Who cares? Pastoral care in Dutch Protestant Parishes

Pastoral care in parishes is a rather “silent” religious practice. As a result, data regarding the quantity and quality of regular pastoral care in local churches is scarce. To address this deficiency, we added several questions about pastoral care and support to the Church Life Survey and then carried out the survey with church attenders (N = 2,854) from 30 Dutch Protestant parishes. [...] This study reveals a wide range of quantitative and qualitative insights into the frequency and quality of pastoral care as a religious practice, a practice that is not often discussed but which is of great importance to church attenders and is now a practice that is being given a voice through data.

教区内的牧灵关怀乃是一项颇为‘静谧’的宗教实践。鉴于此，有关当地教堂中常规牧灵关怀的数量与质量的数据颇为稀缺。为弥补这一不足，我们在教会生活调查中增补了关于牧灵关怀与支持的若干问题，随后对来自30个荷兰新教教区的2,854名教堂出席者进行了调查。[...] 本项研究揭示了关于牧灵关怀作为一种宗教实践之频率与质量的广泛定量与定性洞察，此项实践虽鲜见论及，但对教会信徒而言却至关重要，如今，借助数据，这一实践终于得到了发声的机会。