"The pastoral community represents a large and often untapped resource in times of crisis. It possesses a unique aggregation of characteristics that makes it uniquely valuable amidst the turmoil of a psychological crisis.... the pastoral community may possess especially powerful restorative attributes.... This paper represents an initial effort to elucidate how the principles of pastoral care may be functionally integrated with those of crisis intervention." reads a Spring 2000 NIMH paper on "Pastoral Crisis Intervention". Since September 11, 2001 lines between private "pastoral crisis intervention" efforts and official government disaster relief operations have become increasingly blurred as , and a sensationalized Louisiana television station report asserting that "clergy response teams" played a role in pacifying the population of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina has raised questions about the evolving realm of religiously based disaster relief. It is not clear that "Christ In Action" (described later in this report) or other privately organized "pastoral crisis intervention" efforts are receiving federal, state, or local government funds, but some of these efforts are at the very least receiving government encouragement and what could be reasonably construed as government endorsement.

At this early stage there are far more questions, on the evolving realm of "pastoral crisis intervention", than answers but the character of some of the efforts under that rubric is clear. As "Christ In Action" volunteer Gail Ritter who was working with the g