THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CURRICULUM FOR TRAINING IN PASTORAL MINISTRY IN THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL SETTING OF THE HOSPITAL MILIEU (HEALING, INTERPERSONAL, WHOLISTIC, CPE, INSTITUTIONAL)

This thesis-project addresses the desirability of professional religious/spiritual ministry in the hospital milieu and the warrant for specialized training of local clergy to meet it. The writer sees the issue as four-dimensional, involving: (1) lack of communication between clergy and health care professionals; (2) widespread ignorance among clergy of the nature, mechanics, and protocols of the modern hospital; (3) a conflict of agendas among clergy, sick people, and health care professionals; but, nevertheless, (4) a growing awareness among health care professionals of the value of wholistic medical practice, including the spiritual element.;The investigation covers four related aspects of the problem: (1) a summary account of the historical entwinement of medicine and religion; (2) a survey of the opinions of patients and the nursing and medical staffs of a medium-sized hospital and of local clergy ministering there on the value of pastoral ministry; (3) an exegesis of the gospel mandate for a healing ministry; and (4) a gleaning from relevant writings of leaders in the clinical pastoral education movement of the essentials for shaping a reasonably comprehensive curriculum.;The researcher concludes: (1) that there is an historical basis for an alliance between clergy and health care professionals; (2) that, while both patients and health care professionals concur on the need for specialized training of clergy for ministry in a hospital milieu, both express great appreciation for the pastoral ministry of clergy; (3) a clear gospel mandate for a healing minsitry exists; and (4) that the essentials of clinical pastoral education for pastoral ministry in a hospital milieu may be communicated in a program which balances classroom instruction in methodology and procedure with sufficient supervised clinical application.;The purpose of this study was to develop a curriculum for the training of local clergy for ministry in the hospital milieu. The design of such a program must fit the broad requirements of an effective pastoral ministry in the health care environment and be conveniently available to local clergy. It must also be sufficiently simple in structure and economically feasible that hospitals of modest size will be able to conduct it.