastoral identity.
In her book Nauer presents approximately thirty prepared concepts. It is not this paper's goal to present an overview of them, but to make use of the idea with the concept and the basic structure of its segmentation as the model of our reflections on how pastoral activity can be reflected in supervision.

Concept structure
Each individual concept issues from a particular method of pastoral work and is characterized by a theological basis, contents and goal of the respective pastoral activity. The theological basis of the concept depends primarily on the manner of reasoning, which is most often biblical-theologically or dogmatically anchored. In this sphere the pastoral worker is led to reflect on how he understands pastoral care and what he sees as the contents of his work and the goal at which it is aimed. To this belongs a reflection of what image of God belongs to the relevant model. Another support point of the concept is the image of man linked to the given type of pastoral activity. Differences can be found here because the theological view of man is often interconnected e.g. with philosophical, psychological or sociological postulates. 34 The role and competency profile of the worker also belong to the pastoral concept. The competency profile of the worker depends on whether pastoral care is characterized exclusively in theological terms, or in relationship to non-theological disciplines. From that one starts when considering whether the worker needs expert theological, spiritual, personal or other professional competence. The pastoral concept further includes selected methods of work, i.e., what methods of work the workers employ in their everyday practice, which are familiar to them. The pastoral concept further includes a characteristic of the target group. Within a given concept we distinguish whether it involves individual pastoral care or pastoral care of specific groups, or whether the recipients of pastoral care are generally 5 2015 defined (e.g. all Christians). Finally, the pastoral concept includes a definition of intra-and interdisciplinary cooperation. To this belongs considering the form and possibilities of cooperation within and outside the Church, institution or milieu where the pastoral activity is carried out. 35 How can the presented structure of pastoral concept be useful in the process of supervision? The individual points of this concept enable a view of the pastoral work in all its breadth. Accepting the idea that each worker works within a certain pastoral concept can serve supervision as a means of cultivating this concept, as an instrument of creating own pastoral identity. Work with the concept discloses professional knowledge and develops specific skills, of which the worker makes use in his work. It enables the worker to understand himself and "what, how and why" he is doing.

Example of work with pastoral concept in supervision
As an example of the use of work with the concept in supervision we will characterize the concept of accompanying pastoral care and then refer to how it can be useful in supervision reflection.

Pastoral concept of accompanying pastoral care
Accompanying pastoral care can be characterized as accompanying persons in a critical life situation motivated by Christian faith. 36 The goal of this form of pastoral care is to help the person's life and faith by means of closeness and support of another. It is a method of pastoral work which is often employed in clinical pastoral practice. 37 The theological basis of accompanying pastoral care is biblically witnessed by the acting of God who faithfully accompanies his people. In the Old Testament we can find the image of God as faithfully accompanying the people of Israel in the course of its history. 38 The New Testament describes the acting of Jesus which shows how God is really close to people in their life histories. The example of Jesus at the same time makes it possible to normatively testify this form of pastoral care and describe its contents. 39 As a further argument for justifying this model the image of the Good Shepherd is presented. Jesus as good shepherd is not only himself an example of this type of pastoral care, but at the same time requires it of his faithful. 40 In this concept man is seen as an image of God, as one who is created, called and personally loved by God. It is a holistic image of man consisting in the unity of his soul, body and spirit. 41 35 Cf. ibid, pp. 74-75. 36 Faith here means basic human trust, which is able to give itself up to an incomprehensible, unpredictable and incontrollable reality. Cf. Doris NAUER, Seelsorgekonzepte im Widerstreit, pp. 102, 105. 37 This pastoral model was created by clinical pastoral workers and theologians in order to develop a theory for the sphere of everyday activity in hospitals. Although it is an inter-confessional product, it has a major part in the Catholic milieu since it played a decisive role in replacing the pre-Vatican II model of fostering pastoral care. Cf In his work the worker meets persons faithful and not faithful. This form of pastoral activity emphasizes the support of man in his particular and unique situation. 42 Even the simple co-being of the pastoral worker with the ill or suffering human can be a sign of the internal connection of God with man and man with God in suffering, regardless of the depth of the faith of the suffering person. 43 In this style of pastoral work it is important for the worker to realize that he works with human beings as subjects of care, that he is the one who accompanies, not the one who cures. A prerequisite for his work is openness, friendliness, ability to make contact, interest, trust, reliability. The pastoral worker is expected to be spiritually anchored, educated in the sphere of clinical pastoral care and willing to grow professionally.

