REVIEWS

PASTORAL CARE IN PRACTICE

An Introduction and Guide

Written by: Michael Hopkins Published by: Canterbury Press (also available as an ebook) Price: £14.99

The author, a minister of the United Reformed Church, is clear that this is not ‘how to do pastoral care’, but rather ‘because I want to do better myself and I want to encourage others to do better’.

Hopkins draws on his long experience of ministry and of preparing others for ministry and lay preaching to offer encouragement of the exploration of pastoral care and its importance.

It opens with an exploration of the biblical roots of care and also highlights the importance of self-care in order to care for others.

This is also a hugely practical guide too – setting the context of pastoral visiting and covering areas such as safeguarding and context.

It offers thoughts on the definition of visits and considers caring for families and sick people but also covers visiting in difficult situations.

Each chapter ends with questions for personal reflection or discussion with others and a helpful prayer to use is also offered.

The book would be useful for anyone seeking to learn more about the skills needed for pastoral visiting but also hoping to learn why it is such a key part of church life in all denominations.

The premise of the book is perhaps best summed up by a paragraph in the final chapter: ‘If we look around, in church, in our families, in our community, we see the wounded, the sick, the lonely, the hungry, the thirst and the depressed. If we are able to reach out with our wounds to heal their wounds, we may just see the face of Christ and realise that we are healing the wounds of Christ. What you do for them, you also do for him.’

BIGGER AND WILDER

Life, loss and learning to be a pilgrim

Written by: Jill Baker Published by: Sacristy Press Price: £14.99

As a Methodist (the wife of a Methodist minister and a former President of Methodist Women in Britain), this book is written from a Methodist perspective, but has fascinating insights and draws many parallels with journeys in both the Old and New Testament in showing the transformative power of pilgrimage.

Whilst not dwelling on the moment which pushed the author to discover and participate in pilgrimage, the book is also intensely personal – it was the unexpected suicide of her 18-year-old son in 2012 which was the catalyst for the initial journey into pilgrimage and the deeper discovery of its healing power – and the parallels which can be found throughout the Bible.

Baker traces the routes of pilgrimage across the UK – drawing on influences including Ninian, Columba and Cuthbert. Whilst written with Methodism in mind, the book has a wider audience in creating deeper understanding of pilgrimage and how it can offer fresh insights and healing – and demonstrate the love of God.

She movingly describes the ‘bolt of lightning’ moment when she realised faith would not provide an easy answer, but rather ‘God’s grace and only God’s grace’.

This is perhaps best summed up in an introduction written by Baker: ‘The God who is both bigger and wilder than I had previously realised still beckons us to join the journey which may be inward, outward, or both, and to discover discipline and liberation in the pilgrim life.’

THOMAS TORRANCE, CHINA AND THE QIANG

Life in early 20th century Chengdu and mong the Qiang of Western Sichuan

Written by: Rachel Meakin Published by: Handsel Press Price: £15

The life of Thomas Torrance – grandfather of the Very Rev Prof Sir Iain Torrance and his siblings – and the family’s pioneering life in China is well-known.

This weighty new study of Torrance’s life as a missionary in the late 19th century and early 20th century and, in particular, his engagement with the Qiang people of western Sichuan is the focus of this 400-plus page volume which is essentially a biography of Torrance’s life with a particular focus on his time in China, offering insights in the demise of Qing dynasy, the turbulent Republic period and the rise of Communism.

The bookwas written by Meakin at the invitation of David Torrance, Sir Iain’s uncle, who visited China in 2012 with his daughter Grace and accompanied by the author. It was, she says, in an introduction, David Torrance’s first visit to China ‘since his family’s hurried departure in 1927’. Meakin was engaged in a study of the Qiang people and by the end of the trip had been invited to write a biography of Thomas Torrance, who was born near Shotts in 1871. He and his family were missionaries in China until the family returned home and he returned to continue work alone until coming home in the 1930s.

What emerges from the book is a fascinating story of not just Victorian Christian mission but of a tumultuous time in the history of China.

Meticulously researched, thanks to the generosity of the Torrance family in granting access to family papers, the book offers insights into a fascinating time, both for the Church and for China, with a focus on Torrance’s passion for mission and also for the bonds which grew with the Qiang people.

The book would appeal to anyone interested in Christian overseas mission or the social history of the region retold thanks to the private papers of Torrance.

Lynne McNeil