CPSP Little Rock Chapter

2011-11-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

Kimberly Garner, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.F.P. will be the Plenary speaker at the 2012 Gathering of the CPSP community.

Dr. Kimberly Garner is a staff physician at the Department of Veterans Affairs at the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is also an assistant professor of Geriatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. Garner is the medical director of the Geriatric Evaluation and Management Unit at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System which is a specialized intermediate unit which provides an interdisciplinary team approach in an inpatient setting.

The GEM specifically addresses relatively recent and potentially reversible loss of physical or cognitive function using a rehabilitation model. This involves a multidisciplinary, including occupational and kinesiotherapists, assessment. The primary goal is to promote functional well-being that allows re-entry into the community at the most independent and least restrictive level of care for chronic and seriously ill Veterans. She is currently conducting research to develop methods to engage Veterans and care providers in effective communication about advance care planning.

Dr. Garner received a juris doctorate degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law and a master’s of public health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She received a B.S. in dietetics from Louisiana Tech University and her M.D. degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

During the 2012 CPSP Plenary Dr. Garner will address the Current State of the Art of Assessing an Individual's Readiness to Discuss Advance Care Planning from a Palliative Care Perspective.

Advances in medical care and technology can prolong an individual’s life expectancy and blur the boundaries between life and death, dramatically impacting how they may experience the end of their life. There is some evidence that the treatment people would want to receive when faced with the end of life is often different from the treatment they actually receive.

In most cases, individuals may receive more aggressive care than desired, prolonging their death and potentially increasing their suffering. However, this may also result in some individuals not receiving all the care they desire.

Palliative care is founded on the principles of identifying patient preferences and attempting to achieve those wishes. Identifying readiness to discuss a patient’s wishes is a foundational skill for palliative care and other healthcare providers who provide end-of-life care. Research in this area supports that the most successful interventions by providers are those that are iterative and tailor information based on the individuals’ readiness for engagement and participation. The Transtheoretical Model Stages of Change is a model that has been used successfully to identify an individual’s readiness to discuss preferences and wishes.

Visit the Pastoral Report the online Journal of The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

Abrahamic Traditions Dinner

2011-09-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

George Hankins Hull

Rabbi Eugene Levy

Abrahamic Traditions Dinner The theme of the program was "Fasting in Abrahamic Traditions" since Muslims around the world observe the month of Ramadan in which they fast 30 days. Three speakers from three Abrahamic faiths; Rabbi Eugene Levy, George Hankins Hull, and Dr. Mehmet Ulupinar.

This dinner was the first one in Little Rock and will continue to take place every six months for the members of the faith community.

CPSP Plenary Gathering 2012

2011-08-12T16:40:00.001-07:00

The 2012 CPSP Plenary March 25th-March 28th 2012 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The 2012 CPSP Plenary gathering will take place at Doubletree Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh City Center. The hotel is situated in a prime location, which is right in the middle of Pittsburgh’s vibrant downtown. A block of rooms have been reserved March 24, -March 28, 2012.

The special room rate, $119.00, will be available until March 4th or until the room block is sold out.

You can reserve your room by clicking on the following link:

Doubletree Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh City Center

We look forward to seeing you in Pittsburg March 25th-March 28th 2012.

Visit the Pastoral Report for more information about CPSP:

Pastoral Report

CPSP is committed to making Clinical Pastoral Training affordable

George Hankins Hull

CPSP Plenary Secretary

CPE Residency UAMS Medical Center Little Rock, Arkansas

2011-06-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

UAMS Clinical Pastoral Education Residency Program

The Clinical Pastoral Education training program focuses on the development of self-awareness, formation of pastoral identity, professional functioning, and the ability to address issues from a competent clinical and pastoral perspective.

The CPE residency program is designed for the ordained person with a seminary degree and at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. On occasion, a lay person may qualify for admission. CPE residents and interns serve as ecumenical chaplains, under supervision, to assigned areas throughout the UAMS Medical Center and clinics. The setting provides a rich base for clinical experience and opportunities for continued personal, professional and pastoral development.

The UAMS Clinical Pastoral Training programs follow the standards set by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP), the accrediting organization.

A typical unit of CPE requires a minimum of 400 hours of supervised ministry in a clinical setting.

Stipend: 25,000 plus medical benefits: This training opportunity carries on call responsibilities

George Hankins Hull
Director of Pastoral Care &
Clinical Pastoral Education Programs
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
4301 W. Markham St. #561,
Little Rock, AR 72205
(501) 686-6888

2011 CPSP PLENARY INVITATION & SCHEDULES

2011-03-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

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 one of the most important aspects of our gathering is the mutual sharing of our work and our lives in a small group context. Please come prepared to share yourself and your clinical work as we come together to hear each and to respond to each voice in the community.

Your participation in the gathering is essential to the success of the event and we look forward to your arrival.

Blessings,

Barbara McGuire
Al Henager
George Hankins Hull
CPSP 2011 Plenary Organizing Committee

DOWNLOAD: 2011 CPSP PLENARY PRE-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

DOWNLLOAD: 2011 CPSP PLENARY SCHEDULE

Visit the Pastoral Report the online Journal of The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

ACPE & CPSP Issue Joint Mediation Statement

2010-12-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

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 highlighting 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 continue in their respective missions without mutual disparagement of the other’s programs or procedures.

We owe a special thanks to the leaders of the Religious Endorsing Bodies (REBS) who last year made a public call for an end to hostilities. I believe that this prophetic witness played a large role in bringing the parties to the table.

Mediation requires give and take on both sides.We appreciate the willingness of the representatives of ACPE to have engaged fully and responsibly in this vigorous and spirited process.

Let us all resolve to implement faithfully this historic agreement and ensure that its spirit is maintained into the future.
Raymond J. Lawrence, CPSP General Secretarylawarence@cpsp.org

Download ACPE CPSP Joint Statement
Posted by George Hankins Hull at 8:46 AM

ACPE & CPSP Called to Account

2010-05-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

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

Raymond Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary, Responds to Religious Endorsers' Open Letter

2010-05-04T12:10:00.001-07:00

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

ACPE & CPSP Rift-An Open Letter

2010-05-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

"One of the public issues that deeply concerns us is the chasm between CPSP and ACPE."

AN OPEN LETTER to CPSP and ACPE Association of Religious Endorsing Bodies
P.O. Box 340007, Nashville, TN 37203-007 January 11, 2010 To:

CPSP and ACPE From: 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 excellence in that process and we understand your dedication in training and certifying our constituents. We have ironed out some of the difficulties and removed some of the obstacles to provide excellence in pastoral care.

One of the public issues that deeply concerns us is the chasm between CPSP and ACPE. We are working to understand the history of each of your organizations so that we can understand some of the identity issues that you face. As Miroslov Volf says in his early work, “Exclusion and Embrace”, the establishment of identity gives a kind of confidence that allows us to look at otherness and at others without the fear of losing our own identity. Volf says that an exploration of identity issues and otherness issues are prerequisite of reconciliation. We have prayed that reconciliation might happen between your two organizations because we feel that some of our constituents are suffering due to the rift between your organizations. We are troubled when our people become vulnerable to this rift. We are also concerned about the face of pastoral care that is presented to our institutions and endorsees.

We confess to being somewhat protective of our constituents, but our major concern is that we remove barriers to a pursuit of our shared goal of excellence in pastoral care. It is important that we find ways to be transparent and to seek each others’ healing. In the meanwhile, we, as endorsers have covenanted to be in prayer for reconciliation.

Prayerfully Yours,
Susan GalassoAREB Chairperson

This Letter was published in the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Pschotherapy

Chaplaincy & Recent HIPAA Changes

2009-12-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

Recent changes strengths the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and are designed to ease the public’s overall comfort with electronic medical recording keeping. One of the most significant changes to the HIPAA regulations is the new rules concerning the breach of protected health information (PHI).

What is a Breach?

A breach is, generally, an impermissible use or disclosure under the Privacy Rule that compromises the security or privacy of the protected health information such that the use or disclosure poses a significant risk of financial, reputational, or other harm to the affected individual.

What is an example of a breach PHI?

An employee accesses the record of a patient outside the performance of their job duties.
An unencrypted laptop containing PHI is lost or stolen.
PHI is sent to the wrong fax, mailing address, an email address or printer.

What happens if a breach occurs?

Generally speaking, your institution’s HIPAA compliance officer will need to be notified of all suspected breaches immediately upon discovery of the breach.
The HIPAA officer determines if there exists a reportable breach.
If a reportable breach of PHI has occurred your institution’s HIPAA compliance office handles the notification.
Every individual whose unsecured PHI has been breached must be notified in writing as soon as feasible and within a 60 day period.
Breaches are required to be reported to Health and Human Services (HHS).
If less than 500 individuals are affected: log and report annually.
If more than 500 individuals are affected: HHS must be notified at the same time the patient is notified. The media must also be notified.

How can Clinical Chaplains help prevent breaches of PHI?

Be alert about your responsibilities to protect PHI while carrying out your tasks. Take special care in these situations:

When faxing be sure to always use your institution’s official fax cover sheet and reconfirm the recipient’s fax number before transmittal.
Do not put PHI, including patient stickers and medication labels, in regular trash. Shred or place in privacy bins for special disposal.
When retrieving information from the printer or faxing PHI determine each page corresponds to the correct patient
Double check the name of the patient before you put information in the envelopes for mailing.
Log off your computer prior to stepping away from it.
Use password protection and encryption features for your Blackberry, cell phone and other mobile devices such as thumb drives and CDs.
Only store PHI on mobile devices when absolutely necessary for your institution’s business purposes and delete as soon as feasible.
Encrypt any email containing PHI sent outside your institution.
Never share your password or use someone else’s sign on information as this could lead to you being disciplined by your institution.

For further information on the new HIPAA standards follow the link below:
US Department of Health and Human Services

1000 Patients Treated at Little Rock Free Health Clinic

2009-11-23T08:40:00.000-08:00

Serious Conditions Are Uncovered Among More than 1,000 Patients at Little Rock Free Clinic
Another Clinic Is Planned for Kansas City

LITTLE ROCK – Saturday’s free health clinic at the Statehouse Convention Center treated more than 1,000 uninsured Arkansas residents with a variety of health problems, many of them serious. More than 90 percent of them had three or more life-threatening conditions, such as cardio-vascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and pulmonary disease.

Seven people had such serious conditions that physicians decided they should be taken immediately by ambulances to local hospital emergency departments. Of those, five were admitted to hospitals for cardiac reasons, and two of them had had recent hearts attacks of which they were unaware.

“With an army of more than 1,200 volunteers, we changed the lives of more than 1,000 people at this clinic,” Nicole Lamoureux, executive director of the National Association of Free Clinics (NAFC), said. “We provided them with not only basic medical care but also knowledge about how to improve their health and connections to the community safety net near where they live.”

The C.A.R.E. (Communities Are Responding Everyday) Clinic was designed to demonstrate the work that goes on daily at more than 1,200 free clinics across the country, including about two dozen free clinics in Arkansas, so that more people could take advantage of their services.

Many chronic medical conditions were treated among the more than 1,000 patients at the C.A.R.E. Clinic. Dr. Kimberly Garner, a Veterans Administration physician who served as medical director of the clinic, said high blood pressure was the most prevalent problem, followed by diabetes.

“You can’t treat blood pressure for just a week or even a month,” Garner said. “The most important thing we did in this clinic was not just to treat the patients’ conditions but to encourage them to use their local free clinics or other services they can afford for ongoing treatment.”

The volunteer workers at the clinic found that 69 percent of the patients either do not go anywhere for medical care or go to hospital emergency rooms. About 9 percent of the patients had been examined by a physician in more than 10 years, and another 24 percent had not seen a physician in more than five years.

The patients at Saturday’s clinic were 62 percent women and 38 percent men.

The Little Rock C.A.R.E. Clinic was the third massive free clinic sponsored by the NAFC. More than 1,700 patients received treatment at the first one in Houston in September, and more than 1,000 received treatment at the second one in New Orleans on Nov. 14. The next C.A.R.E. Clinic is scheduled for Kansas City, Mo., on Dec. 9-10.

More information is available online at:

http://freeclinics.us/.

Troubling Trend in Anti Obama Religious Political Rhetoric

2009-11-18T08:33:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1970’s I know firsthand how dangerous it is when religious dysfunction underpins political dysfunction in a way that creates a space for sectarian violence. I see something similar happening here in the US as certain religious and political groups oppose President Obama. The most recent anti Obama political religious rhetoric comes in the form of a prayer taken from Psalm 109 verse 8 which reads “May his days be few, may another take over his position.” The next verse in the Psalm reads “May his children be orphans and his wife a widow.” Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is right when he comments “The issue is not the scripture quoted or the name by which God is called by those doing the praying. The issue is invoking the God in whom any of us believe, to act as executioner of those with whom we disagree.” This is a troubling trend in anti-Obama political religious rhetoric which must be opposed by all people of faith and goodwill.

