Abstract:
The focus of this study was on traumatic suicide attempt due to lack of
remuneration to the clergy by the church: a pastoral care perspective. The
assumption was that no one in the church took responsibility of caring for
clergy families. Trauma referred to a spiritual wound in the soul of humankind
and it is a spiritual event when humankind was experiencing loss of faith, loss
of hope, loss of trust, loss of meaning, loss of innocence and when the spiritual
wound was being healed spiritually. Suicide was defined as purely personal act
that appeared to be entirely the outcome of the extreme personal unhappiness of
the minister who as a result of non-payment of their stipend by the church. The
operational framework of research methodology included: the research design,
literature review and interviews; data collection method and data analysis and
interpretation. The Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa belongs to the Reformed family of the Protestant churches. In this project, semi-structured
scheduled interview open-ended Questions were designed to allow interviewers
free movement. The concluding chapter dealt with research findings and
recommendations to the church.
