HTML last revised 26 February, 2003.This paper offers a review of Pastoral Care with Montserratians who relocated to the UK as a result of the Montserrat volcanic disaster. It is motivated by the comments of sixty participants in qualitative interviews and focus group discussions (evacuees) conducted in Birmingham and London during 1997 to 1998. The comments were a part of my investigation of the psychosocial effects and coping with the disaster, and relocation to the UK.
The paper discusses firstly the religious meaning Montserratians have attributed to the volcanic disaster and relocation. Secondly, it reviews programmes offered by two Montserratian-led Pentecostal churches (United Evangelical Church Birmingham and Dalston New Life Assembly London) in the context of definitions of Pastoral Care presented by African and Caribbean Theologians. Lastly, it discusses the extent to which a distinct Pastoral Care approach has emerged from the Montserratian experience.
The terror, disruptive but awesome beauty of volcanic eruptions as well as the indomitable ability for survival, displayed by people who experience such events are well rehearsed. Goma in Central Africa (2002) is a recent example where the will of people to carry on life despite the harsh realities imposed by nature has been illustrated. Seven years earlier on July 18th 1995, Montserrat witnessed the onset of the now internationally publicised eruptions of its Soufriere Hills Volcano. Within seven years the ferocity of the eruptions and the socio-economic disruption that they brought have forced the majority of the original twelve thousand or so population to leave their homeland. A substantial number of these (approximately six thousand) relocated to the UK under the British Governments Voluntary Evacuation Scheme designed in 1996 as part of the volcano relief package. Although there has been a constant trickle back, the reality that Montserratian communities will inhabit many spaces of the globe whilst remaining loyal to their volcano-transforming island origin is now more readily accepted.
International coverage of natural disasters such as these also clarifies the contention that, although nature is implicated as a cause of such events, the political, social, economic and spiritual context, in which they occur and are construed or managed, determines their impact on people. More explicitly, the traditional perception of a natural disaster is that it is an act of God. Indeed, an event that is beyond human control (Rochford and Blocker, 1991). But current perceptions of natural disasters suggest human causation (Anderson and Woodrow, 1989, Anderson, 1994, Barnes, 2000). There is the view that countries and communities with political, economic, social and spiritual capacities and/or resources to manage a natural occurrence can avert it becoming a disaster. For it only becomes one when the resources of the community or country are outstripped. Anderson and Woodrow (1989) point this out from their work in the Bangladesh floods, observing that poor communities that are physically and materially vulnerable to natural disaster are able to minimise the impact if they have strong religious beliefs and social support systems. Pennebaker (1990) confirms this notion from research with survivors of varied traumatic events including the California earthquake and the Holocaust. Whiteman Browne's (1985) book on the "The Christena Disaster in Retrospect" verifies that the reliance on religious beliefs in coping with disaster distress is within Caribbean experience. He noted from interviews with survivors this maritime disaster that: "If a survey was done to ascertain what gave Nevisians and Kittitians most help through the Christena experience the conclusion would be God and Christianity" (p. 45). I have also found such evidence in my analysis of Montserratian "God Talk" about the volcanic disaster and relocation to the UK (Barnes, 2000).
Still within the Caribbean context but aside from natural and transport disaster Antiguan Theologian Kortright Davis (1990) elaborates on the deeply theistic nature of Caribbean people confirming not only their reliance on God in the presence of destructive natural forces but also in dealing with shifting political, socio-economic circumstances. Similarly, a reliance on religious beliefs in coping with relocation, displacement and racial tensions was found among post-war migrant African/Caribbean communities in the UK. Black Theologians in the UK such as Beckford (1998), Reddie (1998, 2002), Toppin (2002) point to the fact that these communities survived the harsh racial and cultural challenges entailed in migrating through reliance on God and identification with the church. Indeed 60% of all church members in London are black (Brierley, 2002 pp. 133-44).
Specific mention was made earlier of the deeply theistic nature of Caribbean people (Browne, 1985, Davis, 1990, Barnes, 2000). So too was their (Montserratian) inclination towards "God Talk" or what Lartey (1998) noted as the inclination of African people to narrate their personal theology or understanding of God in relationship to themselves, others and all phenomena. My research (Barnes, 2000) on the meaning of the volcanic disaster revealed that Montserratians perceive God to be ever present and ever helpful in the midst of challenges and tragedies of the disaster and relocation:
In all the problems God has been Good to us...When you look back you can see the power of God in the midst of this and how he is helping us (Senior Civil Servant, mid-thirties, April 1998).
