Paul Tillich, in his sermon on the yoke of religion defined the yoke of religion as law, doctrine and dogma. I want to suggest these are equivalent to standards, outcomes, results and accreditation processes. The yoke of religion is parallel to the yoke of Clinical Pastoral Education. Rather than the standards, outcomes and resources being sources of liberation, they are in my opinion sources of restriction. Instead of them contributing to the transformational processes of new being or new creation, they tend to truncate whatever inner wisdom might evolve. In the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education programs are expected to address three major arenas: 1) Pastoral Formation, 2) Pastoral Competence and 3) Pastoral Reflection. Under Pastoral Formation there are three objectives. Under Pastoral Competence there are five objectives. And under Pastoral Reflection there are two objectives. If the student was to have a specialization in Pastoral Care there would be three more objectives they are to address. When you think of the staggering tasks of having placed before you ten objectives as you begin a unit of CPE and then asked to write an individual contract, you wonder where there is any room for evolution, creativity and process.I remember in my initial unit of CPE, in the nineteen sixties, I was asked what I wanted to learn. I didn’t know what else to say except I want to learn something about death and dying. The particular center I was doing CPE in must have had a good time with my learning contract because they placed me in Oncology; a unit at that time where everyone was expected to die.
To read the rest of this article click on the link to Pastoral Report Link :http://www.pastoralreport.com/
To read the rest of this article click on the link to Pastoral Report Link :http://www.pastoralreport.com/
Comments