Clinical Pastoral Education

REPORT TO PLENARY COLLEGE OF PASTORAL SUPERVISION AND PSYCHOTHERAPYLITTLE ROCK, ARKANSASMARCH 30, 2008 RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE, GENERAL SECRETARY Introduction: I report to you that our professional community is prospering. We are seeing steady growth. In numbers of certified members, we are now the third largest organization in our field in this hemisphere. We have problems too. Some of our Chapters need more attention than they are receiving. We need not be embarrassed about our failure to be a perfect community. But we need to be more assertive in approaching under functioning Chapters, because those with problems tend not to ask for consultation as we expect them to do. And we need to do more in the public relations arena, informing persons and institutions about our uniqueness and what we have to offer. The Changing Character of CPSP 18 years ago this month 15 persons met in Virginia and decided unanimously that we should create a new certifying community, that the then functioning org...

We are pleased to announce that Professor Arthur W. Frank will be the Keynote speaker at the at the 2008 Plenary Gathering of The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy. Arthur W. Frank is professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Alberta Canada. Dr. Frank received his undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University (High Honours, 1968), his M.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University (1975). He has taught at the University of Calgary since 1975. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of The Hastings Center, the preeminent U.S. bioethics institute, and also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, which is the highest honor that Canadian academics can receive. He is the author of At the Will of the Body: Reflections on Illness (Houghton Mifflin, 1991), the story of his 1985 heart attack and subsequent testicular cancer. The book has been translated into four langua...

Workshop III – 1:00 to 2:45 p.m. Sunday, March 30 – “Chapter Life Workshop” Presenter: Perry Miller, Chair of the Chapter Life Committee of CPSP. Description: There will be an open forum, a time for the group to share vignettes of their life in Chapters, ask questions, impart info, etc. Also, Mary Davis will give a presentation of new Conveners Manual. In addition, part of the workshop will be devoted to helping Chapters access competence. Download the CPSP Plenary Brochure Here

Workshop II – 10:45 a.m. to Noon Sunday, March 30 – “There is No Suffering in the Hospital!” Presenter: Rev. Ken Blank, CPSP Diplomate, ACPE Supervisor,Executive Director, Oklahoma Health Center Clinical Pastoral Education Institute. Past President of CPSP. Recipient: Professional Service Award, Association of Professional Chaplains. Description: One of the primary goals of medicine is to alleviate or eliminate suffering for hospitalized patients. And it is not unusual to have Certified Chaplains join in this admirable effort, even if it means we make the burden “a little lighter” by sharing it with the patient. But what if there is no suffering in the hospital? Would this change our theology of pastoral care? Would this have an impact on our style of ministry as Chaplains and pastors? Come and find out in this challenging and provocative seminar!