Monthly Archives: September 2020

Fundamentals in Clinical Pastoral Training (F-CPT)

Since 2011 we have been facilitating a course, Clinical Pastoral Orientation (CPO). It is essentailly a quarter unit of CPE and is done in a format that can be worked into a normal semester class at a Bible School or Seminary.

After some consideration, we have decided to change CPO to F-CPT, or “Fundamentals in Clinical Pastoral Training.” There are a couple of reasons for that.

First, and most importantly, when we hold CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) on the first day we have Orientation. This is a 4-5 hour review of the course so that CPE trainees are ready. Having CPO (a semestral course with 100 hours of formal and practical time) sound so much like the Orientation time for CPE (4-5 hours) is confusing.

Second, “Fundamentals in Clinical Pastoral Training” sounds more like a course offering than “Clinical Pastoral Orientation.”

Note: We often have this course done in tandem with Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary. They call the course “Clinical Pastoral Orientation” (Course Code: CPE-0). We are not asking them to change the name.

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Living Online

We have not been able to do “business as usual.” We are not able at this time to do hospital and jail ministry. We have done CPE during quarantine, but it has not been ideal. We have also done some face to face pastoral counseling, but the logistics for many is challenging.

So we have been slowly ramping up online resources. Our team have been doing a lot of online (both videochat and audiochat) counseling. Recently, we have started doing online group work relations to support pastoral counselors and chaplains.

Soon we will PROBABLY start online CPE or FCPT (Fundamentals of Clinical Pastoral Training, formally known as CPO). Still considering webinars. We shall see.

Schedule Change for CPE

After some consideration of the situation here in Baguio, we have decided to postpone CPE for the near future. We held 1-1/2 units of CPE during quarantine. We tried to be innovative with alternatives to hospital and jail activities, and mixing face-to-face gatherings along with online.

It was a good experiment, but for now with only limited opportunities in barangay and parish settings, we feel the range of experiences that add value to CPE is inadequate.

We will reevaluate this on a month by month basis.