To read Rabbi Hirschfield’s comment select the link below:

Psalms 109:8, An Ugly Prayer for President Obama

Free Midical Clinic Little Rock State Convention Center

2009-10-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

Little Rock C.A.R.E

Saturday, November 21, 2009 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Little Rock State House Convention Center7 Statehouse PlazaLittle Rock, AR 72201

Communities Are Responding Everyday (C.A.R.E)

The National Association of Free Clinics (NAFC) and its partners will be sponsoring a one day free medical clinic for the uninsured on Saturday November 21, 2009. The Little Rock C.A.R.E. Clinic will offer basic medical care and health education. Come help thousands of families gain access to medical screening and care they otherwise may not receive. The Little Rock C.A.R.E. Clinic needs medical and non-medical volunteers! Sign up today!

Visit the Little Rock CARE website

Email: littlerockclinic@freeclinics.us

Director of Youth Ministries Position

2009-09-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

First United Methodist Church a 1200 member downtown congregation in Little Rock, Arkansas is seeking a qualified applicant for the position of Director of Youth Ministries.

The director is responsible for all aspects of youth ministry for a constituency of almost 100 youth between the ages of 12 to 18.

A college degree in a related field is expected. A passion for Christian discipleship with young people and their families is vital.

A competitive salary with benefits--contact

Sr. Pastor, Rev. Michael L. Mattox. mmattox@fumclr.org

Cover letter and complete resume with references should be sent to:

Sr. Pastor, Rev. Michael L. Mattox.
723 Center Street,Little Rock, AR 72201
Posted by George Hankins

A Chance to Finish the Business of Living

2009-08-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

Sometime ago Don Berwick, MD spoke about 20 improvements that doctors could make in the end of life care of their patients that begins in a simple conversation. Berwick recommended the following considerations as his top three suggestions:

1.Ask yourself as you see patients, "Would I be surprised if this patient died in the next few months?" For those "sick enough to die," prioritize the patient's concerns - often symptom relief, family support, continuity, advance planning, or spirituality.

2.To eliminate anxiety and fear, chronically ill patients must understand what is likely to happen. When you see a patient who is "sick enough to die" - tell the patient, and start counseling and planning around that possibility.

3.To understand your patients, ask (1) "What do you hope for, as you live with this condition,"

(2) "What do you fear?," (3) It is usually hard to know when death is close. If you were to die soon, what would be left undone in your life?," and (4) "How are things going for you and your family?" Document and arrange care to meet each patient's priorities.

All too often the task of finishing the business of living gets left undone because the end of life conversation has never taken place for whatever reason. I strongly recommend reading Dr. Berwick’s 20 recommendations and sharing them widely.

You can find Berwick’s the full article on the website Americans for Better Care of the Dying at the link below:
http://www.abcd-caring.org/tools/intern.htm

Health Care Reform Inflammatory Language

2009-08-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Health care reform is a scary subject for ordinary Americans and this is not been helped by the tone of the current national debate on this issue which has turned terrible nasty. One of the most heated concerns to have emerged recently relates to end-of-life conversations. End-of-life conversations are difficult at the best of times and made all the more difficult in these uncertain days of economic upheaval when many Americans have lost their jobs, health care insurance and homes. Unfortunately, some public figures and national leaders have chosen to offer their critique of the proposed health care reforms using only the most inflammatory language possible. The tenor of this debate does not bode well for the American public in terms of any real substantial change to a health care system which is too costly to sustain and unequal in terms of access. These difficult days call for true leadership which does not fail for lack of nerve to embrace the courage of change in the best interests of all in the culture. End-of-life conversations invite everyone involved in the conversation to figure out the right thing to do in each individual case and to have the courage to follow through on the difficult decisions reached. In the same way the American public needs national leaders who will engage the health care reform debate with the same gravitas as those loved ones involved with end-of-life decisions.

Parish-Based CPSP CPE Residency Position

2009-08-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

PARISH-BASED CPE RESIDENCY POSITION:

Stipend $40,000. Rural Parish with Recreation Ministry; Contracted with the South Carolina Department of Corrections and the Midlands Area Pastoral Counseling Services, Inc.
Program Accredited by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (January 4 – December 31, 2010).

Inquire at Liberty Hill Presbyterian Church, Box 170, Liberty Hill, SC 29074

Telephone: 803-273-9191

Gene Rollins, Supervisor:

lhpc@comporium.net

For more information about CPSP visit the link below:http://www.cpsp.org/.

The Uniqueness of the CPSP Plenary

2009-07-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

Many meetings and conferences fail because they follow an agenda which places the conference speaker at the heart of the event and the attendee as observer. The structure of the CPSP plenary stands in sharp contrast to the linear model of many conferences which place an exclusive emphasis on an individual speaker.

We avoid this in CPSP by placing the emphasis on the small group process in which the plenary presenters take part in the consultative process of the small group experience. CPSP is unique in our field in how we structure our gathering in a way that wisdom is shared, consultation is sought and community is fostered in terms of accountability.

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy Task Force Report

2009-04-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

TASK FORCE FOR THE FUTURE REPORT:

Delivered at the 2009 CPSP Plenary

By Luise Weinrich

The late writer David Foster Wallace, a man of great soul who I believe would have loved a community like CPSP, told this story at Kenyon College's commencement: in 2005:

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and says "What is water?" (David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College commencement address, 2005).
For over a year now, the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy's Task Force for the Future has been at work, talking with our members about your vision for CPSP. We've been seeking your views about where we are, and where we're headed in the future, finding out what the water is like our community.

Our work is ongoing. We've conducted dozens of interviews so far. These interviews are in-depth conversations. Most have been conducted by telephone and have lasted from 30-60 minutes, yielding on average 2-3 pages of notes per call.

Because CPSP is an international community, our task force has also made use of Internet technology to speak with people across the country and in other parts of the world. We have intentionally spoken with members of our community whose voices are not usually heard at our formal gatherings in hopes of gaining a broader view of our community in all its diversity. We have spoken with new members and members who have been a part of CPSP from its inception, and many in-between.

From those conversations, the following five themes have emerged:

1. Our members deeply value local chapters. Almost to a person, CPSP members report that the work they do and the depth of community they share in their local chapters lie at the heart of the CPSP experience for them. Members indicate that the challenge, support and peer supervision they receive in local chapters is life-giving, and positively impacts the quality of their clinical work and ministry.

They also state that chapter life has enriched their lives in significant and positive ways. Members describe life in chapters as a rare, precious gift. One person noted that no other professional organization – of doctors, lawyers, care givers etc. – has anything approaching the depth of communal and professional support we have in our CPSP chapters.

Chapter life is not perfect. Some members expressed concern that other chapters are not functioning in an ideal manner. Our observation from speaking with individual members of chapters is that the overall level of health in chapters is quite high. Members frequently state that it is this rare quality of human community, shaped by the values of CPSP's covenant, that draws them to CPSP and sustains them in their work and in their life together.

Several chapter members have spoken of how valuable it has been for them to receive outside consultation about their chapter's process, while other chapters seem less clear about this requirement. Our task force believes that the policy for chapters to be in ongoing consultation with an outside consultant is a good one that promotes health and vitality in chapters.

We recommend that this practice continue to be encouraged. We also recommend that we continue to make the strength and vitality of local chapters the central focus of CPSP.

2. Our members value CPSP's commitment to traveling light. Overwhelmingly, CPSP members have voiced their appreciation for our decentralized organizational structure and our commitment to keeping administrative operations, costs and bureaucracy to a minimum. Members also appreciate that the leadership in our organization is informal, flexible, and personal.

Members have noted that our streamlined, grass-roots way of organizing ourselves allows us to move quickly into a variety of settings and to provide vital services in communities and to people who would otherwise not have access to high-quality clinical care.

Members appreciate that when they see a need, they are able to establish training programs, clinical services and ministries in a wide variety of contexts without the excessive bureaucracy, "red tape" and high administrative costs that might otherwise render these services cost-prohibitive.

There is also appreciation that our work is carried out not by a paid staff in a centralized office but rather is accomplished by individuals who see a need and voluntarily give of their time, energy and resources to meet the need.

A number of voices, old and new, have cautioned that, while structure seems to promise security or stability, the creation of unnecessary structure would in fact weigh us down, take the focus away from our mission, and decrease our ability to respond to and serve people in need.

We as a task force echo what we have heard from the community on this matter. We urge CPSP not to let conscious or unconscious anxiety about our growth lead us to create unnecessary structures that would hinder rather than support our carrying out the creative work of ministry that gives us our vitality and, after all, is the reason for our existence.

3. Our members appreciate the current leadership and have some anxiety about future leadership. While a couple of members called for a change in leadership, there is widespread satisfaction with and appreciation of the present leadership. Some members expressed anxiety about what will happen when the "old guard" passes away or its influence wanes. Some excitement has been expressed about new leadership emerging. Some have observed that there has been a "changing of the guard" in recent years as new leadership has increasingly stepped forward.

Our task force believes that there is strong leadership in our community. We note that the covenant states that we value personal authority and creativity. We trust that, with such a covenant to one another, CPSP will manage well leadership transitions that occur in the future.

Luise Weincrich

CPSP a professional community committed to accountability in which every member has a voice.

To read the rest of the CPSP Task Force Report and to learn more about the CPSP Community vist the Pastoral Report the online Journal of CPSP

UAMS Clinical Pastoral Education Residency Openings

2009-02-07T20:15:00.000-08:00

The CPE program focuses on the development of self-awareness, formation of pastoral identity, professional functioning, and the ability to address issues from a competent clinical and pastoral perspective.

The residency program is designed for the ordained person with a seminary degree and at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. On occasion, a lay person may qualify for admission. CPE residents and interns serve as ecumenical chaplains, under supervision, to assigned areas throughout the UAMS Medical Center and clinics. The setting provides a rich base for clinical experience and opportunities for continued personal, professional and pastoral development.

The UAMS Clinical Pastoral Training programs follow the standards set by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP), the accrediting organization. A typical unit of CPE requires a minimum of 400 hours of supervised ministry in a clinical setting.

Stipend: 25,000 plus medical benefits: This training opportunity carries on call responsibilities

George Hankins Hull
Director of Pastoral Care&
Clinical Pastoral Education Programs
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
4301 W. Markham St. #561,
Little Rock, AR 72205

(501) 686-6888

Getting To Know Yourself

2009-02-06T18:57:00.000-08:00

Getting to Know Yourself by George Hankins Hull, Dip.Th., Th.M

Self-awareness as a pastoral care giver is essential to good pastoral care. Issues of transference and counter-transference loom large in pastoral encounters. Therefore, it’s of vital importance for the pastoral care giver to understand the use of the Self in the pastoral role.

In her book, When Helping You is Hurting Me, Carmen Berry addresses the detrimental aspects of a lack of self-awareness in the person of the care giver in what she calls the “Messiah trap.” The “Messiah trap”, is defined as continued circumstances in which individuals are persistently putting their own needs aside in order to help others.

Berry offers an important caution to all in the helping professions against becoming addicted to helping and then, like an addict, seeking out supplies for their fix. Further complicating the issue is what Berry calls the double-sided trap of helping: ‘If I don’t do it, it won’t get done’ and ‘Every one else’s needs come before mine’. In addition, she demonstrates how falling into this trap can hurt the person of the care giver as well as the one in need of care.

Individuals addicted to caring have a deep need for approval and engage in caring for others as a means of self-care.

Berry identifies the following as Messiah characteristics:

One who tries to earn a sense of worth by "acting" worthy.
One who lets others determine his or her actions
One who needs to over achieve.
One who is attracted to helping those with similar pain.
One who experiences difficulty in establishing peer and intimate relationships.
One who is caught in a cycle of isolation.
One who is driven to endless activity.
One who stops only when they drop .

The following are Berry’s seven distinct types of the ‘Helping Messiah’:

The Pleaser: This individual tries to earn a sense of self-worth by acting worthy. This is someone who doubts his or her own self-worth.

The Rescuer: Lets others determine their actions. This is someone who needs a response from others to feel self-worth.

The Giver: This person is driven to overachieve in an attempt to earn self-worth.

The Counselor: Is attracted to helping others with similar issues, hurts and pains. It’s easier to deal with others hurts than one’s own.

The Protector: Is an individual who finds difficulty in establishing peer and intimate relationships that are equal. This person is someone who always has to be helping and looking out for others.

The Teacher: Is someone who is caught in a cycle of isolation. The teacher is one who needs to feel special in the midst of others and sense that they are needed. This person cannot feel both part of a group and special at the same time.

