The Structure of Concern:The Ministry in Death-Related Situations
Abstract
The Structure of ConcernThe Ministry in Death-Related Situations SAGE Publications, Inc.1975DOI: 10.1177/089124167500400308 Juanita Wood University of California, Davis Her major interests are in social interaction, collective behavior and medical sociology. THIS REPORT is an examination of how ministers fulfill that part of their role encompassing death work; how the minister as death worker functions. More concretely, the report entails a close examination of one component of ministerial death work which the ministers feel is important: the expression of concern. For those ministers studied, the dying or grief situation was viewed as serious, as problematic, and as in need of management. Death situations elicit concern and, in turn, are situations in which one expresses concern. These death workers feel the expression of concern is a necessary element of the death worker role. One minister relates his first priority upon entering a death scene: "I think first of all you have to show compassion, that you care, and proceed from there with some kind of counsel from the scriptures." It is a working assumption that, when someone is dying or grieving, others should be concerned and that this concern is helpful: "then just the idea of recognizing that, just showing