Clinical Pastoral Education

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

As one who has been involved in pastoral training and education for over forty years (certified as a “Chaplain Supervisor” by the Council for Clinical in 1964), I have experienced a good deal of change in the pastoral education movement. It now seems that history is repeating itself. The present friction between CPSP and ACPE is not unlike that of the Council for Clinical Training and the Institute of Pastoral Care. The Council folk looked at the Institute folk as a bunch academic heads who overlooked the psycho-dynamic approach to “CPT”. One of my first supervisors, Tom Klink, once stated that the Institute super-visors needed to get acquainted with Sigmund Freud. On the other side of the fence, the Institute super-visors saw the Council supervisors as a bunch of feelers who refused to think. This war of words, so to speak, went on for several years. In the mid-sixties, I supervised CPT students in up-state New York. When the New York supervisors would get together, we would often dis...

Challenged to Cooperate: 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

"We are also concerned about the face of pastoral care that is presented to our institutions and endorsees" AN OPEN LETTER to CPSP and ACPE Association of Religious Endorsing BodiesP.O. Box 340007, Nashville, TN 37203-007 January 11, 2010 To: 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 excelle...

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.

The Spiritual Care Collaborative sounds all the right notes when it comes to promoting and advertising the SCC as new breakthrough in collaboration between pastoral care and counseling organizations. High ideals expressed on paper sound good and make a good sales pitch but unless accompanied by serious results on the ground amount to nothing more than lofty words blowing in the wind. Rather than creating harmony in the midst of the pastoral care and counseling movement the SCC sound a jarring note of discord tainted by an exclusive elitism. The SCC recently admitted (1) that it has no developed mechanism for including other participating organizations in the partnership of collaboration. So much then for lofty ideals and claims of Collaboration mere code words used as cover for darker motives of control and monopoly. Note (1) NOTICE TO MEMBERS OF THE CPSP COMMUNITY RE. RELATIONS TO THE SPIRITUAL CARE COLLABORATIVE September 3, 2008 Notice to Members of the College of Pastoral Supervi...

The Spiritual Care Collaborative has recently had to acknowledge to the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy that the SCC has failed to develop a means of including other clinical pastoral training and certifying bodies as members of the SCC. Sadly the admission of the SCC to CPSP that the SCC does not know how to revise its founding documents or whether it should reveals the SCC is more of a political power block than a truly collaborative organization. George Hankins Hull CPSP Diplomate in Clinical Pastoral Education FROM THE CPSP GENERAL SECRETARY : SCC Unable to Act On Question of Whether to Invite CPSP We applaud the Board of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) that last month unanimously voted in the affirmative to invite CPSP to join the Spiritual Care Collaborative. We also applaud the National Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC) for taking the same action. However, neither CPSP nor any other organization should hold its breath waiting for ...

Executive director, Jo Schrader, indicates APC members complain about high costs of conference. In the May/June edition of the APC News Jo Schrader, executive director of the APC, indicates that out of the 4000 membership only 800 members attend the annual conference. Schrader relates that equates to only 20% of the total APC membership. The Executive director went on to relate that high costs of the conference are cited by members as to the reason they cannot attend. Read Schrader's comments at link below: https://www.professionalchaplains.org/uploadedFiles/pdf/APC%20News%20Final%20Proof%20May-June%202007.pdf