For whom was it “too traumatic” to disclose the truth? What is gained and lost by dissemblance or prevarication? If you were confronted with this tragic circumstance how would you counsel the father? His daughter? Their care providers?

I have had two experiences that inform my response to these questions. The personal heartbreaking experience was in telling my own son that his mother had died. When he and I last saw her that morning she was perfectly healthy. He was at work when I called him from the hospital emergency room. Though my beloved wife was dead already I instructed my son to meet me at home so that I could bring him to the hospital where his motherly was gravely ill. I prayed that he would drive hastily but safely. I could not imagine how I was going to tell him. All at once I knew I could not possibly deliver the terrible news nor could I possibly permit anyone else to do so.

My son was at our home when I arrived. I met him as he came down the steps from the master bedroom. I drew him to my breast, cradled his head between my hand and the crook of my neck and tearfully whispered, “Your mom died.” I felt what was left of my heart shatter into innumerable pieces. I can only begin to imagine how my news pierced my son’s tender heart.

Al Henager, UAMS staff chaplain, supervises the Shepherd's Staff program which was envisioned by Madge Brown a graduate of the UAMS CPE program. The UAMS Department of Pastoral Care encouraged the emergence of the program as a way in which individuals who have had pastoral care training with Community of Hope or Stephen Ministry serve the cancer center as volunteer chaplains under supervision.

Al Heniger states in the interview, "We want to be present and form relationships that offer patients the chance to talk about the things they want to talk about," Henager said. "We don't have an agenda, except to establish relationships."

The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is a member of Believe Together: Health Care for All. This is a coalition dedicated to health care reform. It is comprised of many different faith groups and religious organizations, united by a concern about the failure of the health care system in the United States. This coalition seeks to promote reform in the health care system of the U.S. in order to establish a more equitable access to health care.

We in the CPSP are pleased to join forces with our colleagues in ministry to work for justice and reform in the delivery of health care in America.

Please go to the Believe Together website to become informed and to join the work.

-Raymond Lawrence

What does it say about the chaplain?

While providing pastoral care at the Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, New York the question is inevitably asked: “Pastor, where is your church?” I must admit that the question makes for an awkward moment.

Though not surprised, I genuinely understand that for most people pastoral ministry is associated with congregational ministry. It is common to think of most clergy serving as leaders in their faith groups and congregation.

The simple answer to the question is that the hospital is my parish and that ministry as director of pastoral care is my church-approved work. Although the hospital is not a congregation, nor am I the pastor of choice for each member of the hospital’s patient community and staff, it is my parish.

Comfortable with ambiguity

Pastoral care ministry beyond the congregation often comes with some degree of ambiguity and suspicion as suggested by the very question, “Pastor, where is your church?” Yet, it is precisely because of its ambiguity that chaplaincy is among the most challenging and rewarding ministries for the ordained pastor.

Usually when the question arises, it is accompanied by a sense of connection, appreciation, and gratitude by those for whom the chaplain’s ministry of presence, compassion and consolation met a need in a time of illness and crisis. Pastoral ministry beyond the congregation offers an unanxious presence of the Church’s witness where it is especially needed. Chaplains are ambassadors of the church’s pastoral commitment and affirm a compassionate presence to the vulnerable patient, as well to medical and support staff that care for them. Such ministry demonstrates the wisdom passed on from past generations to the present generation to empower and commission ministers for service in the world.

Five books at one end of a shelf. A somewhat forlorn grouping to be sure, they are the only books left in my possession of a purely theological nature. All others have fallen away.

And this morning it occurs to me that I have never stopped long enough to look at why I have kept them, never risked asking: “You five there on the end of the shelf, why are you here?”

I might point out that clergy like myself , in their theological training, were expected, if not to have mastered the writings of various theologians, then to have at least some passing acquaintance with them. For most of us this meant that we sat through lectures and heard various names mentioned, all German it seemed -Cullman, Neibhur , Bonhoeffer, Barth(actually a Swiss) Pannenburg, Brunner (there were two of them) Bultman, -the list seemed endless.. We may have read a book or two by some of them. Occasionally something stuck.

And herein lies the origin of the five books, all of them by Paul Tillich –yet another German who had found a safe home in America. I have carried these books about faithfully for over 40 years.

1960. A new prof , Pieter de Jong by name, had arrived at the college that fall, a big, friendly bear of man, dressed neatly in suit and tie and speaking in a slightly Germanic accent. The story was that he had been involved with the Dutch underground in the war at considerable risk to is life. Whatever the case. it all combined to lend to him a kind of presence, an air of dignity. Gifted as a theologian he was to bring something of a revolution to the classroom, not to mention our social life.

