I t is with a deep sense of gratitude that I enter this term as President of CPSP. In assuming this responsibility I invoke the power of the almighty God in whose hands, I firmly believe our destiny is shaped, solid and secure! CPSP is here to stay! I also call upon our ancestors and invoke their spirit to be here and to help guide us along our journey. In particular, Robert Cholke who was my presenter for my review committee and Tim Fauvell who walked the journey with me during very difficult times. I stand on the shoulders of our founding fathers and mothers.

It is my promise to continue to administer in the spirit of our founding principles, recovery of souls, midwifing, always cognizant of denouncing even a hint of a predatory nature. We are each other’s keepers! We have converged on this corner in Little Rock to celebrate who we are as an organization and more importantly as an organism. One that is living and thriving. I embrace and hold dear that every member is a vital link and every member's voice is valued. I have surveyed the community and included in this address are your responses, your dreams, if you please. So allow me to address you briefly on casting a more perfect dream

Our chapters are the place where our dreams, imaginations and visions can have leaps and bounds…our Chapters are the vehicles that will mobilize CPSP into the realization of the best of our dreams. It is your signature dream that we endeavor to keep the genius of our investment of primary authority to certify members and to conduct peer reviews within the Chapter.

You have addressed and stressed that every Chapter needs to hold every Chapter member accountable. Never settling for being a good Chapter but a great chapter. We must continue implementing an annual review of every member in the Chapter. We have heard from many Chapters who are attentive to primary process and are engaged in producing competent chaplains and counselors, while yet maintaining a spirit of collegiality. While grace should abound, incompetence cannot! Your dreams include expanding education about CPE in community ministries, cultivating good will. At the local level, we need greater accessibility for laity and clergy, which means we may have to rearrange our calendars to accommodate persons with very busy lifestyles. A major dream is the creation of an employment networking system for our members who are looking for jobs and not simply tell them to relocate. There is a request for the Governing Council to develop a national strategy to inform the major care corporations of CPSP Standards, requirements and mission. Thanks to the efforts of Mary Davis, we now have a hard copy of a Convener’s Handbook and we encourage each convener to download it as soon as possible. Your dreams indicate that we need to appoint a committee to advocate and intervene for military chaplains and civilians employed in military health care institutions. CPSP chaplains should be on the front line of care for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines deploying to and from Iraq and Afghanistan.

We must work with other organizations who cherish the dreams that we cherish. There is a need to increase regional meetings, avoiding an eastern elitism. There is a suggestion that we bring in the deans of seminaries as presenters at both the regional meetings and the plenary. We need to develop a universal packet or pamphlet that key persons in every region can distribute to seminaries, community agencies and clergies at large. We need to form a committee whose sole purpose is to identify institutional partners to strengthen and develop CPSP ties with academic programs in counseling, pastoral care, pastoral theology and healthcare ministry. An urgent dream is that of establishing Regional Coordinators who will help plan regional seminars, nurturing and midwifing one another. Utilizing the National Clinical Training Seminar as a model. We are in the initial stage of proposing regionalization. In the very near future I plan to call upon many Chapter Conveners to assist in this effort. Information that comes to the Conveners rank and file members has to filter to all members

Whatever national organization we join, we cannot afford to lose our soul.
Our dream includes continuing to foster collegiality among cognate groups. We must balance our leadership at large with more representatives across the board from varying Chapters. We must penetrate the schools, correctional facilities, business industries, military and community agencies. We are blessed to have our international members connected with us and we must strengthen those ties by helping CPSP international members to develop their own foreign Chapters and develop a cognate chaplain association.

In order to prosper during these critical times CPSP has to be rigorous but not ruthless. Being rigorous means that we will consistently apply our exacting standards at all times and at all levels. We are determined to credential the best Diplomates, Pastoral Counselors and Clinical Chaplains. Yes, CPSP is growing at an exponential rate, but we are not simply be into head counting, or bean counting but we are into competence. Let us continue the path of power to the Chapter, power to be, power to create, power to cultivate the rich soil out of which Chapters are producing competent clinical chaplains who are skilled diagnosticians. Tim Fauvell was one of those, even after his death, he was honored for his work at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York City. And CPSP trained him!

We are a blessed organization, for we are blessed to have members in Korea, Tanzania, Italy, Philipines, Bahamas, Malaysia and Singapore, seven countries, God’s perfect number, what other organization can boast of this?

Your dreams indicate a use of our creativity in birthing other avenues of ministry. Foy Ritchey has begun this endeavor. We have taken other steps in this path. Thanks to the vision of Richard Liew, the blessings of Cecily Broderick, and the work of Maria Lopez, our prison ministry is taking shape. I had the blessed opportunity to take my Resident Chaplains on a field trip to Bedford Hills Correctional Center and we were elated, to say the least to hear the stories of former CPE trainees, we heard them talk about spiritual restoration, their major shifts, their metamorphoses into something of great worth and dignity; they shared how they were able to transform toxic shame into healthy shame.

We are moving from good to great. I affirm and celebrate our indigenous work that is traveling unchartered territory. We must maintain a fanatical adherence to our standards and a willingness to shun mediocrities. Our ethics must serve as our mantra as we are entrusted with the training of our present and future caregivers.

There is a plea for some new blood to come forward to head up committees. A task force has been organized, Luisa Weinrich is chairing this effort to assess the needs of our organization and forging a new vision. While we lack bureaucracy, we cannot be top heavy; we must empower the community to move toward positive visioning for the future.

There is a call for a committee to create a newsletter to judicatories and institutions, highlighting our story, our standards and our stability.

We must embody paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. We cannot solve challenges unless we do so together. We cannot afford to react or become motivated by fear. We are not just an organization, we are an organism. In the words of Perry Miller: The College of Pastoral Supervision & psychotherapy’s (CPSP) mission is dedicated to "capturing the light that's in the air" for the Clinical Pastoral Movement. As a community its dedication is: to see what others have not seen, to embrace the new rather than cling to the old, to risk rather than play it safe, to reinvent itself rather than re-package the old, to imagine the unimaginable, to let go rather than holding on, to create rather than duplicate, and to dream dreams that have never been dreamed

Lastly, as we continue in the spirit of recovery of soul, let’s not dream apart; let’s dream as whole!

Francine Angel, CPSP President