1 Theological Reflection: Reflections on the challenges of using the pastoral cycle in a faith-based organisation BIAPT Conference, Chester, 10-12 July 2012 Dr Helen Cameron Research Fellow, Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology Ripon College Cuddesdon ORCID: 0000-0003-3888-5759 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon my experience of using the pastoral cycle with colleagues in the UK Headquarters of The Salvation Army. I am attempting to hold myself to account for the aspirations I shared in my plenary presentation at last year’s BIAPT. For new readers, I have been for the last 22 months the Head of Public Affairs for The Salvation Army. That role involves promoting and defending the work of the organisation in the political and policy sphere in the interests of greater social justice for those we serve. I come to this role from fifteen years working as an academic in practical theology. I accepted the new role with a stated commitment to help The Salvation Army, which is both a denomination and a large service-providing charity sound genuinely faith-based in its public pronouncements. In this paper I want to rehearse three experiences that have been influential on my approach and then describe the joys and challenges of doing theological reflection with colleagues. Then I will evaluate what I have done using ideas presented in last year’s plenary. Finally I will draw some conclusions about the way forward. Influences on my approach In this section I will talk about three experiences that have been influential in my approach to theological reflection. Very happily each of them involves BIAPT colleagues and so it will be a pleasure to acknowledge their hard work as I proceed. Faith-Based Facilitation (Judith Thompson) I have long felt that if theological reflection is not built into the ordinary working practices of individual ministers and faith-based organisations it will never take root and so retain the status of ‘something we learned at college’. An opportunity to embed the pastoral cycle came when I was approached by Major Dean Pallant who works at the International Headquarters of The Salvation Army and was at that time reviewing the health ministry of The Salvation Army across the world but in particular in South Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa. He was concerned that international development work and those who fund it had built a secular individualistic world view that left little room for faith in the planning and evaluation of development projects. He invited me as Director of OxCEPT to work with him to look at how practice in facilitating development work could be