The Crusader: Is one who is driven to endless activity and stops when they drop. This person takes on too much in a crazy attempt to earn a sense of self-worth and value

Published twenty years ago When Helping You is Hurting Me is a useful book to read for anyone entering the caring professions because in the end there is no short cut to self-awareness.

The perfect man of old looked after himself first before looking to help others.
-Chuang Tzu
_________
When Helping You is Hurting Me: Escaping the Messiah Trap, Carmen Renee Berry, Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1988

George Hankins Hull

CPSP Dipliomate in Clinical Pastoral Education

CPSP Plenary 2009

2009-01-20T14:06:00.000-08:00

Click on brochure to enlarge:

CPSP Plenary Brochure Registration

2009-01-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

Jesus of Nazareth: The Peasant from Galilee as Model for Chaplaincy

2009-01-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

Jesus of Nazareth: The Peasant from Galilee as Model for Chaplaincy

by
James D. Hester
Professor of Religion, Emeritus
University of Redlands
A Paper Presented to
The Mid-South Fall Pastoral Care Institute
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Little Rock, AR
October 30, 2008

Introduction: When George Hull called and asked if I would make a presentation to this group, I really had to consider just what I could say to you! I am, after all, a retired Bible teacher, with very little pastoral experience. The question I kept asking myself was, “Is there anything from my experience of 40 plus years of teaching, preaching, and publishing that I might use to provide food for thought for folks who deal with ill and frightened people facing the unknown?” I did come up with an answer, but I have to leave it to you to judge if it is a useful one.

A couple of more comments before I move into the heart of the presentation: I carefully chose the terms used in the title of the talk. It seems to me that two millennia of Christian theology have tended to push Jesus of Nazareth into the background of our considerations of just who Jesus was and what he did. This tendency finds its roots in the writings of the apostle Paul and had little counterpoint until the rise of modern biblical scholarship in the late 19th century and its expansion in the second half of the 20th century. Moreover, analytical disciplines used in the study of the New Testament, like historical criticism and archaeology, have recently been supplemented by the use of social and intellectual history and cross cultural anthropology to help give us a bit clearer picture of the world in which Jesus grew up, lived, and ministered. Later idealized pictures of Christ have given way to reconstructions of life and times of Jesus, who by any scholarly definition was a peasant[1] who spent the majority of his life working with his hands, probably in support of his mother, brothers, and sisters. We need to pay attention to the historical Jesus, even granting the limitations of the material we have concerning him.
[1] In popular discourse “peasant” is typically used to refer to a socio-economic class associated with the history of the Middle Ages and/or the time of the Reformation. However, sociologists and anthropologists have long since defined “peasant” as rural, agrarian, typically powerless people who are influenced by urban societies and have little or no control over their economic circumstances; see, e.g., Malina 1996: 143–146. Crossan (1991: 124–128) elaborates this understanding and makes much of class distinctions in Palestine in the first century in several of his writings. See also Meier 1991: 278–279.

With that in mind, in the body of this paper, then, I want to do three things:

1. Quickly, therefore briefly, sketch in the major features of the social, political, and cultural worlds of Jesus.

2. Talk a bit about the medical or healing practices of the ancient world.

3. Suggest ways in which what Jesus did in his ministry of healing might provide some models for use in modern chaplaincy.

Completing that agenda is more ambitious than I can accomplish in the scope of this presentation, but I’ll give it a try and perhaps what I miss can be explored in the course of further discussion of the issues in some other forum.

Finally, while I assume that the majority of chaplains in America come out of traditions associated with western Christianity, I think the models Jesus provided are not dependent on any particular faith perspective.

I. Life in the Time of Jesus

Nazareth in Galilee was a hamlet or village at the time of Jesus, a place so small that it is never mentioned in any ancient texts other than the gospels and texts that rely on them. Despite the mention of literally dozens of other Galilean towns in the Hebrew scripture or Josephus or the rabbis, Nazareth is not named (Crossan 1991: 15).

Given the fact that Nazareth was under the radar of ancient historians, I think it likely that it had a very small population. John Meier suggests that the population of the village at the time of Jesus may have been approximately 2000 souls (Meier 1991: 277), but recently Jonathan Reed and John Crossan have argued that the population was under a thousand and perhaps as low as a few hundred. Evidently the people lived in small houses or caves, and were for the most part farmers. Reed further notes that there is no archaeological evidence for either any public buildings or a synagogue in Nazareth before the late third or early fourth century CE. If in fact there were none, that would suggest not only a very small population but also the absence of any center for learning. Much of Jesus’s early life would have been lived in the context of a small agrarian town functioning at a mostly subsistence level (Crossan & Reed 2001: 33–36; Crossan 1994: 26).

Nazareth is located just over four miles south from the Herodian city of Sepphoris, which was one of the bigger towns in the region in spite of having been destroyed and rebuilt in the course of the late first century BCE and first century CE, acting briefly as the capital city for Herod Antipas. While Sepphoris would have been the closest commercial center, it was not a place that the typical Nazarene peasant would have dropped into as a part of daily life. Nazareth is over a ridge of hills and down in a valley, so it would have taken the better part of two hours to walk over the hills on dirt paths to get to the more populated location. On the other hand, once out of the valley and into Sepphoris, there was a network of roads that ran west to Caesarea Maritima and east to Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, so, although remote, Nazareth was by no means totally isolated and its inhabitants would have been exposed to examples of Hellenistic and Roman culture. (Crossan & Reed 2001: 80)

The Roman Empire had an agrarian based economy. In theory at least the emperor owned the land or at least controlled it within contractual constraints. As patron he then distributed it to his clients, who in turn could rent or lease it to their clients. Something like 1% of the population owned or controlled 50% of the land in the Empire; another 15% was owned by priests. Other small land holders included military leaders and merchants. The largest population consisted of peasants, very few of whom controlled the land they farmed; approximately 2/3rds of their crops went to landlords. Further down the social scale were the so-called “artisans” who were often dispossessed farmers. Finally, on the lowest rung of the class ladder came what sociologists have called the “expendables,” the ancient equivalent of the day laborer, who had no patrons. (Crossan 1991: 43–46) This model of patron and client dominated both political and economic life in Palestine (Malina 1996: 143–175), with Herod the Great and his sons—Agrippa, Archelaus, Philip, and Antipas—among the best illustrations of how the system privileged the aristocracy.

In Mark 6:3, during the course of visiting Nazareth, the people react to Jesus’s teaching by asking, “Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” (BTW, Matthew changes the question to, “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” Luke makes a further modification: “Is this not Joseph’s son?”) The Greek word used here—the only place in the gospels where Jesus is identified with a particular type of work—is typically translated as “carpenter” but would be better translated as “handyman.” It refers to one who works with his hands at a variety of tasks, among them wood working. It does not imply any modern notion of carpentry. Those who worked with wood were among the artisan class (Crossan 1994: 23–26). If John Meier is correct in his observation that Jesus’s use of illustrations and parables based on agriculture suggests he may have been a farmer at some time in his life (Meier 1991: 279), Mark’s report that the people of Nazareth knew him as a handyman suggests the family may have lost the farm during one of the many political upheavals in Lower Galilee, and Jesus had to turn to a different line of work to help support his rather large family.

One more historical fact to add to the picture: Recent studies have argued that literacy rates in the Empire were not high. Something on the order of 10–20% of the population of the empire were functionally literate.[1] Wealthy aristocratic families and some of the merchant class could afford to send their sons to school, but even then most received basic schooling in what was called grammar—reading and writing—while advanced education in rhetoric was pursued only by a few.[2] There were slaves who were scribes or secretaries, and ordinary citizens in larger towns had access to professional scribes who could, for example, write letters for them (Murphy-O’Connor 1995: 8–16; Klauck 2006: 55–60). Reading, even of personal letters, was done out loud (cf. Achtemeier 1990). Most people learned orally and had the capacity for what we would consider major feats of memory. Scholars now question how much, if at all, Jesus could read. It is quite likely that his knowledge of the law and traditions of Israel came from hearing scripture read and engaging in conversation with more learned people when he went into places like Sepphoris.[3]
[1] Harris (1989) argues that while literacy rates may have been higher in Greece in the era of the city states, and that the spread of the Roman empire might have boosted education in some places, in general it is hard to find evidence that literacy rates for men rose much beyond 20%, and those for women beyond 10%. They would have been even lower for peasants.
[2] In addition to Harris, good reviews of education in antiquity include H. J. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity (University of Wisconsin Press, 1956) and Stanley Bonner, Education in Ancient Rome (Berkeley: U of Cal Press, 1977).
[3] Meier (1991:277–278) argues that there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that Jesus had some literacy in Hebrew, although he admits there almost no direct, indisputable evidence supporting that conclusion. Given the economic circumstances of Nazareth and cultural studies done by others, I think it highly unlikely Nazareth could have afforded a Torah or that Jesus would have had access to anything other than self-taught “rabbis.” He may have spoken Aramaic and a little Greek, but it seems highly unlikely that he could have read Hebrew or written anything.

There is so much more detail that could be used to fill in this sketch of the times of Jesus, but you get the idea. Clearly he was from the peasant class and that left him in a position of political and economic powerlessness. He had no access to a powerful political patron and thus no easy access to education, health care, or economic opportunity. Even his access to religious institutions and cult observances was difficult. And, to make the point clearer, what we can say about Jesus, we can also say about those to whom he ministered! From what we can tell, Jesus ministered primarily to the peasants, artisans, and outcasts of Galilee.

II. Ancient Healing Practices: “Curing” versus “Healing”

Stevan Davies makes the interesting observation that although Jesus is routinely described as a teacher, his work as a healer is reported on almost as much as his teaching, particularly in Mark, and that work is not given nearly the same level of attention by scholars (Davies 1995: 9–15; cp. Avalos 1999: 5–8). Clearly the earliest reports of Jesus’s activity are of healing, and the gospel authors routinely describe crowds seeking him out for the purpose of being healed.[1] Therefore, it is worthwhile to try to understand a bit more about healing practices in the first century and about Jesus’s activities in making use of some of those practices.
[1] In the question-and-answer period following the initial presentation of this paper, someone asked if I thought the fact that Luke was a physician could have influenced that gospel’s portrayal of Jesus’s healing ministry. I said that I did not for at least two reasons: On the one hand the assignment of authorship to Luke for both the gospel and Acts is a fiction; there is no identification of the author in either text. On the other, “Luke” is mentioned only three times in the New Testament, and only in Colossians 4:14 is he designated a “physician.” Given that the authorship of Paul is disputed for Colossians and that it seems a bit strange that Paul would need to identify “Luke” in a particular way to a church Paul had founded, it seems to me that the tradition that Luke was somehow a healer is also ficticious.

Jonathan Reed puts it baldly: “Life and health was, in Galilee and the whole ancient world, much more fragile than it is today.” He goes on to say that average life expectancy was in the twenties; in one of four births either the mother or the child died; parasites, lice, and malaria were common; the primary diet consisted of bread and grain and so anemia was widespread. In addition to the services of so-called “physicians,” magical cures and exorcisms were popular. There seems to be little difference between medicine and magic in the first century world (Reed 2007: 69–70).

For the most part health care in the time of Jesus was expensive and unreliable. Ordinary people might have access to shamans or could go to priests representing various gods, but the cures recommended were often self-administered and complicated by the fact that rituals had to make sure to include all the relevant gods. There are some rabbinic stories that reflect appeals to deities other than God in case of illness, with specific demons associated with areas of the body and specific angels who could repel these demons. According to Hector Avalos, there were also self-help manuals that included, for example, instruction for the use of milk or eggs for eye trouble. Medicinal herbs such as frankincense were also recommended. (1999: 76–80)

In places outside of Palestine, those who could afford it might try to go to an Asclepium, a healing center run by the priests of the god Asclepius. At sites located in Greece and Asia Minor—ruins of which you can visit today—patients would present themselves after negotiating difficult terrain and, after paying their fee, would then be allowed to walk into the sanctuary where they could be bathed and undergo a treatment of water and aroma therapy. They could also offer sacrifices at a small altar installed in the courtyard. After an undetermined period of time, they could leave of their own volition. Followers of Isis and Mithras also claimed some therapeutic value from their practices. (Avalos 1999: 49–53) Typically, however, physicians, some of whom included slaves who served large households, were not held in high regard, and therapy had decidedly mixed results. Consider this little story from the book of Tobit (2:9–10):

That same night I washed myself and went into my courtyard; and my face was uncovered because of the heat. I did not know that there were sparrows on the wall; their droppings fell into my eyes and produced white films. I went to physicians to be healed, but the more they treated me with ointments the more my vision was obscured by the white films, until I become completely blind. For four years I was completely blind.

