In his guest editorial in the Winter 1997 issue of the Journal of Pastoral Care, and especially in his Society presentation in 1997 in which he elaborated on his theme, Professor Rodney Hunter (1997, pp. 373-375, 1998, pp. 15-27) challenged us to recognize that the way we teach pastoral care and counseling has contributed to the weakening of strong and vital religious communities. He stated that "most of our care and counseling proceeds internally as if communities of religious commitment do not exist or are irrelevant to (or even obstructive of) our work." Hunter took issue with postmodernist apologists who decry "committed community," and declare it to be impossible and forever vanished from postindustrial civilization. His regret that "durable religious communities . . . as a defining context for much pastoral care giving seem to be marginalized, even absent," was tempered by his knowledge of the many religious communities "that endure and even flourish with healing and life-enhancing power amid the tempest of our times" (Hunter, 1997, p. 373).