A unique part-time doctoral programme offers those involved in pastoral care a chance to explore the theories underpinning the practice of their professions, as Zoë Bennett explains Eleven years ago, a group of practical theologians began to ask why so many people did really well in master’s programmes in pastoral, contextual or applied theology, but then stopped their research. We realised there must be hundreds of people– Cafod workers, clergy, teachers, psychologists, to name but a few – who were serving Church and society and might be interested in doing research linked to their work. For many, the traditional PhD, especially part-time, was too lonely and time-consuming, separated as it could be from other people and from the researcher’s daytime job. And