CPSP Pastoral Report

THE PRESENTATION OF THE 2001 CPSP LEADERSHIP AWARD
TO AGNES HO
AT THE ELEVENTH PLENARY MEETING
OF CPSP
VIRGINIA BEACH
MARCH 15, 2001

PRESENTATION
BY RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE

Agnes Ho undertook her first clinical pastoral training under the Rev. Narciso Dumalagen at St Lukes Episcopal Hospital in Manila in 1978-9. Next she did five units un Graehem Gibbons in Melbourne and a unit under Rob Hockney in Sidney. In Australia she was certified as a Clinical Pastoral Supervisor. When she returned to her home in Hong Kong, the question was presented to her as to what she should do next. The need for clinical pastoral training in Hong Kong was clear to her. So she founded the Pastoral Care and Counseling Association of Hong Kong.

Some people thought she needed permission to create the PCCA/HK. Some thought she ought especially to get permission from the Australians, some the Canadians, and some the Americans, who have the most bombs. She did not bother to get anyone�s permission. Some people still argue that the PCCA/HK is functioning without permission, and is therefore illegitimate. In her two years of training in the Phil and Australia she figured she was confirmed enough to exercise her own personal authority to create a Hong Kong group. And thus she did. She gathered around her a community of professionals, including even some bishops. She created a network so as not to be isolated and alone. And she began training other pastoral clinicians and other clinical pastoral supervisors, two of whom are present with us now, the Rev. Louis Ho (no relation) and Chaplain Patty To. When Richard Liew and I were in Hong Kong last August, Agnes Ho=s group was convened to listen to us pontificate, and some sixty ministers and seminarians, including one Anglican bishop, showed up for two consecutive evenings. And it was a savy gathering. We were not addressing novices. That impressive group was a demonstration of the legitimacy of the PCCA/HK.

CPSP promotes leadership that dares to assert itself, as opposed to the flawed attempts at leadership from those who are continually waiting for permission. No one in history who possesses personal authority waits around for permission to speak or act.

In the sheep herd where most people dwell, in undifferentiated globbiness as the inimitable and late Edwin Friedman put it, there is little differentiation and less audacity, and therefore little leadership. The human community needs bold, audacious, idiosyncratic leadership.

Agnes Ho, we are giving you this award tonight because you exemplify the kind of leadership that CPSP promotes, leadership that is all too rare. In honoring you, we want to bless the HKPCCA and wish it and you every success in the years ahead.