A pastor is “among symbols, as a symbol” (1). “In a society often starved for meaningful symbolic practice, the pastor may . . . discover that she or he is the only keeper of communal symbols in sight. Many people may turn to the pastor for a few appropriate words in a time of need or change, for a shared ritual on an occasion of loss, or for counsel on a rite of human passage when . . . the group discovers it has lost whatever rites it once had and does not know where to begin. Sometimes, on such an occasion, just the presence of the pastor may seem enough: the pastor then is the symbol – for mystery, for wider connection, for a barely remembered past, perhaps for good, most likely for God” (4).
-Gordon Lathrop’s The Pastor: A Spirituality