Types of disease in Palestine were often thought of in one of two classifications: organic/somatic and psychogenic/spiritual. If someone had something that we would understand as largely organic in origin, it might also be understood as a spiritual disorder as well, in that disease could be interpreted as punishment for sin. For example, consider the story when Jesus was asked if a person’s blindness resulted from his sin or that of his parents. Spiritual disorders were often understood as demon possession. And, as Stevan Davies has argued, it is important that we understand that gospel stories tend to relate the experience of people who were possessed by the demon, not just in possession of a demon. (Davies 1995: 78–89, 91) That is, the demon takes over the person. From the stories in the gospels Jesus is pictured as both healer and exorcist.

I don’t want to take any time to unpack the concept of Jesus as exorcist; if interested you can read Davies’s book, Jesus the Healer, to pursue that. I do, however, want to understand what “healing” might mean in the first century.

Dominic Crossan says it is important in understanding the healing stories in the gospels to differentiate between “curing a disease” and “healing an illness.” (1994: 80–81) “Curing a disease” involves resolving abnormalities in the system. I’m not qualified to list all the ways that could be done in modern medicine, but I think of things like medical or surgical procedures. “Healing an illness,” however, he describes as dealing with the “psycho-social experience and the meaning of the perceived disease.” He goes on to say that, “Illness is the shaping of disease into behavior and experience.” Davies remarks that even some kinds of somatic disease can be understood as psychogenic in origin so the cure for them involves healing in the sense of reshaping the perception of the disease. (Davies 1995: 75, et passim)

Jesus healed, in the view of Crossan and Davies, by acting as God. That is, he forgave sin and re-established the relationship between the patient and God. He established a new location for the patient within the kingdom of God; he let people in on his vision of the new creation. As importantly he commanded his disciples to do the same (cf. Mark6: 6b–13). But healing was a joint effort. His patients had to have “faith” that what he said was true, that God would act to heal them. When they had faith, healing worked; if they didn’t, it didn’t!

All my life I have heard people refer to some illness they are experiencing as punishment from God. I recently heard a celebrity cancer survivor talk about feeling guilty after she had been diagnosed. What had she done to warrant cancer? You know that many people feel ashamed that they are sick, ashamed that they are somehow letting their family down or fearful that they may be the cause of financial hardship for their loved ones. The gospels seem to indicate that Jesus understood these attitudes and in fact may have been motivated by the need to help people understand, to have faith in the fact, that God is for them. That meant that Jesus was trying to get people to understand that although they may have been among the lower social classes, they in fact had a patron. According to his vision of things, God as patron was already acting to change things and if they believed that, they could be healed.

Bruce Malina describes this activity on the part of Jesus as “brokerage.” Jesus was a kind of social broker who put people in touch with God, who is, in Malina’s description, the “heavenly Patron,” who can provide resources of all kinds to his clients, his people, including the resource of health care (1996: 152). Jesus demonstrated his control of divine resources through his healing and exorcisms, and by his teaching, which the gospels describe as more powerful than those of the representatives of the Temple cult in Jerusalem. However, unlike most other healers, he required no compensation other than faith, and because of that accumulated a debt of gratitude, illustrated in any number of gospel stories.

For me, however, the most poignant illustration of a client’s sense of gratitude for God’s patronage comes from the middle—155 or 156 CE—of the second century. When Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, was brought before the court and accused of treason for naming Jesus as lord, he was told to recant. His reply has stayed with me from my first reading of it 40 years ago. I quote a poetic translation: “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” God had been the faithful patron and Polycarp the grateful client. The function of Jesus as broker had been so successful that even the threat of death wouldn’t change Polycarp’s allegiance.

So, health care in the ancient world, however it was provided, seemed to involve the patron-client model of class relationship, and although self-help was practiced, people would nonetheless seek out the broker, or physician, who they thought had the best chance of making the resources of the divine available for their healing. And, given the limitations of pharmaceuticals and surgery in the ancient world, healing an illness may have been more common than curing a disease.

III. Models for Chaplaincy?

In a class I was teaching, a woman who has been involved in church for most of her life said to me, “This is all well and good, but what I need to know is what can I do with it?” I guess another way of expressing her question would be, “History and theology are interesting, but how am I supposed to express it in my life and work?” (By the way, it occurs to me that that question can arise in almost any faith context. “I get it”—whatever “it” is—“but so what?”) It is the time to elaborate on Jesus as “model” for chaplaincy.

I begin by stating the obvious: Context is profoundly important. My worldview was/is shaped by the situations I experienced. I grew up in a middle-class, educated family. I lived in a variety of locations throughout the country. I spent my career working with intelligent, interesting people. Typically I never had to worry about being fed and clothed. Healthcare was available to me almost without cost until I was 65! All of this colors my view of the world and puts some interesting limits on my ability to understand others. Somehow Jesus found a way to overcome the barriers to understanding inherent in his experience of his world and, therefore, the barriers to effective ministry. He seemed not to be constrained by his contexts or the circumstances of others. While he was almost certainly an observant Jew, he was able to overcome the limitations of his experiences and envision what he called the kingdom of God. Let me illustrate what I mean.

There are several episodes reported in the gospels where he ignores the cultural taboos confronting him. In the case of the Syrophoenician woman, he honored the request of a Gentile and a woman—a person unclean in two ways—and healed her daughter, who culturally was less important than a son would have been (Mark 7:26 ff). He responded to the request of a Roman centurion to heal his servant—most likely a eunuch in his service—thus acknowledging not only a Gentile and representative of a foreign oppressor, but also a person from a class of individuals who were widely despised in the ancient world (Mark 8:5 ff). He reacted favorably to the touch of a woman who was ritually impure due to menstrual hemorrhaging and by whose touch he was made impure (Mark 5:25 ff). He interacted with people with skin diseases who were also considered impure or unclean (Mark 1:40 ff). He simply ignored the constraints of class status he himself had experienced, and the prejudices fostered by his religion, to minister to the sick. He was, in other words, open to the otherness of people. In what he understood to be the new created order already working in the world, he saw others as family (cf. Matthew 12:46–50; 25:40). That worldview enabled, in fact empowered his ministry. So should it yours.

Jesus was an itinerant preacher and healer.[1] After being shunned by synagogue leaders, he seems to have stayed away from them—only three visits to synagogues are reported in the Synoptic gospels. He wandered the countryside with people coming to him (see, e.g. Mark 1:35–38) Modern medical care almost forecloses that model of ministry for a chaplain, but clearly as chaplains and pastoral care providers you are, or should be, itinerants. You need to go where the people are, AND you need to remember that your ministry extends to those who provide care, including perhaps bringing some insight concerning the nature of religious beliefs to other caregivers. Occasionally professionals need to be liberated from their perspectives (cp. Luke 11:42).
[1] Crossan argues (1994: 95–101) that Jesus should be understood as a radical itinerant, in the sense that unlike most brokers he did not settle in Nazareth to implement the typical practice of a “broker.” Instead he takes healing to the people and does not allow any one place to become identified with his ministry.

Has it occurred to you that Jesus learned from those he encountered on his travels? I can think of at least two stories I mentioned earlier in which there is a hint that he may have changed his mind about something. He told the gentile woman who asked that he heal her daughter that his primary audience was Israelites. By being self-deprecating, the woman convinced him to expand his vision to include gentiles. He did so. Then, when he encountered the centurion who asked him to heal his servant, the centurion had to explain to him the nature of power or authority. In those cases, and in many others, Jesus listened to people’s stories and was touched by them, seemed to learn from them. He wasn’t the professional caregiver who had the answers if only everyone would shut up and listen. He was, in the words of the Hebrew prophet, “wonderful counselor” (Isaiah 9:6)!

Jesus was also very hands on in his ministry. While some were healed through faith without any physical intervention, in other cases Jesus went into their sickrooms; he touched people, lifting them off their beds; he used spittle; he rubbed dirt on them. He used first century methods, found in a variety of religious rituals, many of them undoubtedly having a placebo effect, to redefine their experience of illness and relocate it within their social experience.

Obviously I am not going to suggest that we need to revert to what Jesus did to effect healing, but I will suggest that care givers can on occasion make do with what they have, or be more attuned to where they are. As one pastor I know said to me, “The hospital room is not a classroom; it is not a place to debate or try to fix what I may see as theological nonsense.” He went on to say that a patient’s room is not a revival hall; conversion should not be the goal of a visit. The goal ought to be listening to their experience of illness and offering resources to help them deal with that experience.

Caregivers do have resources to offer, but clients may or may not be ready to accept them. In classical rhetorical theory there was a principle called simply, “Presence.” It entailed understanding the nature of the location of the audience and who made up that audience in order to understand what to say and how to say it. My informant suggested that in the hospital room there will be occasions when saying nothing may be the appropriate response to a patient who may not be ready to cope or cannot express what she is dealing with. If comfort is one resource the divine patron can offer, then, I suppose, there are times when silence, expectant waiting, can be comforting. And do you remember what Jesus taught in his parable about those who will make up the constituency of the kingdom: “…I was sick and you took care of me.” (Matthew 25:36) That model of chaplaincy works in any faith tradition!

I acknowledge that the models for chaplaincy that I have just described may well be self-evident or superficial. Frankly I hope that my description of them has prompted you to think of others that are more relevant and/or profound. My purpose, in part, has been to remind you to think again not about the Son of God but the peasant from Nazareth, to remind you that what Jesus accomplished during his ministry was done as a human and that he commissioned other humans to carry out his ministry.

Conclusion: I want to conclude by sharing with you two stories.

Recently I read a piece in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette concerning some special education being provided pediatric chaplains enrolled in a program at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Two things in the story saddened me. On the one hand, the exercise being described involved a participant involved in role playing with an actress portraying a young, unmarried mother who seemed to evidence more concern for the fate of her partner in an obviously dysfunctional relationship than for her child who might well have been injured by the partner. It reminded me of people I have known who seem to have little or no ability to walk away from destructive relationships, even when that inability leads to dire consequences not only for themselves but for others in their lives.

That memory saddened and frustrated me, but I was, perhaps, more saddened by the reported response by the student to this scenario. It seemed to me that the student felt somehow obligated to engage in a gentle interrogation of the mother, not by way of bringing her to new insights about her plight but to discover the culpability of the partner. The questions hinted at an underlying and unspoken assumption that the woman was a co-dependent and an enabler. That classification was in danger of becoming more important than the person, and real healing was endangered. Do you remember what Jesus is supposed to have said to the adulterous woman? “Is there no one left to accuse you?…Then neither do I!” (John 7:53–8:11, disputed) Accept people for who they are and listen openly for what they need to say.

The second story has to do with something a former student wrote to me. She had been an honor student at the University and went to Harvard Divinity School. While there and in serving in a parish south of Boston, she discovered that she liked hospital chaplaincy work and studied at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. After George asked me to do this, she is one of the first people I contacted for advice on what to say. She wrote back, describing an experience she had had recently. I quote her:

I think of Jesus wandering among the people, going to them, not waiting for them to come to him…really seeing them, being moved by their stories and their experiences…and I think of a young patient I had a while back who was dying of leukemia, who said to me one day, “As long as you keep coming back, I know God hasn’t forgotten me!

That is what Jesus, the social broker, modeled, and the blessing and burden you take with you into the hospital everyday. You are God’s brokers; you are Immanuel!

A Very Selective Bibliography for “Jesus the Peasant” and “Jesus the Healer”

Paul J. Achtemeier, “Omne Verbum Sonat: The New Testament and the Oral Environment of Late Western Antiquity,” Journal of Biblical Literature 190 (1990): 3-27.

Avalos, Hector. Health Care and the Rise of Christianity. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999

Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant. HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

—. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.

Crossan, John Dominic and Jonathan L. Reed. Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Text. HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.

Davies, Stevan L. Jesus the Healer. New York: Continuum, 1995.

Harris, William V. Ancient Literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.

Klauck, Hans-Josef. Ancient Letters and the New Testament. Waco, TX: Baylor, 2006.

Levine, Amy-Jill, Dale C. Allison, Jr., and John Dominic Crossan, editors. The Historical Jesus In Context. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.

Malina, Bruce J. Windows on the World of Jesus: Time Travel to Ancient Judea. Louisville: Westminster, 1993.

—. The Social World of Jesus. New York: Routledge, 1996.

Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. 2 Volumes. New York: Doubleday, 1991.

Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome. Paul the Letter Writer. Collegeville, MN: TheLiturgical Press, 1995.

Reed, Jonathan L. The HarperCollins Visual Guide to the New Testament: What Archaeology Reveals about the First Christians. New York: HarperOne, 2007.

2009 Plenary of The College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy

2009-01-07T12:53:00.000-08:00

Invitation...

