The Australian Journal of Pastoral Care and Health has evolved out of Ministry Society and Theology (MST)which ceased in 2006 after an awesome 18 years of publication. MST began when Stephen Ames and Paul Dalzell got together to produce a journal which would serve the needs of Chaplaincy and those involved in clinical Pastoral Education. Previously, there had been a once a year journal called The Australian Chaplain and an assumption that ‘Australians don’t write about their work.’ Apart from these founding members, the voluntary organisers and editorial committee of MST, over the years, has comprised: Bruce Rumbold, Andy Calder, Ron Davoren, Ross Fishburn, Nan Good, Graeme Griffin, Ilsa Hampton, Colin Hunter, Jan Morgan, Emil Neven, John Paver, Roger Prowd, Bill Ray, Ilsa Hampton, Pia Sim, Ian Williams and Millicent Easter. They have been congratulated and commended for their outstanding and long-serving contributions to the field.

The publication of Australian Journal of Pastoral Care and Health, the successor of MST has been developed under the auspice of the HealthCare Chaplaincy Council of Victoria Inc (HCCVI) and sponsored by HCCVI, the Australian Health and Welfare Chaplains Associations (AHWCA) and the Association for Supervised Pastoral Education in Australia (ASPEA). The Editorial Board consists of representatives from these three organizations:

The new biannual ejournal was established to create dialogue amongst pastoral carers, chaplains, spiritual carers and other health care providers in Australia. It aims to promote professional practice, education, research, spiritual development and advocacy in pastoral care and chaplaincy in healthcare and other community settings.