History of ACPE Ireland

THE CONTEXT

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) began in the Protestant Churches in the United States of America in the 1930s. Due to various sociological and historical reasons there was a strong need for a different formation in pastoral ministry. The urge was to move from the existent rigid and purely academic theological approach to an experiential learning under supervision, which would be more relevant to real life situations.

THREE PIONEERS

Three important persons contributed to the foundation of CPE.

1. Anton T.Boisen [1876 - 1965]

The most prominent pioneer of the movement was Rev. Anton T. Boisen. He was initially a language teacher then a forestry man and then he received the to ministry.

His childhood and youth were difficult and it had an impact on this adult life: he lost his father while he was only seven and his grandfather when he was twenty; he was by nature, shy, introverted and he had a lifelong jealously toward his younger sister. He also had an obsession for an unfulfilled love toward a woman, Alice Batcheldor.

From the age of twenty-two he went through a series of mental break-downs, some worst than others, resulting in being hospitalized. In one such hospital stay in Boston Psychiatric Hospital, one of his seminary friends (Fred Eastman) sent him the 'Introductory Lecturers' of Sigmund Freud. Anton was exited by reading them and gradually he decided to study his own mental illness.

His focus from the beginning was the religious dimension of the mental illness, specifically, the terrors of mental illness as a religious problem rather than solely a medical concern. He was convinced that psychotic episodes were emotional efforts to re-organize and heal the soul and therefore the theological Students needed to have an understanding of them. He believed that they should learn about these episodes directly from the patients whom he called "the human documents".

To read these human documents in the light of the best human understanding is key for him, there is no royal road. It calls for that which is beyond anything that books or lectures or schools can impart and to which only a few can gain. He wrote: "I've been watching with interest the medical interns who come to the hospital to work under guidance as part of their medical education. I have seen how real and vital such instruction becomes as they and their teachers deal together with the actual raw material of life. And I became convinced that the theological Students might well spend less time with their books and more with the human documents in this hospital. I became convinced that clinical experience should be just as important to the man who is to be charged with the  cure of souls as it is to the man who is to for the bodies of men".

Another quotation powerfully pictures the foundation-laying vision Boisen: "Not in any revelation handed down from the past, not in anything that can be demonstrated in test-tube or under the microscope, not in systems found in books, nor in rules and techniques taken over from successful workers would l seek the basis of spiritual healing, but in the living human understanding, there is no royal road. It calls for that which is beyond anything books or lectures or schools can impart and to which only few can attain." [The Exploration of the Inner world, 1936].

Eventually in collaboration with like-minded people, he organized to animate groups of theological Students in that direction.

2. Richard C. Cabot

One of Boisen’s collaborators was Richard C. Cabot who is considered the second father-founder of the movement. Cabot was basically a physician but also an ardent propagator of the integration of spirituality and the medical in healing. He stopped practicing as a physician and got more involved in ethics as well as the pastoral area.
He would say, “…therefore, the work of helping a patient belongs to others as well as to the doctor. It belongs to someone who can doctor his moral as well as his physical ills. A physician specializes on the body, and the minister makes his specialty the human soul. The two should co-operate. There ought to be a school somewhere which would take up the subject thoroughly, and ministers should take the course.”

This vision emerges from the very important concept of the ‘holistic nature’ of sickness and healing and encourages better teamwork among the caring personnel. Cabot worked with Boisen, and at times financially supported (in the beginning) this ‘clinical theological’ program.



However, while Boisen was more concerned that his Students learnt about the religious experiences of the emotionally troubled, Cabot focused on teaching Students pastoral skills and he pushed to develop the chaplain as an effective professional clinician in an objective inter-disciplinary situation. These two visions were always in tension and the fledgling clinical training movement eventually ended up in a split.

3. William S. Keller

The aspect of supervision is very substantial in the CPE program. This is a concept contributed by William S. Keller, an Episcopal physician who can be called the third pioneer figure.

He strongly believed that people in ministry can learn greatly from the fields of social work and community organizations. In fact, even before the CPE era began, in summer 1923, he took five theological Students in his own house, under his supervision. They would work in social agencies like psychiatric hospitals, human rehabilitation centers, and public welfare agencies and come together for reporting, reflection, and exploration of their ministry.

That sort of program, always run with supervision, brought great learning for the Students and CPE happily adapted the concept and pattern of supervision from him.

FRAGEMENTATION AND UNIFCATION OF CPE

Since the very beginning, the movement went through a series of divisions, starting with the difference of opinions between Boisen and Cabot.
At the end of 1930 there were three strands present in the pastoral care and training movement:

• Boisen and the team, emphasizing the theological approach and the study of sin and salvation in the living document,
• Cabot and the New England group, aiming at the pastoral formation and skills’ learning
• A third group led by Dr. Dunbar who was primarily interested in the psychoanalytic approach as a means to inner liberation and readiness for ministry (the New York group).

However, as the time went on, having felt a need of coming together, after lots of talks and discussions, in 1944 some unity took place. All the three major organizations [Council of Clinical Training, Institute of Pastoral Care and Graduate School of Applied Religion] agreed upon some common points which were considered essential to identify CPE training:

• Supervision by a trained person, -Student work in a clinical situation, -Student note taking and later discussion with the Supervisor, -didactic instruction, -the integration of training into seminary curriculum.

The organizational unity into a single national body came only in 1967 when the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) was formed: this is an Inter-Faith Organisation which continues to have many training programmes in hospitals, prisons and psychiatric institutions throughout the United States.

The Canadian Association of Pastoral Practice and Education (CAPPE) became a separate entity from ACPE in 1970. The United States and Canadian Associations grant reciprocal recognition to each other’s standards. CAPPE is now known as CASC (Canadian Association for Spiritual Care).

The Catholic Church in the United States became interested in CPE after the Second Vatican Council (1966). In time, a branch was formed within the National Association of Catholic Chaplains and their CPE programmes were made responsible to the ecclesiastical structures of the church. Catholic CPE training centers are now in many hospitals and mental institutions throughout the U.S.



IDEAL SETTING FOR CPE

CPE was carried out in hospitals from its inception. Although a hospital is not the only place where human needs abound, it is one setting where the training of the Student in Church Ministry can be readily facilitated. Many of the most basic learning experiences for a Student of pastoral ministry cannot be taught inside a classroom but they may be learned as the Student comes into direct relationship with sick and troubled people. The hospital setting provides for a basic training in ministry to people in need.
CPE can be adapted for work in other locations such as parishes, hospices, homes for the elderly, mental hospitals, prisons, etc.