Come join us in Virginia Beach, Virginia
at the Gathering of the Community for the
Nineteenth Plenary Meeting

March 29th-April 1, 2009
Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel
Virginia Beach, Virginia

Hotel Registration...
Sheraton Oceanfront Hotel, 36th Street and Atlantic Avenue,
Virginia Beach, VA 23451 Tel: 800.521.5635 -or- 757.425.9000
Registrants must contact the hotel, at the telephone numbers
listed above, to reserve sleeping rooms.

Special Conference Rate: $109-$119 +tax. This rate is guaranteed
only though February 26, 2009, and for a limited number of rooms,
on a first-come basis. The price of the room will vary according to
the view. The hotel rooms are quite spacious and will accommodate
three or four persons comfortably. You are urged to register as early
as possible if you intend to stay at the Sheraton.

Please Note:
Registration Rate after February 26, 2009: $245. Meals/Refreshments for Non-Registered Companion or Spouse: $75.

For additional information please go to our web sites; http://www.pastoralreport.com/, http://www.cpsp.org/, or email the Registrar, Krista Argiropolis, at: jarg@metrocast.net

All Registrants are Requested to Bring a Clinical Paper or Case for Presentation:

This is a working conference. The heart of the program is the mutual sharing of our work and our lives. Thus each registrant is expected to come prepared to share something from his or her life or work in a small group context. There are no ground rules about what particular individuals may decide to share.

The small consultation groups have become a highly significant part of the Plenary Meeting. They represent this community’s commitment to hearing and responding to each voice in the community. They also have become educational events as we come to give both care and consultation to each other.

George Hankins HullPlenary Secretary

Spiritual Care Collaborative-Lofty Words Blowing in the Wind

2008-09-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

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 COLLABORATIVESeptember 3, 2008

Notice to Members of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy Community

From the Executive CommitteeRe: CPSP Relations with the Spiritual Care Collaborative

We in CPSP have made ourselves collegially available to the Spiritual Care Collaborative (SCC) since the SCC and its precursors began in 1996. John deVelder and Jim Gebhart have been in good faith, extensive, and ongoing communication with SCC leadership during the past twelve years. The results of years of collegial conversation have come to no resolution.The SCC has reported officially to John deVelder that it has developed no process for including other organizations in its membership. Thus, the SCC's claim to be a collaborative organization is to date only talk.

The SCC (and its precursors) was founded originally by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). The data suggest that the ACPE purpose from the beginning was to establish a monopoly in clinical pastoral training under the aegis of ACPE, in a joint venture with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC).

We in CPSP had hoped that the ACPE, allied with the APC, had abandoned the dream of monopoly. Apparently it has not. There can be no hope of collegial relations until the dream of monopoly is abandoned. For the time being we must consider our conversations with SCC to be fruitless.

CPSP will continue in its mission to promote with all its energy the training and certification of pastoral clinicians of several levels of expertise. We will continue to make ourselves available collegially to other organizations in the field. But we will also energetically resist any claims of monopoly from any other organization in our field of work.

Visit the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy.

Mid-South Fall Pastoral Care Institute

2008-07-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

Click on the announcement for full details.

Ethics And Theology in Conversation

2008-07-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

Mid-South Fall Pastoral Care Institute
October 30-31, 2008
Little Rock, Arkansas

Gather this Fall in Little Rock with chaplains, pastoral counselors, pastoral psychotherapists, and pastoral care givers from across the South for this educational event, beginning at Noon Thursday October 30th with workshops followed by a dinner and speaker that evening. The Institute continues with a day of educational seminars on Friday. Mark your calendars.

More information coming soon!

Presenters:

Thursday evening, October 30

James D. Hester, Ph. D. ,is the Crawford Professor of Religion, Emeritus, from the University of Redlands, Redlands, CA, where he taught for 31 years. He holds a doctorate in theology (DTheol) from the University of Basel (Switzerland), where he studied with Oscar Cullman, Bo Reicke, and Karl Barth.

He is a member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and of the Society of Biblical Literature. He was a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and for 12 years directed the Rhetorical New Testament Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity in Claremont, CA. Jim has presented papers at conferences not only throughout the US but also in England, Europe, and South Africa.

Topic: Returning to the theological roots of pastoral care "Jesus the Healer: The Peasant from Nazareth as Model for Chaplaincy"

Friday morning, October 31

D. Micah Hester, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Medical Humanities/Pediatrics and Clinical Ethicist, Division of Medical Humanities University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Arkansas Children's Hospital.

Topic: “Can't We All Just Get Along? – Considering the Ethics of Goods, Duties, and Virtues”

A call for workshop proposals will be coming soon.

Location:
Trinity Presbyterian Church
4501 Rahling RdLittle Rock, AR 72223
(501) 868-5848

Co-sponsored by:
Mississippi Chaplains Association
Arkansas Association of Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors
Little Rock Chapter of College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Department of Pastoral Care and Clinical Pastoral Education

The College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy
Committed to Ongoing Theological Education and Reflection

Spiritual Care Collaborative Fails First Real Test of True Collaboration

2008-07-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

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 that it is more of a political power block than a truly collaborative organization.

George Hankins HullCPSP
Diplomate in Clinical Pastoral Education

FROM THE CPSP GENERAL SECRETARY: SCC Unable to Act On Question of Whether to Invite CPSPWe 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 an invitation to join the SCC. The SCC Board reported on June 16 that it was unable to reach a consensus because it does not know how to revise its founding documents in order to include new groups such as CPSP. It seems that the SCC has built a monster, an organization unable to act on such critical issues. It crows about its inclusivity but has no process for including anyone. It is an organization muscle bound, unable to make a decision. The decision-making process they have created is dysfunctional.

The SCC decision-making process goes like this: All important questions are first presented to the individual boards of member organizations for a decision. After all the individual boards have met (a process of many months), representatives of the respective boards hold a phone conference. Unless there is total unanimity there is hardly any way for a decision to come out of such a phone conference. The SCC appears to have created itself in such a way as to make tough or controversial decisions impossible.

On Feb 23, 2003 in Toronto, George Hanzo famously said of the formation of the embryonic SCC (at that time called the Council on Collaboration):"Ten years from now, you won’t recognize the face of professional chaplaincy, and it’s because of the incredible work we’ve done here today."

Well, more than five years have past now since that date and the SCC can’t figure out how to make decisions. We hope that’s not what it means by changing the face of pastoral care and counseling in this country. We’re terribly afraid George might be right.

We wish the SCC well. We certainly need more honest dialogue and more inclusivity in the pastoral care and counseling world. Perhaps when the SCC gathers for its much-touted summit in Orlando next February, it can figure out how to reconstitute itself in a way that decisions can be made.

Raymond Lawrence, General Secretary

To Email Raymond Lawrence, click here.Spiritual Care Collaborative Falls at first Hurdle

CPE Residency 2008

2008-04-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

The CPE program focuses on the development of self-awareness, formation of pastoral identity, professional functioning, and the ability to address issues from a competent clinical and pastoral perspective.

The residency program is designed for the ordained person with a seminary degree and at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. On occasion, a lay person may qualify for admission. CPE residents and interns serve as ecumenical chaplains, under supervision, to assigned areas throughout the UAMS Medical Center and clinics. The setting provides a rich base for clinical experience and opportunities for continued personal, professional and pastoral development.

The UAMS Clinical Pastoral Training programs follow the standards set by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP), the accrediting organization. A typical unit of CPE requires a minimum of 400 hours of supervised ministry in a clinical setting.

Stipend: 24,600 plus medical benefits: This training opportunity carries on call responsibilities

Pastoral Care Services
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
4301 W. Markham St. #561,
Little Rock, AR 72205

(501) 686-6888

College of Pastoral supervision And Psychotherapy

2008-03-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

The College Of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy In Conversation With Professor Arthur W. Frank

2008-03-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

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 languages and won the 1996 Natalie Davis Spingarn Writer's Award from the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, Washington, D.C. A new edition was published in 2002 with a new Afterword. In 1995 he published The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics (University of Chicago Press), a study of first-person accounts of illness. Both of his books have had excerpts reprinted in multiple anthologies in medical sociology, social medicine, and the meaning of illness.

His most recent book, The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live, was published by The University of Chicago Press in 2004. The review in the New England Journal of Medicine describes the book: “Frank rightly understands that communication gains its importance not in achieving a technical mastery…but in educating one to face difference, frailty, and limitation. Through a rich telling of stories and reflection on them, Frank conducts a symphony of ideas about medicine…” (Dec 30, 2004).

His recent journal publications have appeared in Qualitative Health Research, Qualitative Sociology, Health, Families, Systems & Health, health:, The Hastings Center Report, BioSocieties, and Literature and Medicine.

Dr. Frank is on the editorial boards of Body & Society, Families, Systems & Health, Qualitative Health Research, Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, and International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Health and Well-being. In 2002 he became book review editor of the British journal Health. He is a corresponding editor of Literature and Medicine.

In 1998 Dr. Frank was William Evans Fellow in the Bioethics Research Programme, University of Otago, New Zealand. In July-August 1999 he was Visiting Professor at the Centre for Values, Ethics, and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia. In 2000 he delivered the R.A. Goodling Lectures at Duke Divinity School. His most recent invited lectures include delivering the 2007 Carl Moore Lecture at McMaster University’s Department of Family Medicine. He has given workshops on narrative analysis in Canada, Korea, South Africa, Britain, and Australia.

His national research awards include a Killam Resident Fellowship and a three-year project, funded by Social Science and Research Council of Canada, titled “Survivorship as moral choice.” He has been a participant in two working groups at The Hastings Center: “The Role of the Clinician-Patient Relationship in Cancer Care and Research” and “Surgically Shaping Children.” He is currently a collaborator on “The Experience and Resolution of Moral Distress in Pediatric Intensive Care Teams: A Canadian Perspective”, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.participant in two working groups at The Hastings Center: “The Role of the Clinician-Patient Relationship in Cancer Care and Research” and “Surgically Shaping Children.” He is currently a collaborator on “The Experience and Resolution of Moral Distress in Pediatric Intensive Care Teams: A Canadian Perspective”, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The 2008 Plenary of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy will be held March 31 through April 2, 2008, at the Wyndham Riverfront in North Little Rock Arkansas

For more information about the 2008 CPSP Plenary click here to visit the Pastoral Report

CPSP Plenary Update

2008-03-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

Two Great Reasons to Attend the CPSP 2008 Plenary

1. The Pre-conference Workshops

2. Visit Little Rock's Places of Interest

1. Preconference Workshops:

a. 9:00 a.m. Sunday – “Community Based C.P.E.”
b. 10:45 a.m. Sunday – “There is No Suffering in the Hospital”

c. 1:00 p.m. Sunday – “Chapter Life Workshop"

2. Visit these historic sites:

a. The Clinton Presidential Library
b. The Old Mill – site of the opening scene of “Gone with the Wind”
c. Central High School – site of the “Little Rock Nine” historic school desegregation
d. The Little Rock River Market
e. Alltel Arena – site of 2008 NCAA regional men’s basketball tournament
f. Villa Marre – the house on the sitcom “Designing Women”
g. Heifer Project International Green Building
h. MacArthur Museum of Military History
i. Old State House Museum
j. Arkansas Museum and Historical Restoration
k. Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum/USS Razorback (WWII submarine)
l. Arkansas Riverboat Queen
m. River Rail Streetcars & Trolley System

(For additional site and information on tourism, visit:

http://www.northlittlerock.org/ )

Plenary Rate of $79.00 rate applies Friday and Saturday prior to the conference at convention hotel – Wyndham Riverfront.

To download the CPSP 2008 Plenary brochure Click Here

College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy National Clinical Training Seminar

2007-09-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to announce our presenter for this National Clinical Training Seminar:Richard Sloan, Ph.D. is a professor of Behavioral Medicine at Columbia University. Last year he published a book entitled: Blind Faith, The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine.

“Blind Faith gives readers the tools to understand when good medical science is subverted and, as important, how true religion is debased by bringing it into the laboratory.”

Dr. Sloan will talk about his book and open up the discussion to our community. For those who do not have the book, you may want to purchase it. “By showing how real science works, Sloan exposes the destructive forces at play when two very different domains- religion and medicine- meet.”
The Pastoral Report published Dr. Sloan's 2001 CPSP Plenary presentation, Religion, Spirituality and Medicine.

The NCTS is open to all members of the CPSP community. CPE Supervisors and Supervisors-In-Training are encouraged to attend. Equally true, Pastoral Psychotherapists and Pastoral Counselors as well as Clinical Chaplains will find the NCTS a significant resource for their personal and professional development.
For more information about the CPSP National Clinical Training Seminar, click here.

Francine Angel, NCTS Coordinator

REPORT FROM ASIA-Raymond Lawrence, CPSP General Secretary

2007-09-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

I just left Iloilo in the Philippines where I was guest of the School of Theology, Central Philippine University (CPU). The university was the first school and hospital established in the Philippines by the American Baptists a century ago. It is a very large and impressive complex. The university invited me to be a sort of visiting consultant with special attention to its clinical pastoral training program. Its program is accredited by CPSP.

