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Oh, joy! A call this morning informed me that I'd been awarded the John McGonegal Bursary for CPE - Clinical Pastoral Education. For me that will mean (if I'm accepted at a hospital) a summer-long supervised placement in 2006, providing pastoral care and support to patients and families (and staff, should they need/want it). It's a challenging summer, from what I hear tell, but something to which I'm looking forward. Pastoral care forms the bulk of many priest's day, so I want all the direction and guidance I can get. My greatest challenge, I'm certain, will be not trying to "fix" people. That's the big trap of pastoral care, and I do lean toward wanting to find a solution to problems. As my PC prof drummed into us last term - listen. Be there, love the person and listen. It's up to God and the care recipient to solve the problem...the caregiver is just a sounding board, a witness and (above all) a friend. I think people's impression of the church, in general, is that of an institution telling them things - how to live, what to think, etc. On a bad day, yes, the church can look like that. But our best work is done when we shut up and let God work in the relationship. As Fr. H says, "Pray...and get out of the way." All that Google will tell me about Fr. McGonegal is what I can find in the information regarding the award itself... This award was established in honour of the Rev. John McGonegal by the parishioners of the Church of St. Philip the Apostle, Caribou Road, Toronto. Fr. McGonegal was formerly chaplain at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto and at the Verdun Hospital in Montreal. So many thanks to the members of the bursary committee and to the parishioners of St. Philip the Apostle. I hope to thank them properly, by applying myself wholeheartedly to my CPE. |
