CHAPLAINCY

History

Massachusetts General Hospital has been a pioneer in clinical, academic, and research medicine. In the 1930's, MGH played a key leadership role in the development of hospital-based pastoral care. In 1934 the nationally first Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Program in a general hospital setting was offered at the MGH. Seminarians, parish clergy, and selected lay people were provided both instruction and practice in bedside pastoral care to the sick and their families.

Clinical pastoral care developed through the initiative of the distinguished MGH physician Dr. Richard Clarke Cabot, who also was a passionate advocate for hospital based clinical social work and an early supporter of Rev. Anton Boisen. Rev. Boisen was another key person in the movement of clinical pastoral care, and since 1925 had offered CPE at the Worcester State Hospital in order to help seminarians and clergy to study “the living human document.”

In 1933 Rev. Russell L. Dicks from New York City was hospitalized at the MGH. Dr. Cabot met Rev. Dicks and was impressed with Dicks’ record keeping: “Here is a man who writes down the prayers he had with a man who is dying! We’d better ask him to stay … we might learn something.” Rev. Dicks was appointed as Chaplain to the MGH, and Dr. Cabot collaborated with him to write The Art of Ministering to the Sick (1936). In the following decades the Chaplaincy and the Clinical Pastoral Education Program increasingly enjoyed the support of the Hospital.

Since Dr. Richard Cabot wrote his "Plea for a Clinical Year" to the seminaries in 1925, well over a thousand students have participated in Clinical Pastoral Education at the MGH. In 1944, MGH was the site of the founding of the Institute for Pastoral Care, a professional organization which was one of the forerunners of the National Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. (ACPE). Today the ACPE is the accrediting agency for over 250 CPE programs, including those with the Partners HealthCare System, Inc.

Under the leadership of Rev. Mary Martha Thiel and Sr. Sheila Hammond, MGH again became a pioneer in Clinical Pastoral Education. In January 1998 an innovative and now nationally known learning experience was birthed: the CPE for Health Care Professionals Program. With fellowship monies from the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center and the MGH Department of Nursing, health care providers were given the formal opportunity to take CPE. They learn to support patients and families by means of acknowledging and honoring spiritual values within the context of medical care delivery. In a welcoming environment for many forms of professional education, CPE for Health Care Professionals at MGH is a much sought after educational experience.

After a time of transition the Clinical Pastoral Education at the MGH was reinstated in 2005 by the Rev. Angelika Zollfrank. Since January 2006 Michael McElhinny, M.Div., has been the director of the Chaplaincy Department at the MGH. His support of Clinical Pastoral Education has cleared the way for further development of the CPE program at the MGH. Strong historical roots within the institution combined with a clear vision for the future have made the MGH once again a prime environment for Clinical Pastoral Education. In 2006 the Chaplaincy Department will offer three programs: a CPE program for Healthcare Professionals in the winter, an intensive summer CPE program for theological students and clergy, and a CPE extensive unit for theological students and clergy in the fall.