The dean, Dr. Limuel Equina, was very hospitable and attempted to meet my every need. I was astonished at my departure, when I rushed to an early flight at 5:30 in the morning, to find the dean and his wife at the airport to wish me a safe journey. His action relays something of who the dean is and something about the hospitality of the Philippine people.

The person I most related to at the university was the Rev Daisy Basiliano who is the director of clinical pastoral education. She is conducting several training groups, and having observed them first hand, it was clear that the process is working quite well. The training program has a wide and positive reputation. I was surprised to discover that she has had trainees coming from North America and Europe to take training there. I had never imagined that traffic was going the other way in this fashion. That too speaks for the quality of the program at CPU.

CPU Public Relations set up a TV interview with me, asking me to comment on clinical training and also on my recently published book. Even though most of my time there was focused on clinical work, I also made several presentations on my book. The reception was surprisingly friendly, more so than I would anticipate in the U.S. Philipino people seem to me much more congruent with and comfortable with their sexuality than the typical American. To be sure I got some open resistance, and undoubtedly other not-so-open resistance, but it was relatively meager.

My plans were to go from Iloilo to Hong Kong and pay a brief visit to the CPSP community there. However, Dean Equina contacted the dean of the Episcopal Seminary in Manila who immediately insisted I stop off there and address the clergy and seminarians. I am now in Manila and will speak tomorrow morning at the seminary.They are treating me here in the Philippines so much better than

I am treated at home that I perhaps should emigrate, or become an ex-patriot in these islands.
Raymond Lawrence

Mid-South Regional Fall Chaplains Conference

2007-09-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

Mid-South Regional Fall Chaplains Conference
October 11-12, 2007 Delta Regional Medical Center
Greenville, Mississippi

Dr. Larry Burton to Headline Fall Mid-South Chaplains Conference

Gather this Fall with chaplains from across the South for this educational event, beginning with dinner on Thursday night, continuing with a full day of educational seminars on Friday. Mark your calendars & register now!

Schedule
Thursday, Oct. 11 – 6:30 p.m.: Dinner
Thursday, Oct. 11 – 7:30 p.m.: Workshop 1 When Religion Becomes an Ethical Issue
Dr. Larry Burton, Past APC President & COMISS Chairman
Friday, Oct. 12 – 8:00 a.m.: Continental Breakfast
Friday, Oct. 12 – 8:30 a.m.: Workshop 2 Encountering the Sacred through Organ Donation
Chaplain Phil Pinckard, Medical Center of South Arkansas
Friday, Oct. 12 – 11:00 a.m.: Workshop 3 Internal Family Systems
Walt Porter, Ph. D., Clinical Psychologist
Friday, Oct. 12 – 12 Noon: Lunch
Friday, Oct. 12 – 1:00 p.m.: Workshop 4 Turning Death in to Healing
Chaplain Al Henager, UAMS Palliative Care Coordinator
Friday, Oct. 12 – 2:30 p.m.: Workshop 5 The Long Journey Home - Working with Troops
Returning from War
Chaplain Bonita Barnes, Chaplain (Colonel) James A. Ryan,
J. Vincent Roca, Ph.D. – Central Arkansas Veterans Health System

Sponsored by:
Mississippi Chaplains Association
Arkansas Association of Chaplains & Pastoral Counselors
Tennessee Chaplains Association
Louisiana Chaplains Association
Little Rock Chapter of CPSP
Deep South Chapter of CPSP

Registration - $35.00 (Includes meals and all workshops)
Make checks payable to:
Arkansas Association of Chaplains & Pastoral Counselors
Mail registration to:
Chaplain Al Henager
UAMS Medical Center
4301 W. Markham, 561
Little Rock, AR 72205-7199
Phone: 501-686-5410
Email: aahenager@uams.edu

CEC’s (Continuing Education Credits) have been approved by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy

CEE (Continuing Chaplain Education) units have been applied for with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC)

College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy-Ecclesiastical Endorsement

2007-07-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ordained ministers and others commissioned to serve in specialized pastoral ministries are required to provide to the College of Pastoral Supervision And Psychotherapy, evidence of endorsement and validation of their ministries by their faith group. Endorsement and validation of ministry by one’s faith group is a requirement for certification and continued certification with CPSP.

Ecclesiastical Endorsement Bodies:

Adventist Church Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://www.adventistchaplains.org/endorse.htm

Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries
Seventh-day Adventist
World Headquarters
12501 Old Columbia PikeSilver
Spring, MD 20904 USA
Phone: 301-680-6780
Fax: 301-680-6783
e-mail: acm@gc.adventist.org

Alliance of Baptists Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://www.allianceofbaptists.org/AOB-2007Endorsement.doc
Ann Sidney Charlescraft, D.Min.
Manager for Bereavement Services
Chaplain/Instructor
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System
Department of Pastoral Care
PO Box 980664
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0664

Apostolic Catholic Orthodox Church
Chaplaincy Endorsement
http://www.apostoliccatholic.org/mentor.html

1900 St. James Place,
Suite 880
Houston, TX 77056
Tel: 713.977.2855 713.266.2456
Fax: 713.266.0845
Email: info@apostoliccatholic.org

Assemblies of God Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://chaplaincy.ag.org/gen_requirements.cfm#ioc

Baptist General Convention of Missouri
Chaplaincy Endorsement
http://www.baptistgcm.org/chaplaincy.asp

Dr. Bobby Smith, Director
Chaplaincy Relations
Baptist General Convention of Texas
E-mail: chaplaincy@bgct.org
Phone: 214-828-5277
Fax: 214-828-5261

Baptist General Convention of Texas
Chaplaincy Endorsement
http://www.bgct.org/texasbaptists/Page.aspx?&pid=4261

Church of the Nazarene
http://www.nazarenechaplains.org/nazarenechaplains/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

Requests for endorsement must be made to Chaplaincy Services. Chaplain candidates will be interviewed by the Chaplaincy Advisory Committee and a General Superintendent. The Board of General Superintendents will give final endorsement approval.

Coalition of Spirit-Filled Churches
Chaplaincy Endorsement
http://www.spirit-filled.org/
Rev. David B. Plummer, BCCC
Endorsing Executive
Post Office Box 6606
Newport News, VA 23606
(877)-CSC-CHAP
FAX: (757)-596-7690
Email: Chaplaincy@spirit-filled.org

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
http://www.thefellowship.info/News/050809chaplains.icm

Dr. George C. Pickle
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
P.O. Box 450329
Atlanta, GA 31145-0329
(770)-220-1600
Email: gpickle@thefellowship.info

Disciples of Christ
http://www.discipleshomemissions.org/chaplains/procedures.htm

Chaplaincy & Specialized Ministries Office
P.O. Box 1986
Indianapolis, Ind. 46206
e-mail: Karen Jones kjones@dhm.disciples.org

Episcopal Church Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://www.ecusa-chaplain.org/

Rev. George E. Packard, Bishop Suffragan
Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies
The Episcopal Church Center
815 Second Avenue,
New York, NY 10017
(800)-334-7626
E-mail: gpackard@episcopalchurch.org
Website: http://www.ecusa-chaplain.org/

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=10356

Judy Ladage
Specialized Pastoral Care Coordinator
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod
1333 S. Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, MO 63122-7295
(800)-248-1930 ext. 1388
Email: judy.ladage@lcms.org

Orthodox Church in America
http://www.oca.org/DOdept.asp?SID=5&LID=13

Rev. Steven Voytovich Director
170 Bunker Hill Rd.
Guilford, CT 06437
Office: 203-789-3248
Home: 203-453-4405
Email: svoytovich@srhs.org

Presbyterian Church USA
Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://www.apps.pcusa.org/phewa/networks/paspm/endorsement.pdf

Stated clerk in applicant’s presbytery. Presbytery determines through action of its Committee on Ministry whether persons within its jurisdiction are in good standing.
Website: http://www.pcusa.org/

United Church of Christ
Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://www.ucc.org/ministers/pdfs/eccendorseprof.pdf

Chairperson, Association Church & Ministry Committee(Association of current standing)The completed and signed endorsement form is to be sent for verification to:
Rev. Richard O. Sparrow
Parish Life and Leadership
Ministry TeamUnited Church of Christ
700 Prospect Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115-1100
(216)-736-3881
FAX: (216)-736-2237
Email: sparrowr@ucc.org
Website: http://www.ucc.org/

United Methodist Church
Ecclesiastical Endorsement
http://www.gbhem.org/ResourceLibrary/glossary05.pdf

The Rev. Patricia Barrett
Division of Chaplains and Related Ministries
P.O. Box 340007Nashville, TN 37203-0007
(615)-340-7411
Email: umea@gbhem.org

College of Pastoral Suupervision & Psychotherapy Community in Diversity

2007-07-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

They came from around the world for the 2007 CPSP Plenary in Raleigh, North Carolina.

CPSP has indigenous ClinicalPastoral Education programs in Seoul South Korea, Kowloon Hong Kong, Iloilo City Philippines, Singapore, Moshi Tanzania, Caracas Venezuela, Arecibo & Humacao Puerto Rico, Nassau Bahamas and Canada.

CPSP promoting the voices of the many in the Clinical Pastoral Training movement.

We invite you view Snapshots of the 2007 gathering of the CPSP Community at:
http://www.cpsp.org/

Blessings
George Hankins Hull
CPSP Diplomate in Clinical Pastoral Supervision

CPSP Mid-South Regional Leadership Meeting

2007-06-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

Click on the image below for full details.

CPSP 2008 Plenary

2007-06-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

CPSP 2008 PLENARY – Rockin’ in Little Rock!
March 31 – April 2
The 2008 Plenary of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy will be held March 31 through April 2, 2008, at the Wyndham Riverfront in North Little Rock Arkansas.

HOTEL DESCRIPTION
The Wyndham Riverfront Little Rock is located on the north bank of the Arkansas River, in the heart of downtown North Little Rock. Our convenient location puts you in the center of the action - just one mile from the downtown Little Rock business district, seven miles from Little Rock National Airport and just a few blocks from the Statehouse Convention Center and Alltel Arena. Downtown North Little Rock offers many fine restaurants and clubs, including what will be Cregan’s Irish Pub, only a block from the hotel.

Count on comfort and performance in a spacious guest room filled with thoughtful amenities like a two-line phone, data port, voice mail and Internet access. Dining is a pleasure at the hotel's two restaurants, world-renowned Benihana and the Riverfront Steak House. And when it's time to play, the hotel has a number of recreational amenities, including a fitness center and outdoor pool.

If you'd like to explore the Little Rock area, we offer easy access to many of Little Rock's historic attractions, including the Arkansas State Capitol, Old State House, Arkansas Territorial Restoration, The River Market, The William J. Clinton Presidential Library, Alltel Arena, and The Arkansas Museum of Science and History. The new Dickey-Stephens Park, home of the Arkansas Travelers minor league baseball team is a short walk away. The Central Arkansas Trolley runs less than a block from the hotel and provides enjoyable transportation across the Arkansas River into the River Market area of Little Rock with its many restaurants and clubs.

The hotel is pleased to offer the CPSP Plenary rate of $79.00 single or double occupancy with $10.00 for each additional person (exclusive of tax). Rollaways are an additional $15.00 charge per day. (Hotel policy does not allow more than 4 people per room). Guests may call the hotel toll free number 1-866-657-4458 or the hotel directly at 1-501-371-9000 to make reservations.

You will need to mention the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy when calling to make reservations in order to receive the discounted rate. (The ordinary rate is $129.00 single and $139.00 double. Cancellations must be made 24 hours in advance.)

The Hotel provides a free shuttle service between the Little Rock National Airport and the Hotel.

The Hotel website is: http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/LITNO/main.wnt

NORTH LITTLE ROCK and LITTLE ROCK
Little Rock and North Little Rock are twin cities located on either side of the Arkansas River. The name “Little Rock” came from the natural river port discovered by French explorers at La Petite Roch or “the Little Rock.”
North Little Rock and Little Rock are the central cities by definition in a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 90th largest in the United States.
Central Arkansas has the largest concentration of limited access highways and one of the most diverse economies within the entire state; the area is a banking and business center and major manufacturing firms call Central Arkansas home.

With the state capitol located in Little Rock, serving as headquarters for almost every state agency, the state is one of the largest employers in the area. In addition, Little Rock Air Force Base is located 15 miles north of North Little Rock.

North Little Rock downtown is home to the Arkansas Twisters of the AF2 Arena Football League and the Arkansas RimRockers of the NBA D-League (both of which play at Alltel Arena). Near the arena is Dickey-Stephens Park, the new home of the Arkansas Travelers minor league baseball team.

