Abstract
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) traditionally applies the disciplines of
psychology, education, and supervisory theory to raise into consciousness students’ inner
landscapes and help form them as persons and pastors. CPE supervisors are trained to
uncover students’ buried or hidden wounds and unconscious agendas, in order to help
them grow in self-awareness, maturity, and compassionate care. However, through years
of experience as a lay chaplain, professional hospice chaplain, CPE student, and
supervisor, I have noticed that traditional, psychology-based CPE ignores a dimension
and perhaps foundation of spiritual formation that could deepen the student’s interiority,
consciousness, and potential transformation.
This project’s goal is the creation, implementation and evaluation of a CPE
curriculum that incorporates an integral approach to CPE, incorporating spiritual
formation into the traditional CPE model. Previous models of CPE suspended attention to
the human relationship with the sacred, focusing almost exclusively on intra-psychic
drama and on what happens when the student relates to other people. The traditional
method has avoided intentionally addressing what happens when the student relates to
God. Within this dualistic, unnatural separation from the spiritual dimension, students
were listening for patients’ experience of the divine without intentionally attending to
their own religious experience, or exploring their own integral development. Only
pastors more in tune with their own religious experience, biases, fears, and blocks to
intimacy can truly listen for, notice, and compassionately tend to the religious experience,
struggles, and formation of others.
The project’s new curriculum intentionally integrates the dimensions of human
development that are already inherently integrated: the spiritual and psychological. One
ancient approach to human formation that has always emphasized the development of the
whole person can be found in Benedictine spirituality and the Rule of Benedict. Thus the
new curriculum incorporates the principles and practices of Benedictine spirituality into
the CPE process, while maintaining the integrity of the traditional CPE model and
standards. Reflecting on the principles and adopting a rule of life cultivates the students’
interior lives. Within a balance of contemplation and action, they become immersed in
humility and accept a lifelong process of conversion. They develop a sense of stability,
fidelity, and obedience as they face the struggles and challenges. Ultimately, as they learn
to appropriate their own religious experience, they develop into more integrated,
compassionate, and effective persons and pastors.
The project’s strategy encompasses planning and implementing a new CPE
curriculum infused with ongoing conversion based in the Paschal Mystery: life, death,
and resurrection. I have applied teachings and reflections based in part on the Rule of
Benedict. Dating back to the sixth century, Benedictine spirituality provides a point of
departure for other spiritualities. The Rule of Benedict emphasizes a life of balanced
prayer and action (ora et labora). While unapologetically Christian, the Rule reflects on
the process of formation in language that other religions may also appropriate for human
development.
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This new curriculum incorporates some components of the Community of Hope
(CoH) International’s Lay Pastoral Training Program. Developed by St. Luke’s Episcopal
Hospital in Houston, the CoH connects principles discussed in Sr. Joan Chittister’s book,
The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality of the 21st Century, to aspects of pastoral care and
formation. However, by itself, the CoH’s spirituality-based curriculum lacks beneficial
clinical exercises that the traditional CPE model includes, such as verbatims, individual
supervision, and group processing.
In contrast, the current psychology-based CPE model lacks spiritual grounding
and a more universal, integrated and redemptive vision. In fact, this model seems
dualistic, creating a false division between spirituality and psychology. One formation
model without the other seems deficient, particularly for the training of ordained and
professional ministers. Therefore, this project integrates into CPE both the psychological
and spiritual dimensions, which I will argue are already inherently related. I will draw
upon the integrated models of Ken Wilbur and other developmental experts such as
James Hillman and Robert Kegan. I will demonstrate that incorporating an integrated
model of human development is a more effective approach for CPE.
After developing a new, integrated curriculum, I scheduled and implemented a
CPE unit using that curriculum over a span of nine months. The CPE group met one 10-
hour day per month at Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, then skyped or face-timed
in-between classes. Students made at least 300 hours of pastoral visits. The six students,
four of whom were Episcopal deacon postulants, responded favorably to the spiritual
formation emphasis. Demonstrating less resistance than traditional CPE students, the
class developed a receptivity and willingness to enter into a difficult process. They
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recognized that balanced practices of prayer, meditation, and action cultivated a keen
self-awareness and compassionate acceptance of themselves and, as a result, others.
Ultimately, with teachable hearts open to Christ-consciousness, and through deliberate
spiritual practices, they were receptive to the graces of transformation. They became
more humble, effective, and compassionate pastoral caregivers.
The six students, my supervisor, and I each wrote a final evaluation about the unit
and the individuals’ progress. The Diocese of Mississippi’s bishop and directors of the
A.C. Marble Institute for Theological Formation also offered feedback on the unit. The
evaluations and feedback indicate that the students developed a willingness to be
transformed and demonstrated personal and pastoral growth and commitment. They
experienced heightened awareness and receptivity to God’s presence and voice as
encountered in themselves, patients, CPE group, and others. The students enthusiastically
embraced and grasped connections between human spiritual formation, self-awareness,
pastoral care, and theology. They progressed in their ability to self-supervise.
Based on the results of this project, I plan to continue supervising the deacon and
bivocational priest candidates in the A.C. Marble Institute, as well as other ministry
students. I may eventually offer this curriculum to other Episcopal dioceses and
potentially to other CPE centers.
