Educating Effective Chaplains project kicks off in Boston

From July 30 to August 1, the full cohort of the Educative Effective Chaplains project met at Boston University to kick off its three-year project and lay the groundwork for a landmark contribution to the field of spiritual care. A defining feature of the gathering was the sheer diversity of attendees. From the beginning this project has sought to cultivate a rich conversation between educators, CPE supervisors and trainers, chaplains, and administrators. The conference illustrated how fruitful that approach is proving to be, with over 40 representatives from mainline Protestant seminaries, free church theological schools, pioneering educators from Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish institutions, and a wide variety of approaches to spiritual care.

The conference kicked off with a dinner and introductions at the Dahod Family Alumni Center on Boston University’s campus overlooking the Charles River. Attendees were welcomed to the University by Mary Elizabeth Moore, Dean of the School of Theology, who offered her appreciation and encouragement of the group’s efforts to foster a new generation of responsive spiritual care. For the next two days, attendees gathered at the School of Theology and AC Hotel at Cleveland Circle to discuss the overarching framework of challenges to the profession and solutions for the future. “I found myself particularly impressed by the depth and breadth of thinking that our group put into these questions,” said Shelly Rambo, the project’s principal investigator and professor at BU’s School of Theology; “the opportunity for frank discussion and thinking outside the box is leading us in some very interesting directions.”

Two of the conference’s sessions were uniquely valuable to the group’s conversation. On Wednesday morning attendees heard from recent graduates and students in chaplaincy training on what they saw as strengths and challenges in their educational programs. The panel threw into sharp relief the particular needs of chaplaincy training and how the work of spiritual care in communities can be vastly different from that of congregation- or parish-based ministry. In the afternoon, a panel of chaplain employers discussed what skills and training they looked for in hiring effective chaplains. With representation from the federal Bureau of Prisons, universities, the armed forces, and healthcare, the panel offered practical guidance on how educators and CPE trainers could better prepare students for work in specific settings. Wendy Cadge, founder of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and one of the project’s leaders, said “This is exactly what we need to have in mind when we think about the next generation of chaplains. All of our efforts to educate and train chaplains will amount to little if they can’t meet the very real needs of particular sectors.”The group will meet in person in the summers of 2020 and 2021, with online meetings in between. The project, which operates from Boston University, is grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation for sharing in the vision of responsive spiritual care and supporting this work. More information can be found on the project’s website.