Burns Park, one of the largest municipal parks in the United States, is located in western North Little Rock.

North Little Rock was once known as Argenta, a name currently applied specifically to downtown North Little Rock. Argenta is the Latin word for silver, as the city was originally founded as a silver mining town. The city has a rich diversity of culture, ethic groups, and heritage.

The website for the North Little Rock Advertising and Promotions Commission is: http://www.northlittlerock.org/

The website for the Little Rock Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is: http://www.littlerock.com/

More to come on the 2008 Plenary later.

Association for Clinical Pastoral Education-Motion 43-An Indication Of A Troubled Organization

2007-05-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

In May of 2006 the ACPE Board of Representatives at it's spring meeting in Atlanta, a motion was adopted that ACPE accredited centers can no longer offer CPSP units of CPE training. The following reasons were presented as to the rational for the motion:

MOTION # 43: ACCREDITATION OF DUALLY ALIGNED (CPSP AND ACPE)

CENTERSWhereas, the Accreditation Commission has consistently received reports from students and seminaries of a lack of informed consent about the contrast of ACPE CPE and CPSP CPE;

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission has experienced a lack of consistent application of the program standards of CPSP CPE programs,

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission finds a lack of transparency with the organization of CPSP, its curriculum processes,

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission has received reports ofACPE CPE centers who hire CPE Supervisors who have membership inboth organizations being dropped from the ACPE roster and offering only CPSP CPE after telling the hospital administration the CPSP CPE is "cheaper".

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission has received reports of students being offered both CPSP and ACPE units at the same time but being told that the ACPE units are more expensive and therefore they would have to pay a higher tuition fee. The student is then given the choice of which they would like to be granted.

And whereas, the Accreditation Commission works diligently to uphold the standards required by the DOE accreditation. This is stated onthe certificate we give to each ACPE CPE center. When an ACPE supervisor offers CPSP within the same center it is the Accreditation Commission's belief that this gives the appearance that both organizations have the same rigorous process.

Therefore, the Accreditation Commission requests the ACPE, Inc.,Board of Representatives to immediately establish a policy that no ACPE, Inc. accredited center can conduct units of CPSP CPE. The motion:Move that the ACPE, Inc. Board of Reps immediately establish a policy that no accredited ACPE, Inc. Center conduct units of CPSP CPE.

Made by Art Lucas, seconded by Miriam Needham and passed with one abstention.

While listing grievous charges against CPSP members the ACPE went public with its allegations and at no time addressed the alleged issues with CPSP.

Following the adoption of motion 43 the ACPE tookthe following action:

All ACPE Centers to receive a letter from Decatur asking to declare and report what kinds of CPE the center currently offers: ACPE, NACC, CPSP or other. This response (signed by each center's primary Supervisor, Professional Advisory Group chair and Administrator responsible for CPE) will be required to accompany each Center's 2006 Annual Center Report. A process for addressing ACPE Centers offering CPSP is in place and ACPE accreditation will be withdrawn.

The ACPE then sent a letter to seminaries across the US informing them of motion 43.

At no time has the ACPE addressed any of its concerns with CPSP.

While making serious allegations against CPSP the ACPE was reprimanded by the Department of Education for placing students at risk.

Department of Education evaluator, Ms. Jones, who recently attended meetings with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education directs ACPE to end a practice which "has frequently created problems and put students at risk."

The issue, as outlined in the December 2006 edition of the ACPE North Central Region News, is as follows:

There have been many occasions when ACPE supervisors, despite having clear guidelines in the Accreditation Manual and duly designated colleagues with whom to consult about accreditation processes, have initiated units in satellite or component sites that have not been assessed and approved by those charged with that task. Colleagues on accreditation committees have felt themselves held hostage there after by appeal to students' welfare. ("If you don't give us retroactive provisional approval, our students won't get credit for their unit!")

Ms. Jones pointed out that "the greatest disservice to ACPE students was the continuation of a unit in an unevaluated site.

"The DOE evaluator's unequivocal counsel was that "such situations should receive a cease and desist order rather than accommodation."

While alleging a lack of consistent application of the program standards of CPSP CPE programs, an internal ACPE report revealed that:

while the ACPE "excels at developing thoughtful standards to guide supervisory practice, it remains a challenge to embed the standards into actual practice, given how practices evolve differently from center to center and supervisor to supervisor, andhow processes for peer review and continuing education reflect wide variance."

The report further reveals the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education as a troubled organization in which the peer review process has broken down.

The report reads "the peer review process in the ACPE is not structured to support the growth and development of our educating supervisors and no other processes have been formally identified.

Additionally this month the ACPE is required by the DOE to "develop and implement complaint procedures for addressing complaints against programs and institutions related to violations of the agency's educational standards and procedures and to develop and implement complaint procedures for addressing complaints against the agency.

In other words the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education needs to put in place a satisfactory mechanism for addressing complaints against itself.

In response to the Dec. 2006 DOE re-recognition hearing the ACPE's Deryck Durston reflected in the ACPE News that the ACPE representatives questioned the competency of the DOE committee members in relation to their task.

Now isn't it interesting that CPSP is not the only organization that the ACPE leadership considers to be incompetent.

The bottom line is that CPSP is in the good company of the Department of Education.

CMS Regulations Relating to Clinical Pastoral Education & Medicare Pass-Through Payments

2006-12-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

There remains considerable confusion concerning which Clinical Pastoral Education training programs qualify to receive Medicare Payments. The leadership of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education has not acted in a responsible manner to clear up the misunderstanding; promoted by ACPE leaders; that only ACPE accredited Doe recognized programs qualify for such payments. Clinical Pastoral Education training programs accredited by The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy also qualify for such payments. Medicare officials do not support the ACPE only claim. We quote a response provided from the Medicare office: “The regulations cite the ACPE as an example of a national professional organization that would be sufficient as the accrediting body. However, the regulation at section 413.85(e) also specifically state that the accrediting bodies are “not limited to” the cited organizations. While programs that are accredited by the ACPE meet CMS definition of an Approved Nursing and Allied Health Education Program, there is no exclusivity granted by the regulations to ACPE programs.”

SUMMARY OF THE MEDICARE INPATIENT PROSPECTIVE PAYMENT SYSTEM AS RELATED TO CLINICAL PASTORAL EDUCATION
By George Hankins-Hull Th.M., Dip.Th.
Diplomate in Clinical Pastoral Supervision

This document provides an overview of the Medicare final rule for the inpatient prospective payment system (PPS) for the federal fiscal year (FY) 2004, as it pertains to Nursing and Allied Health Education and in particular to Clinical Pastoral Education.

The final rule is available electronically on the Federal register website at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a030801c.html and by selecting the entry under Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The provisions of this rule go into effect 10/01/03 Questions regarding the summary or the final rule as it pertains to clinical pastoral education can be directed to George Hankins-Hull.

Continuing Education Issue for Nursing and Allied Health Education: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has revised regulations to clearly differentiate between provider-operated continuing education programs that CMS considers normal hospital operating costs covered by the Prospective Payment System (PPS) rate, and approved Nursing and Allied Health Education programs (NAHE) that are eligible for pass-through payments. CMS is amending the regulations to state that activities treated as normal operating costs include "Educational seminars, workshops, and continuing education programs in which the employee participate that enhance the quality of medical care or operating efficiency of the provider and, effective October 1, 2003, do not lead to the ability to practice and begin employment in a nursing or allied health specialty." These types of programs will not be paid as pass-through.

Pass-through payments will be provided only to programs that qualify an individual to be employed in a specialty in which the individual could not have been employed before completing a particular education program. Industry norm will be defined to mean that more than 50% of hospitals in a random, statistically valid sample require the completion of a particular training program before an individual may be employed in a specialty. CMS provides the following as examples of the application of this criterion:

Participants in a provider-operated nursing diploma program could not practice as nurses without that training. Therefore, the nursing program may be eligible for pass-through payment.

A nurse residency program is a postgraduate program that typically lasts one year and trains nurses to care for patients who require complex services. CMS states that these programs do not qualify the nurse to be employed in a new specialty and are not eligible for pass-through payment.

A one-year pharmacy practice residency is typically required before a hospital will hire an individual to fill a position that requires direct contact with hospital patients. CMS considers this the industry norm for practice in the ?specialty? of hospital pharmacy. Therefore, these programs may be eligible for pass-through payment.

Pharmacists may also go on to participate in a second year of specialized residency in a focused area of pharmacy practice such as oncology or cardiology. CMS has determined that it is NOT currently the industry norm to require completion of these programs before beginning work in these specialties. Therefore, these programs are not eligible for pass-through payment. This could change if it later becomes the industry norm to require this training.

It is the industry norm for hospitals to employ only board-certified chaplains and to require completion of approximately 1,600 hours of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) before an individual can begin employment as a hospital chaplain. Therefore, a hospital that operates a CPE program may be eligible for pass-through payment.

To receive pass-through payment, an eligible program must meet all other criteria including: the program must be accredited by a national approving body; and the provider must directly incur the training costs, have direct control of the curriculum and administration of the program, employ the teaching staff, and provide and control the classroom training and clinical instruction.
CMS will consider an activity an approved nursing and allied health education program if the program is a planed program of study that is licensed by the State law, or if licensing is not required, is accredited by the recognized national professional organization for that particular activity. Such national accrediting bodies include, but are not limited to, the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, the National League of Nursing Accrediting Commission, the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education Inc., and the American Dietetic Association.

Board Certification of Chaplains: CMS understands that ?board-certification of chaplains is carried out by nationally recognized organizations that are part of the Commission on Ministry in Specialized Settings (COMISS), an umbrella network for pastoral care organizations that share the same standards of educational preparation and clinical training.?
The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is a nationally recognized professional pastoral care training, certifying and accrediting organization. CPSP is a member organization of COMISS and accredits a wide range of training programs in clinical pastoral education, pastoral counseling, and pastoral psychotherapy.

CPSP programs meet or exceed generally accepted standards of training for pastoral counselors, institutional chaplains, and pastoral psychotherapists. CPSP programs also meet traditional seminary requirements for candidates seeking graduate theological degrees as well as minimal standards set by various denominations and governmental agencies.
CPSP programs are designed to prepare persons for credentials as Pastoral Counselor, Board Certified Clinical Chaplain, Board Certified Associate Clinical Chaplain, Dipolmate in Pastoral Supervision or Diplomate in Pastoral Psychotherapy.

CPSP accredited training programs meet CMS criteria as it pertains to Nursing and Allied Health Education and in particular to the training of Board Certified Chaplains. CPSP accredited Clinical Pastoral Education training programs are eligible to receive pass-through payments on the basis that: It is the industry norm for hospitals to employ only board-certified chaplains and to require completion of approximately 1,600 hours of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) before an individual can begin employment as a hospital chaplain. Therefore, a hospital that operates a CPE program may be eligible for pass-through payment.

George Hankins Hull
Director of Pastoral Care &
Clinical Pastoral Education
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
4301 W. Markham St., #561
Little Rock, AR 72205

Telephone (501)-686-6888

A CPSP Perspective "Lack of Clarity Plagues the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education"

2006-10-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

For nearly a decade the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) has erroneously promoted itself as the only legitimate provider of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and, therefore, the only provider of CPE to qualify for Medicare Pass-through payments. Statements to this fact have been made by Lerrill White an ACPE supervisor and former ACPE President Bill Baugh. In addition former ACPE President James Stapleford further complicated the issue with the misleading comments that recognition by the Department of Education was a necessary qualifier to receiving such payments. The comments by these well known ACPE leaders carry authority and are misleading both to the ACPE membership and to the public at large. It is regrettable then that the ACPE Board of Representatives has failed to take any corrective action to publicly correct the erroneous comments made by some of the organizations most prominent members. One might conclude that the ACPE membership is not well served by its national leaders whose lack of leadership on this issue promotes continued confusion in the ACPE and the public at large.

George Hankins Hull
CPSP Diplomate in Pastoral Supervision

The CPSP Advantage

2006-09-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is unique among the national pastoral care training, certifying and accrediting agencies in that CPSP is a covenanting community. At the heart of the CPSP community is a covenant of mutual accountability grounded in the concept that people are more important than institutions. Believing that life is best lived by grace, the CPSP community places a premium on the significance of relationships between its members. What other organizations attempt to legislate for by standards CPSP is by nature, a community of professional accountability. The CPSP advantage is that people come first.

The Covenant of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy

Spiritual pilgrims
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.

Chapters
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 consisting of approximately a dozen colleagues. Teaching or counseling programs directed by CPSP Diplomates are the primary responsibility of the Chapter.

