Skip to main content

CPSP & ACPE Possible New Era of Mutual Collegiality

At this Thanksgiving season we in CPSP have much to be thankful for. We are prospering as a community both in this country and overseas. We have come into our own as a significant community among the many communities that promote clinical pastoral work.


We are also approaching November 30, the first anniversary of the Mediation Agreement signed by the ACPE and CPSP, signed appropriately enough in Philadelphia. This agreement put an end to two decades of animosity that was subverting the high goals of both communities.

We are grateful especially to leaders of the Religious Endorsing Bodies without whom this agreement might ever have come to fruition. We are grateful, and we look forward to a deepening sense of collegiality between the two communities.

The members of the CPSP Mediation Team who, with our ACPE colleagues brought this agreement to pass, are Jim Gebhart, Perry Miller, George Hankins-Hull, and me.

In February a subcommittee was appointed to undertake the detailed discussions with our ACPE colleagues as they implemented the Agreement. This sub-committee has had one face to face meeting and numerous phone meetings. Jim Gebhart chairs this committee, which includes Annari Griesel and John deVelder. They have addressed and are continuing to address several complaints that have been presented from our side to ACPE of possible violations of the Mediation Agreement.

We have every hope that this dialogue group will continue its work in the positive and cooperative spirit in which it began.

We believe we are entering a new era in which the ACPE and CPSP will be more fully colleagues in our common work. And for that anticipation we can all be very thankful.

Given our progress together we are thankful that we seem to have entered a new era of mutual collegiality as becomes our common calling.

I wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving.

-Raymond J. Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary

Read the Pastoral Report the on-line Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy







Popular posts from this blog

Association of Professional Chaplains Experiencing Significant Financial Challenges

The Association of Professional Chaplains recently informed its membership that the organization is experiencing “significant financial challenges.” The APC president, Sue Wintz, related in a letter to the APC membership that the association has made some $80,000 cuts to its budget. The president’s letter requested that APC members consider making a donation of at least $25, 00 to help off set any additional cuts which might have to be made to the organization’s budget. APC Board Certified Chaplains pay annual dues of $265.00 representing some of the highest fees in the profession.
Read more
Master Fezziwig Knew a Thing or Two about Celebrating Employees Borne there by the Spirit of Christmas-Past the scene opens: It is Christmas once more and Scrooge is standing outside the warehouse where once he was an apprentice. They go inside and Scrooge is delighted to find his former boss – Mr Fezziwig. Mr Fezziwig is instructing a young Scrooge and his fellow apprentice, Dick, to ready the premises for their annual Christmas party. The scene fills as in come a fiddler, Mrs Fezziwig, all the other Fezziwigs together with all the employees. They enjoy music and dancing and when finally the joyous evening comes to a close Scrooge is forced to reflect on his own treatment as an employer regarding his staff. “When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. Mr and Mrs Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side of the door, and shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas. When every...
Read more

Increasing Trend to Secularize Chaplaincy

There has been an increasing trend in the pastoral care movement to move away from chaplaincy and pastoral care in favor of promoting and providing "spiritual care." Many hospital departments have changed their names to reflect this shift in philosophy and practice. Spirituality circumvents religion and promotes chaplaincy as a generic practice. Religions are messy. They have rules, doctrines, beliefs, ethics---some of which are flawed to be sure. But religions usually stand for something. Spirituality is an amorphous thing, an oblong blur, with implications of cosmic connection, but with no price tag---no demands no dogmas, and no ethics. Not even a dogma demanding justice and mercy. The only perceptible doctrine promoted by the spirituality movement is that people should feel good about themselves. At its best the clinical pastoral movement teaches religious professionals to be available to everyone. It also teaches them to be critical of all religion---but dismissive of no...
Read more