Clinical Pastoral Education

Dr. Raymond Lawrence with Rev. Aguirre and the CPE supervisory team at Bukal Life Care & Counseling Center In April and May of 2011 Dr. Raymond Lawrence, General Secretary of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, and CPSP Diplomate and chair of the Accreditation Committee Dr. Cesar G. Espineda visited the Philippines to provide training and assessment for the clinical pastoral training being done. On April 20, 2011, in a ceremony in Asin, Benguet, Philippines, Dr. Raymond Lawrence formally inaugurated the first CPSP Philippine Chapter, Baguio City. At the same event, Bukal Life Care & Counseling Center and the Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary were designated as training centers of the CPSP in the Philippines. Dr. Ryan Clark, professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Seminary, and Ms. Celia Munson, the training coordinator for Bukal, represented these institutions at the event. This new Chapter, the second Chapter in Asia after Hong Kong, is the cu...

At a Glance one can see that for CPSP diversity is a fact of life. CPSP creates community through relationships of accountability and ongoing professional development. The CPSP covenant is the bond that holds the CPSP community together in a way that promotes clinical pastoral competency through ongoing face to face relationships of accountability. The CPSP Covenant: We, the CPSP members see ourselves as spiritual pilgrims seeking a truly collegial professional community. Our calling and commitments are, therefore, first and last theological. We covenant to address one another and to be addressed by one another in a profound theological sense. We commit to being mutually responsible to one another for our professional work and direction. Matters that are typically dealt with in other certifying bodies by centralized governance will be dealt with primarily in Chapters. Thus, we organize ourselves in such a way that we each participate in a relatively small group called a Chapter consist...

The uniqueness of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is that CPSP is a covenant community. One of the most significant aspects of the CPSP covenant is the commitment to travel light. Traveling light means among other things that CPSP is committed to owning no buildings and having no paid professional staff. This means that the CPSP community is not burdened by high due structures needed to maintain corporate headquarters and to pay high salaried executives. Thus, the very way in which CPSP organizes its common life together provides a significant alternative to corporate models of governance that truly flourishes and prospers. Owning no buildings means that CPSP has the least carbon footprint of any organization in the clinical pastoral care and training movement. Consequently, CPSP is an environmentally responsible organization by virtue of the CPSP covenant. The CPSP covenant really makes CPSP a different kind of professional community and making a difference is ...

On behalf of the CPSP Plenary organizing committee, we warmly invite you to join us for the 21st gathering of the CPSP community . We meet at the Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel Virginia Beach, Virginia March 27th -30th. We are delighted to have the Rev. Dr. John Patton as our plenary speaker. Dr. Patton served as the Director of the Georgia Association of Pastoral Care & Counselling. He is Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia and a retired ACPE Supervisor. He is a pastoral counsellor and marriage therapist. Dr. Patton is a prolific writer in the clinical pastoral field. Some of his writings include: Is Human Forgiveness Possible , Pastoral Care in Context , Pastoral Care : An Essential Guide and From Ministry to Theology: Pastoral action & Reflection. He is also an associate Editor of Abington’s Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling and a retired Methodist minister. The CPSP plenary gathering is unique in many ways and on...

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.