What makes supervision pastoral? An overview of supervision for ministers

I was recently running a Pastoral Supervision Skills course for ministers, ordained and lay. The major concern for the participants as the course began was to know what is meant by the term “pastoral supervision”. We started by exploring the group’s experience of giving and receiving supervision of different kinds. The two course facilitators then did a demonstration of a pastoral supervision session. This was not a role-play, it was a live supervision using a real live piece of ministry the supervisee wanted to explore. We invited the group to observe the session and feed back to us, what they saw/noticed, what they wondered and what they realised as they observed the supervision taking place.

* Full article available in printed copies.

Diane Clutterbuck

Presbyter of the British Methodist Church who lives in Belfast, ministering through coaching, supervision and spiritual accompaniment, also providing training in coaching and pastoral supervision skills and Action Learning facilitation.