My daily work begins with visiting patients whose religion is unknown, obtaining their affiliation, and, if affiliated, making that information known to the appropriate chaplains. These patients especially provide examples of the spontaneous humanness one encounters as a hospital chaplain.

Like the older white male patient in an intensive care unit, whose religion was listed as “unknown.” I entered his room and introduced myself as the hospital chaplain making my rounds on the floor. He interrupted, “I can’t hear, and I had cataracts and can’t see.” I crossed the room, walked around to the upper side of his bed and said, more loudly, “I’m Rev. Alberts, hospital chaplain, making my rounds.” Before I could state the purpose of my routine visit, he shouted, “I don’t want any religious person in my room!”

The patient’s outburst surprised me. But my surprise was tempered by my belief that patients usually have a good reason for reacting negatively to a “religious person.” Moving away from his bedside, I replied, “You answered my question” [about whether he had a religious affiliation]. Then, reaching for something in common with him, I said, “I recently had cataracts removed from my eyes.” He replied, “I had one removed, and that is why I’m blind.” “I’m sorry,” I said, heading toward the door, and adding, “I respect your wishes very much.” “That’s okay,” he replied, his tone positive. Then he asked, “Could you do something for me?” “Sure,” I answered, surprised again. “Push that table [his over-bed mobile table] closer so I can reach that Ginger ale and cup,” he directed. He then commented, “These freakin’ people don’t know what they’re doing. I have a bum right shoulder and can’t reach it, and the table is too far away from my other hand.”

James Gebhart, Chair of the 2010 CPSP Plenary, provided the following announcement:

Start to plan now for the 2010 20th Anniversary Celebration in Columbus, Ohio April 10-13, 2010. This is going to be a special occasion, a time to honor our history and to have a festival in our community. Many special surprises are being planned. Join the celebration. Mark your calendars!.

Jim Gebhart, Plenary Chair

First comes love, and then comes the story, then comes the CPSP allegory . . .

I did not attend the 2009 Plenary in Virginia Beach and, therefore, feel like an interloper having eavesdropped on the dialogue between Barbara McGuire and Ron Evans. Still, their observations and declarations made public in the CPSP Pastoral Report invite me to comment. In particular, I offer a meditation intended to deepen Barbara’s reflections on love of self so as to (hopefully) allay Ron’s ambivalence on the matter.

I am struck, first, by the lack of clarity regarding two pivotal words used—“love” and “self.” Should one infer from Barbara’s reference to Oscar Wilde that romantic love, as commonly understood and misunderstood, is the love about which she writes? And is that experience simply “to feel positive about oneself,” as noted by Ron? And to whom or what is “the self” referential? Is the collective membership of CPSP that “self,” and/or is that “self” the individual person?

The 9th Asia-Pacific Congress on Pastoral Care and Counseling will be held on August 24-28, 2009 in Taipei, Taiwan. The brochure and online registration are at
http://www.mmh.org.tw/2009CPE/

The Asia-Pacific region of the International Council of Pastoral Care & Counseling (ICPCC) hosts this congress every four years.

CPSP provides significant leadership and support to ICPCC ever since it became a member over a decade ago.

Contact Richard Liew for further details at 718-869-7419. Email: liewr@aol.com

I welcome Barbara McGuire’s reflections on self love in the April Pastoral Report. It helps me to likewise sort out what I believe lies at the heart of CPSP.

I agree that to feel positive about oneself, to love oneself, is a vital piece of the equation. Most of us, regardless of tradition, can no doubt point to ways in which self has been negated, downplayed in ways that have been destructive. The alternative is to learn to love oneself. And this is where I become a little nervous. As vital as it is to come to a love of oneself I am not sure this is the starting point. Or the end either.

There is a story out of Greek mythology about Narcissus, the beautiful young man who in his beauty scorned the love of all admirers. A youth who Narcissus spurned in this manner prays that Narcissus might suffer a similar fate, that he might love unrequitedly. The god of retribution, Nemesis, hears the prayer and arranges that Narcissus stop to drink at a pool in which sees his own reflection. Instantly he falls in love with it. Unable to embrace the image in the water he lies there, unable to tear himself away, and dies.

I sense that, at times, CPSP runs the risk of lying by the water mesmerized by its own beauty. Again to love oneself is of critical importance, however I believe the staying power of CPSP, its origins and its beauty, lies further up stream.

Dr. Christopher Swift, Past President of the UK's College of Health Care Chaplains (CHCC), is a friend and colleague of the CPSP. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2007 CPSP Plenary held in Raleigh, NC where he brought greetings from the CHCC and dialogued with the CPSP community. He sent us words of support and a prayer he had written following a shooting massacre at one of our universities.

Recently, Dr, Swift published his new book: Hospital Chaplaincy in the Twenty-First Century: the crisis of spiritual care in the NHS. The book is published by Ashgate.