PROFESSIONAL CHAPLAINCY

The 2011 Plenary of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy will be held March 27-30, 2011 at the Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel Virginia Beach VA. We are pleased to announce John Patton as the Plenary speaker. CPSP has a tradition of honoring and listening to the living patriarchs of the clinical pastoral community. John Patton is one of those living patriarchs. This will be his first time on the platform at a CPSP Plenary. We are honored to have him. John is Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia and a retired ACPE Supervisor. He has practiced as marriage and family therapist is the author of many books including: Is Human Forgiveness Possible , Pastoral Care in Context, Pastoral Care: An Essential Guide and From Ministry to Theology, Pastoral Action & Reflection. John is also an associate Editor of Abingdon’s Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling and a retired United Methodist minister. The room rate for t...

Representatives from the ACPE and CPSP met in Philadelphia on November 30, in an attempt to mediate their twenty-one year conflict. They used the services of JAMS, and in particular, retired federal court judge Diane Welsh who served as mediator. The results of this mediation exceeded our expectations, as you can see in the joint statement below. I want to thank the members of our delegation and to praise them for their wisdom and conciliatory posture. Our team consisted of Jim Gebhart and George Hankins-Hull who with me were mediators, as well as Perry Miller and Charles R. Hicks, our attorney, were also present and participated in the decision. (Our original six-person team of mediators and consultants was reduced to five with the death of John Edgerton.) On the ACPE side were Teresa Snorton, Sally Schwab, and Tim Thorstenson. If we succeed in living up to this agreement we will have marked a sea change in the clinical pastoral community. This will mean that ACPE and CPSP will conti...

Following the withdrawal of the Association of Professional Chaplains from the Spiritual Care Collaborative the National Association of Catholic Chaplains assumed management responsibilities for SCC. The SCC has yet to make a public announcement on its website as to the recent split in its organization. The SCC had initially made some big claims to effect a change in the Clinical Pastoral Care and Training movement and now the SCC itself is charged with lacking vision and being too costly.

The Spiritual Care Collaborative "has no specific goals, outcomes or joint projects in the horizon" "At its fall 2010 meeting, the APC Board of Directors passed the motion that the Association of Professional Chaplains withdraw from formal participation in the Spiritual Care Collaborative." The reasom given by APC's outging president, Sue Wintz, for the APC withdrawal is that "the SCC has no specific goals, outcomes or joint projects in the horizon. The APC board determined it was not a good use of organizational funds, or volunteer and staff resources, to continue to pay the yearly dues of SCC or participate in monthly conference calls." To read the full APC announcement follow the link below: Association of Professional Chaplains Discontinues Spiritual Care Collaborative Participation

When newly ‘minted’ Army Chaplain Pete Christian recently graduated in September 2010 from the US Army Chaplain Basic Course in Fort Jackson, North Carolina he also soon afterwards became the first CPSP CPE trained Army Chaplain to receive the US Army 7- Sierra clinical specialty designator for Chaplains who have successfully completed advance training and demonstrated clinical competence in healthcare ministry. Owing to a recent change in Army leadership and policy, CPSP CPE trained Army chaplains who have successfully completed their CPE training in a medical center/hospital are now eligible (just like ACPE trained Chaplains) to apply for this Army Chaplain Corps clinical specialty designator. Chaplain Christian completed his CPE training at the VA Medical Center, in Salt Lake City, Utah where his CPE Supervisor, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Allison, who is also the State Chaplain for the Utah National Guard, said “I am doubly pleased about this news and shift in Army policy…both for Pete...

More than five years ago, the Executive Director of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains, Cecille Asekoff had a dream of starting CPE in Israel. Rabbi Zahara Davidowitz has fulfilled that dream by supervising CPE for the past four summers through the Schechter Seminary in Jerusalem. Zahara is a Diplomate of CPSP in the New York/New Jersey Chapter. Photo- John deVelder with Devorah Corn of Tishkofet (Life's Door) one of 20 organizations at the Conference, Cecille Asekof, Executive Director of NAJC and Teresa Snorton, Executive Director of ACPE. Since Zahara began the first CPE programs in 2006 interest in CPE and professional chaplaincy is growing in Israel. This May, the NAJC invited a delegation of about fifteen ACPE and CPSP leaders to attend the Fourth National Conference on spiritual care in Jerusalem. Read the rest of this article on the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy.

I welcome the letter from the Association of Religious Endorsing Bodies that challenges the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education and the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy to work collegially together in the best interests of those they train. The Religious Endorsers are quite rightly concerned for their constituents who are caught in the middle of the rift between ACPE and CPSP. Challenging the ACPE & CPSP to put the professional wellbeing of those they train above the politics of self-interest is not only the right thing to do it would also be the best possible pastoral response. George Hankins Hull Read the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

A MESSAGE TO THE CPSP COMMUNITY FROM RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE We are heartened by this public expression of concern by the Religious Endorsing Body representatives (REBS) meeting in Nashville last fall. They have the interest in the wider religious and therapeutic community at heart in this call to reconciliation. There is plenty of work to be done in the field of clinical pastoral supervision, chaplaincy, pastoral counseling and psychotherapy. No one organization can respond to the current public needs. The expenditure of time and money in efforts to undermine each other is wasteful and disgraceful. We in CPSP hope that this letter from the REBS signals the end of hostility between the various clinical pastoral organizations, and the end of triumphalism on the part of any one organization or group of organizations. Raymond J. Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary This letter was published on the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

AN OPEN LETTER to CPSP and ACPE Association of Religious Endorsing BodiesP.O. Box 340007, Nashville, TN 37203-007January 11, 2010To: CPSP and ACPEFrom: Association of Religious Endorsing Bodies (AREBS) Dear Colleagues in Pastoral Care Ministry,We have been fortunate to be in conversation with all of the cognate groups in Nashville.These meetings have helped us to clarify our identity as endorsers. That search for identity continues to drive us to more clarity and to deepen our relationships with all the cognate groups. We thank you for your patience with us as we have learned about your organizations, your organizational requirements, and also, your help in clarifying our understanding of your identity. What we have discovered is that we share one thing in common and that is our dedication to the goal of providing the best in pastoral care. We all strive for excellence in that process and we understand your dedication in training and certifying our constituents. We have ironed out some...

The Uniqueness of the CPSP Plenary: Many meetings and conferences fail because they follow an agenda which places the conference speaker at the heart of the event and the attendee as observer. The structure of the CPSP plenary stands in sharp contrast to the linear model of many conferences which place an exclusive emphasis on an individual speaker. We avoid this in CPSP by placing the emphasis on the small group process in which the plenary presenters take part in the consultative process of the small group experience. CPSP is unique in our field in how we structure our gathering in a way that wisdom is shared, consultation is sought and community is fostered in terms of accountability. Please click on flyer for further details.