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Do We Have the Wisdom and Grace to Lead? by Bill Scar

Posted on 1/20/2022
The CPSP proudly and boldly proclaims that we fulfill the spirit of Anton Boisen and the heart of pastoral care and psychotherapy. We build formation and accountability around the integrity of our system of Chapters. What does this mean...
  

Book Review: Bursting the Bubble: The Tortured Life and Untimely Death of David Vetter

Posted on 1/19/2022
In a story told by his child psychologist at St. Luke's-Texas Children's Hospital, Mary Ada Murphy, Ph.D., provided her first-hand account of her relationship with David Vetter, the child known to the world as the "Bubble Boy"...
  

The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement

Posted on 1/17/2022
We thank David Plummer for reintroducing us to this speech by Dr. King. And just this month, we were again reminded that his father changed his own name to Martin Luther in response to a conference he attended in Nazi Germany in 1934...
  

The Real EPIPHANY— by Bill Scar, Editor

Posted on 1/6/2022
There is our mission, to bear witness to truths that are greater than the limits of our human doubts and misery and suffering and hopelessness. That is what pastoral psychotherapists, the chaplains, and counselors on the front lines of human loss...
  

CPSP Members in the News – Pastor Asnel Valcin

Posted on 1/4/2022
Although I left Haiti 35 years ago, my heart never left the country of my birth. The August 14th earthquake shook the country at the worst possible time in its history. Thankfully, my CPE/T formation prepared me to answer the call to move forward...
  

End of or beginning of by Bill Scar, Editor

Posted on 12/30/2021
Our personal lives can sometimes give us revelations that cross from one area of concern to another, or from one arena of opportunity to another. I am about to embark on another adventure as this old man is now engaged, and...
  

The Pastoral Professional World Around Us by Bill Scar, Editor

Posted on 12/28/2021
I previously reported that the Association of Professional Chaplains has just suspended all discussions with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education regarding a proposed merger. The ACPE described this as a “surprising and abrupt decision.”
  

The Empty Stocking, a poem by The Reverend Beverly White

Posted on 12/27/2021
There’s an empty stocking hanging by the fireplace this year; no candy, no nuts, no gift. There’s an empty feeling in my heart. This year without you here, my dear…
  

Painful Observations... and hope... by Bill Scar, Editor

Posted on 12/23/2021
I can mostly do what I want in my semi-retirement, which means a small clinical caseload, editing the CPSP Pastoral Report, getting engaged (!), and building a stable here on my little ranch for my beloved wife-to-be...
  

Open Access to Robert C. Dykstra's Article, "The Unedited Self..." on Pastoral Psychology

Posted on 12/22/2021
Robert Dykstra has an article of particular interest to our members in settings working with boys and young men: The Unedited Self: Fostering Subversive Imagination in Ministry with Boys and Young Men - Pastoral Psychology. Through the end of Dec...
  

The CPSP Pastoral Report Continues to Grow by Bill Scar, Editor

Posted on 12/20/2021
We are responding to our readers’ requests, the changing times, and the needs of our ministries, with some evolutionary changes at The PASTORAL REPORT. The goal is to become more “professional” in a number of ways...
  

A Book Review of 
Transforming Chaplaincy: 
The George Fitchett Reader... by Raymond J. Lawrence

Posted on 12/17/2021
The first thing to note about this monograph is that it consists of an anthology of ten previously published papers by George Fitchett and his colleagues over the past quarter-century. The ten papers are followed by some thirty pages of commentary...
  

The Road Ahead: An Interview with Raymond J. Lawrence, General Secretary — by Bill Scar, Editor

Posted on 11/12/2021
And my second thought was to begin my tenure with an interview with my colleague and friend, the Rev. Dr. Raymond J. Lawrence, who, with Dr. Perry N. Miller and Robert Clayton, were founders of the College.
  

Veterans Day 2021 by Bill Scar, Editor

Posted on 11/11/2021
In respect and recognition of the contributions our veterans have made, we thank them for their service and everything they have given to preserve our liberty and democracy through their commitment and dedication.
  

A Privilege and An Honor by Bill Scar, Editor

Posted on 11/10/2021
We are foremost an intentional community, and such an enterprise requires more effort and resources than we first realize. Pastoral Report is one of those essential resources, a liquid space where news and views are exchanged...
  

CPSP Welcomes Parthenia Caesar as the new Administrator by Raymond J. Lawrence, General Secretary

Posted on 9/21/2021
Parthenia brings over twenty years of extensive corporate experience in risk and controls, serving as an operations risk manager and compliance officer with Wells Fargo, BNB Bank, and Citigroup.
  

Remembering Tina Salinas: A Celebration of Life, presented by Katrina Ornelas

Posted on 9/14/2021
On September 2, 2021, the Alamo Chapter Celebrated the Life of the Reverend (Chaplain) Tina Louise Salinas. Tina was born on April 17, 1960. She died on August 18, 2021, due to COVID-19 complications.
  

Being Well is Being Free to Accept It or Not by Robert Charles Powell, MD, PhD

Posted on 6/22/2021
This is why our Dunbar Awardee’s works might well be described as “imagined ‘living human documents’ come alive”. Obviously, challenge – accepting it or not – is a main theme in our Dunbar Awardee’s work...
  

Remembering Kenneth C. Blank by Raymond J. Lawrence

Posted on 5/13/2021
Ken Blank, a Diplomate in the Savannah, GA Chapter(formerly, Indian Nations - San Antonio Chapter) and past-president of CPSP, died this weekend. Ken lived in Edmond, Oklahoma with his wife of 42 years, Audrey, and was a father and grandfather...
  

The Life of George L. Buck by Raymond J. Lawrence, General Secretary

Posted on 5/12/2021
George seems to have been the last of us to have had personal contact with Anton Boisen himself. He met Boisen at a meeting of the Council for Clinical Training in Chicago in the early 1960s, a couple of years before Boisen’s death.
  

CPSP Mourns the Death of Bill Alberts by Raymond J. Lawrence

Posted on 3/26/2021
Rev. William E. Alberts, Ph.D., a long-time member of CPSP, certified Diplomate Supervisor, and active in the Concord, NH Chapter, died with the coming of this vernal equinox, on March 21.
  

General Secretary’s Report to the Governing Council, October 2020

Posted on 3/10/2021
No man is an island; neither is a woman. We are responsible for ourselves, our communities, the CPSP community, and the ambient culture as well. We think of the coronavirus as the new plague. Indeed it is, but there’s a worse plague among us.
  

Taking Up The Mantle by David Roth

Posted on 2/9/2021
For as long as there has been a Pastoral Report (PR) its editorship has been in the hands of CPSP co-founder Perry Miller, who has also served continuously as the chair of the Communications Committee.
  

Reflections on the Recent NCTS-East Virtual Event

Posted on 11/6/2020
National Clinical Training Seminar–East (NCTS-East) just went virtual for 2020 this week, making it the first national event for CPSP that was held entirely online! For the past nineteen years, NCTS-East has been held mainly in New Jersey...
  

Pastoral Care Week, October 25-31, 2020

Posted on 10/13/2020
Sometimes a picture is more informative and revealing than either words or actions, referencing the thought, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”