I am posting my dialogue with AA’s 12 traditions. My question is: Do the 12 traditions translate into CPSP? Often I “hear” best when I write. By writing I can share my conversation with the 12 traditions and invite you to share your experience too.

Tradition #3: The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.

Tradition #3 quickly became pivotal in this conversation: The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.1 This tradition came to the foreground because embedded within it is the purpose of AA. Consequently, within a hermeneutic of translating the 12 traditions to CPSP the question is: “What is the purpose of CPSP?” I found myself unsure. Is CPSP’s purpose to offer pastoral certifications? Is CPSP’s purpose recovery of the soul? As I reflected on these questions I wondered if, at the heart of many debates around certification, accreditation, and ratification, is the debate of the purpose of CPSP.

How CPSP answers the question of her purpose has a galaxy of implications. Of course, pastoral certifications and recovery of the soul are not mutually exclusive nevertheless, defining CPSP’s purpose is critical. I also suggest that the nature of a movement is that it has one purpose. That purpose may have many expressions but the purpose is singular. Therein lies one of the defining differences between a movement and an organization. I also suggest that the reason that AA has changed the spiritual landscape of America is because it is a movement.

What is the nature of a movement?2 A movement is the servant of a higher purpose. It is willing to be owned by that purpose and all else is ordered from this position. A movement is deputized with the fiduciary duty to provide an environment where the higher purpose will thrive. It is within a community that a movement finds a home, a home that provides an environment for the well-being of the higher purpose, and solace from fickle cultural winds. Story is respected and sacred within the community and, through story, truth makes herself known. The truth that is embedded within a community's stories is revered, whether the truth is a comfort or a discomfort. Truth is always welcomed. In other words, the work of the community is to create a culture that supports, nurtures, and promotes a higher purpose. Dare it be said that the community is called to live by faith, and, thus, it will gather to herself kindred spirits. The legacy of a movement is that it changes the way other communities approach their work.

In contrast, an organization seeks to possess a purpose.3 When the purpose is objectified, the corrupted form is to reduce it to a product, i.e., an outcome. For example, educational institutions can seek to own education; healthcare systems can seek to own health; organized religion can seek to own spirit. Organizations are organized for power. Power, in and of itself, is neither good nor ill, but when it is born out of fear it breeds an unholy trinity of control, fear, and denial. Thus, when the purpose of power is to create control-over, it creates a culture of oppression and nothing is spared its oppressive control. The “other” becomes suspect and truth is wedged into structures of control.

Many of us who work in healthcare have seen the latter principle carried out. Yet, its presence is also within CPSP. Well engrained within the history of CPSP is rivalry with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). To make competition with ACPE the organizing principle, i.e., purpose of CPSP, will inevitably result in CPSP becoming an organization. When control, or fear of control (two sides of the same coin), is the purpose of the community, then the community will create structures aimed at controlling the other and create structures that oppress the community as much, if not more, than they control the other. The oppression may come in the form of a mandate to keep the “law” or, it can be manifested by writing, re-writing, and re-re-writing the “law.” Both are oppressive. Consequently, when a person or group assume the identity of a victim, it quickly becomes blind to its own propensity to victimize. Provoking becomes a way of blaming others, and abdicating the power of an authentic self. Thus, purpose, and our relationship to purpose, is paramount. Purpose creates relational constellations and realities.

This is why tradition #3 is compelling for CPSP. It asks the community: What is your
purpose? If recovery of the soul is the organizing principle for CPSP then two implications for the community are clear. First, pastoral certifications are a means for recovery of the soul, but there are also other expressions. CPSP is then placed in the position of exploring in what way(s) is it to be a steward of recovery of the soul. Recovery of the soul can, and indeed should, be viewed as a much broader work than pastoral certifications. It includes offering recovery of the soul that is not linked to pastoral certification. This can include fostering recovery of the soul for religious workers and leaders. However, the horizon is much broader than those directly involved with religious leadership and work. Another area to consider is to offer recovery of the soul to other professions. The group that many, many persons with pastoral certifications rub shoulders with everyday are healthcare workers. This is a group where many experience pressures and tensions that tear at the souls of their professions, and at their own souls as individuals. How could CPSP be a spiritual resource to these persons?

I have often pondered the question: If CPE is such a great resource to healthcare then why aren’t administrators and healthcare decision-makers beating a path to our door? If we improve the “holy” bench marks of patient satisfaction, length of stay, and reduced pain medication, then why have we been generally ignored by the healthcare conglomerates? Perhaps this neglect is inherently a blessing; the ravishing appetite of the conglomerate to consume pastoral care is limited. However, perhaps the ability of CPE to teach students the life giving lessons within the human experience has been too sequestered. Perhaps we have preserved our “professional integrity” at the expense of being true to our purpose. In the Christian tradition, this harkens back to the debate of whether the church should let Gentiles into their community.

The second implication of recovery of soul as the purpose of CPSP is that certification MUST be a vehicle that supports, nurtures, and promotes recovery of the soul. Thus the certified person has a fiduciary responsibility to employ the grace of certification as a trusted servant for her/his recovery and sharing that recovery with others. In like manner, pastoral certification can NEVER be devalued by using it to instill recovery of the soul. In other words, those with the right and responsibility of granting pastoral certifications must do so because the inquirer has demonstrated a commitment to recovery of soul, both in her/his own life and in his/her ministry to others. To grant pastoral certification in HOPE that an inquirer will make such a commitment adulterates the higher purpose of the community. In the Christian tradition the admonition is to whom much is given, much is required.

What is the purpose of CPSP? It is a critical question. For some CPSP’s purpose is to give ACPE a black eye. To maintain that position will inevitably result in CPSP becoming an organization, because fear breeds structures that ultimately oppress oneself. One of the intended, or unintended, consequences of this purpose has been to create “gang-land” warfare between pastoral cognate groups. Rebellion against ACPE is not a worthy purpose, and it certainly is not a purpose that can survive the first generation of CPSP’ers.

In like manner, if rebellion against ACPE is the organizing principle then all else will be ordered from that purpose, including how CPSP understands the role of certification and recovery of the soul. However, if our community is to mature, then we need to be clear about our higher purpose and use it as the organizing principle for all aspects of our life. AA has survived and thrived because it embraced its higher purpose and orders all else by that purpose. What is the purpose of CPSP?

AA has cut a unique path through the twentieth century. Just as Hammurabi’s Code was the precursor to the Mosaic Code, and the Magna Carta was the precursor of the American constitution, so, AA is the precursor for any community, including CPSP, that seeks to make recovery the centerpiece of its existence. This too describes the connection between AA’s 12 traditions and any group that is dedicated to recovery. The traditions communicate a spirit; and I suggest, it is the same spirit, that the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy seeks to embody through the CPSP covenant.

THE TWELVE TRADITIONS
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
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1 Alcoholics Anonymous. (1976) New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

2 Tilly, C, (2004). Social Movements, 1768 - 2004, Boulder: Paradigm Publishers. 2 2 3 Weber, M., (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Los Angeles: Beacon Press.

3 Weber, M., (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Los Angeles: Beacon Press.