We are a Christian Society and we believe in the almighty all powerful God who is everywhere and knows everything. Because we know this we just rely on his will. He knows what is best for us (Relocated female, accountant, age 37, August 1997).
These statements indicate reliance on God and certitude about positive outcomes of disaster and relocation experiences "in spite" of the negative circumstances. It is this level of hopefulness, faith, and intention to survive in the face of great odds, that has led Phillip Potter (1983) to refers to Caribbean people as "the great in spite of" (p. 40). Davis (1990) remarks accordingly that Caribbean people are not easily intimidated, even by the forces of nature.
Approximately five thousand (5000) Montserratians have responded to the British Government's Voluntary Evacuation Scheme established in 1996 shortly after the onset of the volcanic crisis. The majority of this number relocated to cities such as Preston, Leicester, London and Birmingham where post-war Montserratian migrants settled. Initially, the Scheme required evacuees to provide their air fares as well as stay with friends or family until they could be settled into Government housing, Social Security Benefits, schools and so forth. The controversies surrounding the inadequacies of this provision and the burden for economic and social support that it placed on hosts have been documented (House of Commons International Committee First Report 1997-1998, Barnes, 2000, 2001). It was not until 1997, that a Home Office funded Montserrat Project was established to provide basic advice and support to arriving evacuees. Even then many evacuees continued to rely on the support of friends and family in handling themselves in the UK environment. In some instances the expectation and demand for support led to the souring of relationships, even the abandonment of contact where hosts were thought to be less than generous or evacuees too exacting (Barnes, 2000 p. 244). The State, family and church were expected to provide high levels of support, where they failed to satisfy expectations evacuees harboured strong feelings of disappointment.
Experiences such as these are not peculiarly Montserratian for the dynamics of "perceived" and "received" support in disaster and relocation has been well documented (Kaniasty and Norris, 1993, 1995). Typically, in disasters where expectations of support exceeded that which was received, it often resulted in anger, disappointment and hostility. However, the value of "perceived" and "received" support are contained in the mere thought that support is available and the majority of evacuees reported that they had reliable family and community support but some were critical of the quality of the support. For instance, there was criticism of the type of support offered by some churches as seen in the following examples:
The preacher came out and welcomed us but the other people and them are not nice like people back home (Relocated butcher, mid-sixties, London 1997).
I don't think that the Church here understands. Although they are from the Caribbean they have been here for many years and seem not to understand (Community Leader, mid-forties, London 1998).
I find that a lot of them will enquire about my physical state but I wish somebody will just ask what is happening with us emotionally (Community Leader, mid-forties, London, 1998).
These three statements provide insight into how evacuees might be, perceiving themselves in relationship to other Caribbean people in the UK. There is certainly an expression of difference and sentiment of being misunderstood that has implications for the provision of care and support. It appears that Montserratian evacuees are expecting churches in the UK to understand and express sensitivity to their needs according to the cultural and disaster context from which they came.
For African Caribbean culture in the UK is dominantly Jamaican and beyond that a large influx of one cultural group into a community will challenge the existing culture. Thus Black culture has been changed with the arrival for example of Somalian and other refugee groups. The Montserratian evacuee presence in the British Black Majority Churches, like that of the other newly arriving groups, poses challenges to existing Pastoral Care provision because of their "otherness". Academics tend to refer to the other as that which is separate from and distinct to the cultural and social norms pertaining to a particular context. In the case of Montserratians generally, they bring to the British Black cultural landscape, a small-island, colonial, mid-nineteen nineties, major disaster survivor culture that is different from those whose presence in the UK originated in post-war migration. The tag of evacuee also distinguishes them from current day political and economic refugees, or asylum seekers, as evacuation connotes temporary resettlement in a crisis. The perception that relocating Montserratians have of themselves as compared to any label that they might be given should not be taken for granted as they may construe their presence in the UK in a variety of ways. Thus the work of the Church and their Pastoral Care Practitioners in a complex situation such as this challenges them to delve deep into the 'hiddenness' of Montserratian identity and experience.
