This first descriptive report on the perspectives, experiences, and actions of clergy relative to
terminal patients and their families details a highly emotionally charged complex of
interactions. Some 276 clerics from fourteen different bodies provided information on their
involvement in death-work, spiritual and personal resources, satisfactions and doubts,
pastoral goals and purposes, and their background and outlooks regarding their own
demise. Implications of these findings are explored with respect to various forms and …