Woo-hoo!
Today I received word that I have been offered a place in a CPE course over summer at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
This is exciting because out of the three centres I applied to, Peter Mac was my first choice. This is partly because its Pastoral Care Department operates in a slightly different way from the traditional hospital chaplaincy model (which I am interested to check out more fully), and partly because I am keen for the challenge that will be presented in the context of a specialised cancer hospital, where pastoral care needs will most likely be more intense, as patients will be more strongly confronted with life/death situations than in a general hospital.
For the uninitiated, CPE is Clinical Pastoral Education, which is an intensive course in pastoral ministry, based on an action-reflection model. So for the 11 weeks of the fulltime course, I will be largely engaged in actually doing pastoral ministry on the wards of the hospital, and spending time reflecting on that work in private, via journalling and theological reflection; within a group of peers, and also in individual sessions with my supervisor. There is a double dimension to CPE, both to develop practical skills in pastoral care, which involves things like skills in empathetic/reflective listening; and also to look at my own self and what I bring to the pastoral situation- the gifts to be celebrated and built on, and baggage/issues to be dealt with.
So, it will be an intense and full-on experience: personally challenging as well as academically demanding- but great- I can't wait to get into it!
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