In his 2003 Address to the CPSP Plenary, Raymond Lawrence provided a most eloquent definition of the founding philosophy of CPSP, reminding us of the origins of our community, and the very meaning of our existence. Raymond speaks poignantly of his own clinical training as foundational and life changing. One might say, life giving. One of the most significant aspects of CPSP and its life together is the accountability and care that is ongoing from the small clinical training group to the depths of care one experiences in a CPSP Chapter. I commend these words to you almost as a sacrament, or a means of grace, calling us to our best selves, personally and professionally, and with accountability in our lives together.
Listen to the Words:
CPSP was formed out of the memories of our own experience in clinical training. It was not formed around the corporate bureaucratic model, which by its very nature smothers criticism with public relations and undermines collegiality by promoting patterns of domination and submission. We remembered the redemptive process of our own clinical training, an experience that was marked by deep criticism and deep respect and care, an experience that we would never demean or trivialize by calling it skill training. We experienced our own clinical pastoral process as transformative. We sought in creating CPSP to rekindle the transformative process that seemed to be diminishing in our professional lives. We constructed the Chapter model out of our memories of the clinical training group as the best hope for fostering continuing transformation, individually and corporately.
-Raymond J. Lawrence, General Secretary
lawrence@cpsp.org
2003 CPSP Plenary Address to the Community
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George Hankins-Hull
Director of Pastoral Care, and Clinical Pastoral Education
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
JHull@uams.edu