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Addressing Theology in Suffering

Here is a quote by Howard Stone from “The Word of God and Pastoral Care”

Over the years, while making pastoral carecaution2bagainst2bbad2badvice visits and especially hospital visits, I have sadly encountered many people whose well-meaning friends and acquaintances have responded to their why questions with theological answers that left them terribly upset and proved actually to be destructive: ‘This is God’s punishment on you and for your sins.’ ‘This is God’s will; you have to accept it.’ ‘This has happened to bring you to the Lord.’ ‘God wanted your dear one with him in heaven.’ ‘If you hadn’t skipped out on your wife, this wouldn’t have happened.’ ‘If you had stayed home with your children where God wants you to be, they wouldn’t have started taking drugs.’

More recently I have also come across another whole class of answers — more psychological than religious — to theodicy issues: ‘You are responsible for your illness.’ ‘You are sick because of your destructive thoughts.’ ‘The cancer inside you is pent up anger; you’ve got to release it to get well.’ ‘You are what you eat; if only you had cut out salt and exercised more.’ Some people are so eager to give their answers that they scarcely wait for the questions to be asked. The results are often quite grim.

When I first began pastoral care work, I would have thought such pronouncements were rare, or occurred only in the more conservative denominations. Not so! Things such as this happen everywhere, regardless of the conservative or liberal orientation. Simplistic and damaging answers flow from well-meaning people at a time when their hearers are in considerable distress, vulnerable, and unable to talk back. I raise the issue here because if ministers care only for people’s emotional pain and do not respond theologically to the issue of theodicy, parishioners will inevitably get their theological education elsewhere, and it may not be the kind we would have wished for them. In other words, if ministers will not respond, sooner or later, to the vital questions of theodicy, neighbors and friends are likely to do so, and not always in a helpful manner.                                       –page 165

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BOT Meeting

January 20th, 2018 from 10 am to 2pm, we held our Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees. The officers and board members stayed the same, and all were present.

Dr. Paul Tabon                         President      (Diplomate:  PBTS-SEE Training Center)

Mrs. Jehny Pedazo-Caoagas   V. President

Mrs. Celia Munson                   Sec/Treas      (Diplomate: Bukal Life Care)

Dr. Simplicio Dang-Awan Jr.  Member       (Diplomate:  New Heights)

Dr. Ryan Clark                            Member       <Present by Skype>

Also present were three who are part of CPSP-Philippines but not on BOT:

Dr. Robert Munson                   Registrar

Mrs. Tina Dang-Awan

Mr. Edgar Chan

 

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Upcoming Board Meeting

The board of trustees of CPSP-Philippines will have its annual meeting on January 20th starting at 9am at Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary (Baguio City).

An additional note: Dr. Doug Dickens will be returning to PBTS in May. He is a Diplomate with CPSP, and will assist the pastoral care program of PBTS, along with our work with CPSP-Philippines.

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Holiday Gift

Greetings. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. If you are afree_gift_blue present CPSP-Philippines member, or have been in the past, we have three PDFs of books that might be of value to you. At least one of them is really hard to get a hold of, at any price.  But if you email me at bukallife@gmail.com, I will send you the three PDFs for free.

Bob Munson, CPSP-Philippines registrar

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Interpersonal Relationship Group Seminar (IPRG)

Rev. Dr. Cal Castro Sodoy, of Clinical Pastoral and Spiritual Care Training Center, will be holding several week-long seminars for couples of all types. The dates and locations are as follows:

January 1-7, 2018                  Tablas Island, Romblon

June 4-10, 2018                       Central Philippine University (CPU), Iloilo City

October 15-21, 2018               Capiz Emmanuel Hospital, Roxas City  (or CPU)

For information regarding cost, contact information, and the nature of the program is available, please CLICK HERE.

 

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Updates from Mary Johnston Hospital

  1.   Chaplain Sim Dang-Awan will be working with Chaplain Victor Layug to start the Extended CPE Unit on 18 November 2017 which may last up to 24 Feb 2018. Victor will handle the Chaplain trainees taking Unit 1, while Sim will handle the Chaplain Trainees taking their Unit 2 & 3. They are aiming for groups of approximately 5 each on a “first come first serve ” basis, although the maximum number is 7 and the minimum number is 4. This is a one day a week (8 hrs) plus 1 hour a week “One on One Supervision” and one or two evening duty Chaplain in Hospital (by rotation). The charge is 10,000 pesos for the program.
  2. Chaplain Victor had a seminary at Mary Johnston Hospital where he was formally presented with his certifications from CPSP-Philippines as Clinical Chaplain and Pastoral Counselor. Additionally, he was formally presented the letter that accepted  him into the Supervisor-in-Training program, being mentored by Chaplain Dang-Awan, a Diplomate Supervisor in Clinical Pastoral Education/Training.22382240_10214605096182505_1098620693593837789_o
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Trainings October and Beyond

A few trainings coming up.

  1.  Dr. Raymond Lawrence, General Secretary of CPSP, will be in Manila. Several leaders of CPSP-Philippines will meet with him on October 1st. The 2nd to the 6th of October, Dr. Lawrence will be leading training at St. Andrews Theological Seminary.
  2. Dr. Doug Dickens, a CPSP Diplomate will be in Baguio City October 16-27. He will be teaching a course in Pastoral Theology at Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary
  3. Guy and Roxanna Grimes, of The Relationship Warehouse, will be leading training at the Lide-Walker Conference at Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary January 8-10.

 

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