Towards a holistic narrative-hermenuetical premarital counselling model for couples in an African context: URCSA congregation as a case study

Abstract

In 1994 South Africa elected its new democratic government and that brought about change politically, economically, and socially. The political change brought about new transformation that saw people in the society in particular woman being given new opportunities to participate equally in economy like any South African. With the dawn of democracy there is an alarming high rate of divorce in South Africa. According to Statistics of South Africa (2013,) since the dawn of democracy the high rate of divorce is amongst black couples. Taylor (1994:184-185) adds that the number of “church” marriages is decreasing with the church. These alarmingly high rate of divorce in South Africa, has disrupted normal lives of couples, families and impacts negatively on the lives of children. Marriage is highly regarded in Africa. Today, it is unusual to find people who have not experienced divorce and/or been affected by its pain, whether in their own lives or in the lives of someone close to them. The goal of this study was to find an integrated, pertinent model of premarital pastoral care that could be used within the framework of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). The study seeks to answer this key question: How can a URCSA congregation contribute to facilitate sustainable marriage partnerships among its members through a premarital preparation programme that assists couple to build sustainable marriage journeys. This study was conducted through the lenses of the two theoretical frameworks, namely Osmer’s practical theology which is contextual in theory and URCSA Belhar Confession of 1986. The study used a qualitative descriptive approach and has two parts. In the first part, relevant literature which relates to pre-counselling (premarital counselling), marriage preparation, divorce, pastoral care and practical theology is reviewed. The second is empirical research that is qualitative in nature. This implies that the researcher undertook fieldwork investigation to gather more information from participants. Following a review of the literature and an analysis of the participant voices, this study suggests a comprehensive narrative-hermeneutical premarital therapy model for African couples. During the study 18 participants were interviewed, some still married, some separated and some divorced, within a Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa congregation based in Northern Synod Region in Pretoria, Gauteng Province. Analysis of the research findings shows that since most of the participants did not undergo the premarital counselling the experienced challenges in the following areas namely: conflict management, family versus extended family, failure to develop vision and mission for the family, management of financial matters, intimacy issues and family planning, and communication management in marriage. In order to promote greater marital stability, establish a strong marriage foundation, and prevent or lessen the potentially high rate of divorces, this dissertation concludes by proposing a practical premarital counselling program based on the narrative-hermeneutical approach.