Ghanian Theologian Emmanuel Lartey (1997 p. 5) declares that: "that at the heart of the 'hiddenness' of Pastoral Care is love." A charge to love and care is at the centre of Christianity and other religious traditions. In Christian terms God is the "Good Shepherd" whose sacrificial love ensures the total well being of the sheep (John 10: 17-18). Likewise Christians are called to love God, themselves and others. The charge to Peter illustrates this instruction to care. Jesus questioned Peter three times about his love for him, following which he asked him to feed his sheep (John 21: 15-17).
Definitions of Pastoral Care advanced by Western Theologians in the 1960s and seventies when academic views of this field were in their infancy appeared to interpret this injunction to care as a ministry of the curing of souls (McNeil, 1977). A standard definition emerging out of the 1960s suggests that Pastoral Care constitute:
Helping acts done by representative Christian persons, directed towards the healing, sustaining, guiding and reconciling of troubled persons whose troubles arise in the context of ultimate meaning and concern (Clebsch and Jaekle, 1967).
In the 1980s Allistair Campbell (1987) presented the more wide-ranging opinion that it is the aspect of church ministry concerned with the well being of both individual and community.
African American Theologian Edward Wimberly (1979) suggests from his work in the Black Church that Pastoral Care is the "bringing to bear upon persons and families in crises the total caring resources of the church" (p. 18). All of these definitions identify a problem-centred approach reflective of the Western education philosophies and therapeutic approaches of the time. However, Wimberly's definition moves beyond healing acts to suggesting that the total caring resources of the church should be directed to Pastoral Care. By the 1990s he noted succinctly in his book on "African American Pastoral Care", that healing, sustaining, guiding and reconciling are its fundamentals a view that was advanced earlier by Clebsch and Jaekle (Wimberly 1991, p. 16).
Another set of views are presented by African and Caribbean theologians who have focused upon contextual theorising and practice of Pastoral Care. In this regard Lartey's (1997) brilliant book on an "Intercultural Approach to Pastoral Care" highlights the fact that African pastoral practitioners have sought to relate Pastoral Care activities to the contextual realities that they deal with (p. 4). They have done so firstly by integrating Western theories and practices with traditional beliefs and practices. Secondly, Lartey indicates that practitioners such as Masamba ma Mpolo of Zaire and Abraham Berinyuu have moved beyond integration in identifying distinctly African Pastoral Care practices based on core beliefs, and culturally relevant interpretations of experiences. Grounds for a similarly contextual approach to Pastoral Care in the Caribbean has been established in the work of for example of Phillip Potter (1985) who expounded on a practical theology fixed in community or fellowship rooted in the:
...Encounter of theos, God, the word revealed in scripture and especially in the word made flesh in Christ, and logos, the words of the people, through the harsh realities in which a people lives, and their anguished cries (cited in Jagessar 2000, p. 73).
Evidently, concepts of Pastoral Care are varied but it is from the African, African American, and Caribbean epistemological lens that I seek to interpret the Pastoral Care initiatives of the United Evangelical Church and Dalston New Life Assembly.
The United Evangelical Church of Victoria Road Aston in Birmingham (Victoria Road) has a mainly but not exclusively Montserration congregation. Many members originate in the Long Ground Community, as is most of the post-war migrant Montserratians who reside in Aston. The church is an example of the Black Churches that were planted by migrants in the 1950s and 1960s as means of maintaining community and cultural ties. The Pastoral Care provided to arriving Montserratain evacuees is therefore built on this idea of maintaining community cohesion and support.
The loneliness, difficulties and triumph of post-war Caribbean migrants and their descendants in the UK have been extensively documented (Phillips and Phillips 1998). Some of these difficulties in acquiring housing and other services in the fifties and sixties have been experienced by Montserratian evacuees. It was sensitivity to these, and an understanding of the ash dusted realities of the newly arriving Montserratian that motivated the leadership of the United Evangelical Church Aston into lobbying the Birmingham City Council for housing and other essential facilities for their resettlement. Lartey (1997) informs us that having a motive is one of the essentials of Pastoral Care.
The sanctuary of Victoria Road was turned into a Housing Clinic and Advice Centre through which City Council professionals could reach the arriving evacuees. Victoria Road had acted then with human concern, another essential of Pastoral Care.