Recovery of soul
We commit ourselves to a galaxy of shared values that are as deeply held as they are difficult to communicate. "Recovery of soul" is a metaphor that points toward these values. We place a premium on the significance of the relationships among ourselves. We value personal authority and creativity. We believe we should make a space for one another and stand ready to midwife one another in our respective spiritual journeys. Because we believe that life is best lived by grace, we believe it essential to guard against becoming invasive, aggressive, or predatory toward each other. We believe that persons are always more important than institutions, and even the institution of CPSP itself must be carefully monitored lest it take on an idolatrous character.

A Living Experience
We intend to travel light, to own no property, to accumulate no wealth, and to create no bureaucracy. We are invested in offering a living experience that reflects human life and faith within a milieu of supportive and challenging community of fellow pilgrims.

For more information about The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy
Visit: http://www.cpsp.org/

For information about Clinical Pastoral Education at UAMS Medical Center Visit: http://www.uams.edu/cpe/training_programs/default.asp

Supervisor In Training Forum

2006-08-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

David Fleenor has created an online discussion forum for Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisors-in-Training. The forum provides an opportunity to discuss all issues related to the process of becoming a CPE Supervisor. David suggests the forum will a venue to discuss issues of training, theory papers, committee meetings, theology, disappointments, and celebrations. The forum is limited to current supervisors in training and those that have been out of training for up to two years whether or not their training resulted in certification. The forum is open to members of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy as well as those in the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. For more information about the forum visit the link which follows:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CPESITS/

You may also contact David Fleenor at:
The Rev. David W. Fleenor
1 East 29th Street
New York, NY 10016
By Telephone: 646.942.0623

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERSHIP OF ACPE

2006-08-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

August 18, 2006

OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL PASTORAL EDUCATION (ACPE)

The ACPE has lately been taking the low road in its competition with CPSP. Its information and announcements have been marked by faulty claims and aggression. I urge the leadership to consider taking the high road of competitiveness supported by a gracious collegiality. The larger community needs a healthy, decent ACPE that travels the high road. We in CPSP especially need for the ACPE to travel that road. We share a crucially important common task. There is plenty of work for both communities. Besides that, ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred years from now, when small-minded persons take over the leadership in the CPSP, some of us might ourselves seek another, kinder community, one that fosters justice truth, and a generosity of spirit.

Raymond J. Lawrence
General Secretary

Clinical Pastoral Education Requirements for Employment as a VA Chaplain

2006-07-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

VA Chaplaincy and Clinical Pastoral Education Requirements

by George Hankins-Hull

It is important to clear up some confusion that many have had concerning employment requirements as a VA chaplain.

In order to qualify for employment as a VA Chaplain, an individual must have completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education, or demonstrate equivalent training.

Units of CPE completed and certified by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy, National Association of Catholic Chaplains and The Association of Clinical Pastoral Education all count toward this requirement.

Equivalent training is not less than 800 hours of supervised ministry in a health care setting, such as a hospital or nursing home, which incorporated both ministry formation and pastoral care skills development.

To be considered equivalent to CPE, training must include the following components:

1. It must be a formal educational program, with curriculum, theological reflection, and evaluation components, which includes a component of performing health care ministry.

2. The program must include 400 hours of supervised education, training and ministry for equivalency to one unit of CPE.

3. The educational supervisor(s), preceptor(s), teacher(s), or coach/mentor(s), responsible for the program must be qualified to provide the supervision.

4. The educational model must include an action/reflection component (that may vary from one program to another) that may have included but not be limited to: verbatims, case conferences, worship seminars, spiritual assessments, theological reflection, and group process.

In describing supervised ministry that you would like to be considered as "equivalent training" please include the following information for each period of training.

•The beginning and ending dates of training

•The name and location of the institution(s) in which the supervised ministry was performed

•The name(s) and title(s) of the educational supervisor(s)/instructor(s)

• The total number of hours of performance of ministry, classroom or didactics, and individual meetings with the supervisor/instructor

CPSP Objectives of Clinical Pastoral Education:

230. Objectives of CPE:

CPE is designed to provide theological and professional education utilizing the clinical method of learning in diverse contexts of ministry. There are professional benchmarks of expected outcomes from CPE which formulate the competency objectives. They are as follows:

1 To develop the ability to make use of the clinical process and theclinical method of learning. This includes the formulation of clinical data, the ability to receive and utilize feedback and consultation, and to make creative use of supervision.

2 To develop the self as a work in progress and to cultivate theunderstanding of the self as the principal tool in pastoral care andcounseling. This includes the ability to reflect and interpret one’s own life story both psychologically and theologically. (Accreditation Manual, p.14).

3 To demonstrate the ability to establish a pastoral bond with personsand groups in various life situations and crisis circumstances.

4 To demonstrate basic care and counseling skills including listening,empathy, reflection, analysis of problems, conflict resolution, theological reflection and the demonstration of a critical eye so as to examine and evaluate human behavior and religious symbols for their meaning and significance.

5 To demonstrate the ability to make a pastoral diagnosis with specialreference to the nature and quality of religious values.(Accreditation Manual, p. 15).

6 To demonstrate the ability to provide a critical analysis of one’s own religious tradition.

7 To demonstrate an understanding of the dynamics of group behaviorand the variety of group experiences, and to utilize the support,confrontation and clarification of the peer group for the integration of personal attributes and pastoral functioning.

8 To demonstrate the ability to communicate and engage in ministrywith persons across cultural boundaries (Accreditation Manual, p. 15).

9 To demonstrate the ability to utilize individual supervision forpersonal and professional growth and for developing the capacity to evaluate one’s ministry.

10 To demonstrate the ability to work as a pastoral member on aninterdisciplinary team.

11 To demonstrate the ability to make effective use of the behavioralsciences in pastoral ministry (Accreditation Manual, p. 15).

12 To demonstrate increasing leadership ability and personal authority.

13 To demonstrate familiarity with the basic literature of the field:clinical, behavioral and theological.

For More Information on VA Chaplaincy visit:
Department of Veterans Affairs National Chaplaincy Center.

National Training Seminar

2006-05-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

Reflections On John Edgerton’s National Clinical Training Seminar Presentation by Linda Walsh

I was grateful to be at the NCTS. John Edgarton is a master storyteller - using visions of scary woods, dogs and loving relatives to lure us into the experiential and effective lesson of the Narrative as a vehicle for transformation and liberation. Each patient's story unlocks a subversive message of hope...a liberation process to transcend the sorrow.

He urged his audience to search the patient's biography to discover the "Holy", like a muse, to reflect that God has been there all along. John's compelling personal disclosure woven through contextual references personalized, for me, the responsibility we carry in this spiritual role. In therapy we expose our own story and awareness - but in clinical practice we take that same story objectively and use it to assist and build strength in others.

The good news is that each CPSP meeting is experiencing larger multi-cultural attendance. This enriches my small group experience by weaving wisdom with dynamic reflection. Although I was unable to attend Tavistock, the reverberations were intense. I am reminded that I am personally in control of my own education. Who decides if I am educable or engaged if it is not my choice to be the instigator? John Edgarton followed up on Friday by engaging our place as the Prophet - not as rebels against the law - but as "Outlaws"; agreeing to evolve with and empower the community to transcend the law.

The prophet holds a dream. In CPSP and clinically, we instill a vision that is attainable together. He suggested that empathy requires that we do not revel in the same depression as the patient/community and strive to find that intuitive place of hope. By reviewing President Lincoln's Gettysburg address, John explained how to define a transforming vision that people can get into their imagination....by speaking simply and clearly. It is no wonder that a totalitarian regime is afraid of the artist, the visionary and the creative thinker. The outlaw Prophet has an imagination that is contagious; as is our vision at CPSP.

Presidential Address by James Gebhart, CPSP President

2006-05-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

I want to call attention to our name, to look at it still another time for perhaps a deeper meaning. This is a question of our identity. One of the earliest challenges you had in your clinical training was in response to that question “Who are you?”

It became a maddening question asked by that supervisor, that committee, that fellow student. But we had to return to it again and again. And so I ask you still again. Our name: The College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy. Much is imbedded in those words.

Today there is only time to focus on the first two words: College and Pastoral. Perhaps next year we might address the last two words regarding the science and art of pastoral practice. We will see.

But first, this word College. Our founders were very wise to have chosen this name. Or perhaps divinely inspired, which is a bit of a stretch knowing them as we do today. Perhaps both. But is the right name at the right time and the right place. The College.

You might pause and notice that no other pastoral organization embraces this term, much less begins with it. Others feature a national or geographic focus of activity: The American Association of Pastoral Counselors; The Canadian Association for Pastoral Practice and Education; The National Association of Jewish Chaplains; The National Institute of Business and Industrial Chaplains; The National Association of Catholic Chaplains. Still other groups define themselves by administrative function: The Association of Clinical Pastoral Education; The Association of Professional Chaplains. Now these titles are all appropriate, all well and good and honorable. They accurately identify a focus. But it is no accident that we, in our life together, began from an entirely different point of view. It was never envisioned that we would be limited by the boundaries of this continent. That is very obvious as you simply look around you at this international audience. And likewise our identity was never framed in terms of political or administrative function as these were the bane of the founders and the point of the original reformation.

And so another name was chosen. The College. There had been another College once, the College of Chaplains, of which I was a Fellow for twenty-five years. I was at first astonished that the old College would give up this name. But then it made sense. Their primary new identity was to be an association to certify chaplains and not a company of persons intent on living together.

We are The College. The Latin origin is both collegium from which come our words colleague or collegiality, and collegia referring to a corporate partnership. Once in a while someone objects to this name thinking it refers to a school of higher education that grants a degree. But this is only a more recent definition; its historic definitions are much more clear. They include: “a self governing society of scholars for study and instruction” (e.g., the College of Surgeons); “a company or assemblage of persons with a common purpose;” “a gathering of clergy living together” (e.g. the College of Cardinals); and “an association of churches or religious leaders each equally empowered.”

Read the full text of this Address

Promoting Competency Through an Ongoing Process of Peer Review

2006-02-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy promotes competency through an ongoing process of peer review which is a central aspect of our covenant relationship and Chapter life.
CPSP is unique among the national pastoral training and certifying organizations. Credential’s held by CPSP members are renewed annually and contingent upon satisfactory participation in Chapter life and the Chapter's recomendation for renewal.

CPSP understands its task to be first and foremost theological and that ongoing peer review is centered in the CPSP covenant. Within Chapter life, CPSP members covenant together to being held mutually responsible to one another for their ongoing personal/professional development and direction.

Peer review for the majority of our professional colleagues is something that occurs every five years in contrast to CPSP members for whom it is an ongoing feature of Chapter life. In this way CPSP has set the industry standard for a peer review process which is the most dynamic of any of the national pastoral care training and certifying bodies and one that best promotes competence.

George Hankins Hull is Director of Pastoral Care & Clinical Pastoral Education at the UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock, AR. In addition to many leadership responsibilities, he serves as a member of the CPSP Chapter Life Committee.

Clinical Pastoral Education

2005-12-22T11:29:00.000-08:00

Clinical Pastoral Education - An Historical Perspective:

In the 1920’s theological education began to be profoundly reshaped by the medical model of education which itself was being transformed in response to the renowned Flexner Report of 1910.

Theological education, which was at that point in history almost entirely academic, theoretical, and forensic began to change just as medical education was changing. Pastors began using the mentorship approach to learning “at the bedside” in contact with living persons and their problems.

Thus, began the art and science of Clinical Pastoral Training or Education, the disciplined examination of specific cases of pastoral care and counseling, and the application of the clinical method to the work of ministry.

Clinical Pastoral Education has come to be known as the study of persons and their problems of relating and structures of meaning. This training has become accepted as a formative component in the preparation of persons for religious ministry.

Anton Boisen (1876-1965) was the individual who most provided the initial impetus toward making this change in theological education. Motivated by the urgency to understand his own psychotic episodes and their religious and developmental implications, Boisen inaugurated and institutionalized this new component in theological education known as Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).

At first CPE attracted only a few selected individuals, most of whom sought Boisen because of his and their dissatisfaction with normative theological education. Subsequently, CPE has burgeoned to such an extent that many theological schools require an introductory unit as a prerequisite for graduation.

Clinical Pastoral Education in General:

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) programs provide an opportunity for ministers, seminarians and lay people to develop pastoral competency within a particular pastoral setting (usually a hospital, parish, hospice, retirement home, etc.), and seeks to foster the pastors own self-awareness as a pastoral care-giver.

The CPE approach to training is based upon an "action-reflection" model of learning. Pastoral interns function as ecumenical chaplains providing pastoral care on assigned areas and use their experience in pastoral encounters as a basis for their learning.

While seminary settings provide an academic environment for the study of pastoral theology in contrast the CPE center provides the clinical basis for learning.

For more information about Clinical Pastoral Education at:
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Contact George Hankins Hull
Director of Pastoral Care &
Clinical Pastoral Education
501-686-6888