Incentives to supervision work within the concept of accompanying pastoral care
The points of departure of supervision work are always particular stimuli from the practice of the supervised persons. They thematically correspond with the goals stated in the introduction to this paper. By presenting them and gradually dealing with them the supervised persons get to deeper questions bearing on seeking the meaning of own work, justification of selected procedures, reflection of values and finding connections.
With respect to the selected pastoral method of accompanying pastoral care, reflection on the particular manner and procedures of work can give rise to questions related to a certain powerlessness in this accompanying task, since the goal of this way of pastoral work is really "only" to be with the other. 44 Supervision in its process will then enable the worker to reflect on the feeling he has when he comes to the ill with empty hands, insecurity and fear, and helps him to attain the attitude of trust and openness.
Within such supervision one can learn how to accompany the ill with their feelings and at the same time take note of one's own feelings, how to be authentic, solidary and at the same time be also able to maintain distance. The supervision process supported by a view of this pastoral concept can serve as inspiration to a deeper interconnection of the particular supervision topics in the context of: how the worker himself perceives his role, whether he can be both shepherd and sheep with the awareness that the only shepherd of us all is Christ; 45 what role his faith and own experience with meeting God and the possibility to be accompanied by God plays in the situation discussed; how the worker presents, whether explicitly or implicitly, the closeness of God to others in the selected situation; how the worker perceives the human being with whom he works: whether he sees him as one created and called by God; whether this human is really a subject for him, not object of care; Based on his reflection of the acquired experience and knowledge, the worker verifies the setting of the pastoral concept of his own work in supervision and has the opportunity to deepen them and specify with respect to newly acquired knowledge. Work with the structure of the pastoral concept in supervision thus enables the supervised person to deliberately form his pastoral identity, rather than act in a thoughtless situational manner. Making use of the structure of the pastoral concept in supervision can also be very useful at the time of the pastoral workers' professional beginnings, when the workers are looking for their own style of work and need a framework to support them in their practice. If we make use of this manner of work in supervision work with a group, the encounter with different attitudes and reflections of others will certainly be of invaluable benefit to all concerned.

Conclusion
This study introduced some specific aspects of pastoral supervision issuing from the need for theological appreciation of the content of the work and worldview of the supervised persons.
In a follow-up to this topic it was considered in the text how theological reflection of pastoral activity can be conceived in supervision. The first model shown was Baumgartner's proposal to reflect pastoral work in the supervision process through the lens of the basic operations of the Church. As a new model of guiding reflection, this study introduced supervision work making use of the structure of pastoral concept, which enables a complex, theologically grounded view of the pastoral worker's activity. To what extent these proposals can be made use of in practice remains up to the competence of the supervisor and the abilities of the person supervised. The supervisor bears responsibility for the structure of the supervision conversation and guides this process with respect to the possibilities and requirements of the person supervised.
In some countries supervision has already become an integral part of the professional development of priests, catechists and pastoral workers. Workers encounter it both as part of their professional preparation and in performing their profession. In our milieu supervision in the sphere of pastoral care is encountered by students of theological faculties as part of their study practice and it is further employed primarily in organizations linking pastoral and social work (charity facilities, hospices, low-threshold facilities). It is appropriate that supervision is expected also in the demanding work of hospital chaplain. This contribution can bring us to the following questions: If we perceive supervision in the sphere of pastoral care as justified, what can we do to enable its development in our milieu? How can we help that supervision of pastoral workers be a space of theological reflection? What do I as pastoral worker expect of supervision and what can I gain? How can supervision help me find myself with my faith in my profession?