The kind of action taken is also important and in this case it was action based on kinship and understanding of the political, social and emotional reality of being a new comer in a racist society. The action of Victoria Road could be seen as an attempt to cushion evacuees from the systematic distresses imposed on the uprooted who attempt to access basic support in (a new community or country) the UK. Within the safe environment of the church, the anguished cries of recently arrived Montserratians for housing, furnishings, jobs, schools and fellowship were heard.
It was also about the cementing of a broken community: the action encouraged the bonding of the broken communities of Montserrat post-war migrant and evacuee within the borders of the UK that separated them in the first place. This idea of cementing 'broken community' features greatly in Phillip Potter's theology with his emphasis on fellowship and 'the house of the living stones' (Jagessar 2000, p. 71). Montserratians are strongly communitarian therefore the Victoria Road Church has embarked upon a model of Pastoral Care that struck at the core of their "all awi a one" culture. The speed and accuracy with which they were able to do this is no doubt based on a shared understanding of this belief. In this instance the "perceived" and "received" support dynamic was more harmonious than that which was illustrated earlier in the paper where evacuees who attended non-Montserratian churches perceived deficiencies in the welcome given and understanding of their needs.
The disadvantages that a complete "outsider" has in uncovering the truth in a situation where there is no shared history of an experience has been established in Black Feminist Research methodology. Patricia Hill Collins (1991) identifies the value of an "insider" research position suggesting that black women researchers within a particular context will have shared history with other black women similarly situated and therefore should create the safety and bonds that will encourage authentic participation. I contend that this notion of an "insider" relationship, although limited by the differences in outlook of the evacuee and the post-war Montserratian migrant, is essential in explaining the motives and success of the Pastoral Care offered at Victoria Road.
Additional evidence of the value of shared or "insider" experience in creating sensitive and appropriate Pastoral Care within the context of the volcanic disaster and relocation experience was found in the work of the Dalston New Life Assembly in London (Sunday attendance averages 200) where the Pastor is an evacuee. She is a renowned and respected religious leader, who has made contributions to 'grass root counselling' on the streets and in shelters in Montserrat. For her, creating a 'safe' and 'inclusive' space within a 'church without walls' where fellow evacuees can express their authentic selves is a primary motive. Having experienced tremendous difficulties with housing, and listened to similar stories about various aspects of the relocation experience from compatriots, she focused the attention of the church on providing around the clock support for evacuees within and outside her congregation. Deeply entrenched denominational boundaries were jettisoned as Catholics, Methodists, Anglicans and Pentecostals bonded into a disaster transcending community. Indeed, transcendence is one of the essential elements of Pastoral Care (Lartey, 1997).
So the idea that there is more to the volcanic disaster and relocation experiences than meets the eye and that God is working mysteriously on the needs of everyone in this situation has also motivated the work at Dalston New Life. Consequently emphasis was given to two other essential elements of Pastoral Care mentioned by Lartey. These are preventing/fostering acts and multiple forms of communication.
Pastoral Care is often seen as relief or a means to reduce distress in crisis but Lartey argues that, while it is important to value this component, emphasis should also be given to the educational and fostering elements. This is a preventive and empowering approach adopted by the Dalston New Life Assembly where evacuees are encouraged and supported into various levels of education and training so as to minimise the distress of unemployment. The majority of post-secondary aged as well as adults (approximately 80% of the 200 strong congregation) have gone into Further or Higher Education.
Vigorous participation in Education and training was made possible for all evacuees through the British Government Education Award Scheme established in December 1997 for evacuees. In addition to this Scheme the Church has funded the training of twelve people in a Diploma in Pastoral Counselling and Theological Studies. The Pastor is also pursuing a Masters in Theological Studies and Counselling Training at her own expense. Similar support and attention is given to the educational progress of children in recognition the need to insulate them from the much-debated controversial issues of the underachievement of African children in UK schools. Pragmatically, the church positioned evacuee teachers within the congregation to make supplementary school interventions, and organised a series of speakers to present on a variety of parenting, youth and education topics. Additionally, it has a member who represents as (a father figure) children who were evacuated into the care of friends.
The eager uptake of education opportunities by the youth and adult population at Dalston New Life acts to encourage others as the church prays actively for their success and reports their progress to the congregation who respond with applause and celebration. The fellowship maintains the view that success of any evacuee amounts to success for the entire Montserrat community, given the degree of loss that has been encountered. I have had personal experience of this solidarity at my Oral Examination for the PhD where two sisters and the Pastor positioned themselves in my study room praying as I defended my thesis, after which they chatted with one examiner so that they could feed this back to the congregation. I am not a member of the Dalston New Life Assembly but the support accorded me at my viva and the party that they funded for my graduation could be described as fostering acts which they anticipate will encourage positive academic and career development for others in the community. It also demonstrates their idea of having a 'church without walls' allowing evacuees of any denomination and location in the UK to access support. For my contact with Dalston New life beyond their participation in the research was mainly through the telephone and Internet.
Multiple forms of communication have been used by both Dalston New Life Assembly and the Victoria Road Church, as there is sensitivity to the oral, dance, music, sport, and food fellowship of the culture. A male and female Support Group was established at Dalston from my research to facilitate the sharing of faith stories about the disaster and relocation. These groups were also designed to allow the healing, sustaining, guiding and reconciling that is important in Pastoral Care (Clebsch and Jaekle 1967, Wimberly 1991, p. 16). Participants use the safety of these groups to re-evaluate their beliefs, feelings, thoughts and actions relating to the disaster and their relocation. The groups were taught a Peer counselling process that encouraged oral as well as non-verbal expression of distresses.
Victoria Road tried to arrive at a similar outcome through encouraging creative writing, the production of skits and concerts. Both congregations hold banquets, outings, as well as participating with another Montserrat-led church in an annual Sports Day. The process of reconciliation and the cementing of the post-war migrant and evacuee communities into a Montserratian community within UK are evident on this sporting occasion where competitiveness gives way to acknowledgement of the overall display of Montserratian talent and abilities. The expression that "all awi a Montserratian so me no kay who win" is often heard. Thus it appears that deep in the 'hiddenness' of Pastoral Care with evacuees is the desire to sustain a Montserrat community and identity.
The volcanic disaster and displacement of Montserratians have exposed capacities to devise creative crisis responses that are true of people everywhere but the small-island close-knit community culture of Montserrat offers some interesting if not unique variations. I posed this point of view in an earlier article on "Stress Bussin' or Counselling in the Montserrat Volcanic Disaster" (Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies, 2001). One of my arguments then was that those who experience a disaster or crisis can come up with their own appropriate ways to deal with their distresses and that they will more readily participate in programmes of this nature than in formalised counselling and stress management.
There is the need for further empirical exploration of this idea but the Pastoral Care practices of Victoria Road and Dalston New Life Assembly disclose some evidence of the distinctive nature of this work with people of a shared culture, disaster and displacement experiences. For instance the communal and family centred nature of Montserratian society as well as its oral traditions. It seems that credence must be given to the place of the "insider" to such experiences in determining and providing interventions. However, there are advantages to be gained from studying and interpreting approaches developed by "insiders" in the light of the emerging literature on Pastoral Care. For it is only in this way that the uniqueness or otherness of Montserratian interventions can be determined.
Faith stories about the ever protective and providing nature of God are evident in the meaning that Montserratians give to the volcanic disaster and their relocation to the UK. It is not surprising then that that the church is relied on too for support and Pastoral Care. However, the apprehensions that they express about the appropriateness of support and/or Pastoral Care provided in churches that are not Montserrat-led, indicates the need for the use of culturally and politically sensitive approaches by such. The ability of the Montserratian-led churches to provide appropriate care validates the significance of "insider" knowledge and leadership in this process. This has implications for the designing of disaster counselling and crisis management programmes. Finally it can be concluded that the Pastoral Care provided by the Montserratian-led churches fits the definitions and essential features of shepherding laid down by African Theologians of the continent and Diaspora reviewed in this paper. However, the activities at Victoria Road and Dalston New Life were not only centred on placing the full resources of the church at the disposal of its people in a crisis, it was also about acting politically to ensure that the needs of a dispossessed community are met. Their emphasis on the cementing of the Montserrat communities within the borders of the UK, the promotion of a positive Montserratian identity, as well as the idea of reaching out from a 'church without walls' constitute a unique if not indigenous approach to Pastoral Care.
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