Summer CPE Students Meet New Challenges,
New Inspiration in Multifaith Ministry

Fifty-one students from across America and the world converged on New York in June to participate in The HealthCare Chaplaincy's 10-week summer session of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). The program teaches students how to provide spiritual support to patients, family members, and caregivers in a clinical setting. Comprised of seminarians as well as those making mid-life career changes from education, law, medicine, and other fields, students face unique daily challenges, emerging with new knowledge about clinical practice and about themselves. At the Opening Luncheon at St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church, trustee Matthew Ludmer welcomed the students. "In Judaism the word mitzvah has come to mean Œgood deeds' and this summer you will be provided with lots of mitzvah opportunities," Mr. Ludmer said. "Mitzvah literally means commandment, implying perhaps that you have been called to service. It also implies that all good deeds are not easy to do."

"How hard can CPE be?" Deonna Neal, 28, is a former U.S. Air Force captain and graduate of the Air Force Academy. An officer in the Presidential Honor Guard, she was responsible for the safety and well-being of 150 service men and women, and is no stranger to intense training. As a cadet, she participated in a survival, evasion, resistance, escape course to prepare pilots and support personnel for the possibility of being shot down and captured. "I thought, ŒHow hard can CPE be compared to POW training?'" Donna admitted. "Boy, I was totally wrong!"

Summer students Lauren Eichler and Jonathan Berkun.

"CPE is more of an emotional process," she explained. "Growing up in the military, you don't bring emotions to work. I had to maintain a cool, calm, collected demeanor‹even though, internally, I might not feel okay. CPE was the flipside of that: naming my emotions, learning that it's okay to feel that way, and discovering what experiences in my life generated particular emotions." Deonna hopes to enter congregational ministry after her ordination as an Episcopal priest. She returns to her second year at General Theological Seminary this fall.

Weaving Together the Strands of a Life Evelyn McDonald‹known to all as Evy‹is a 49-year-old Methodist seminarian with more than 20 years of experience in nursing and hospital administration. She directed intensive care and coronary care units, and helped establish the hospice movement at Hillhaven Hospice in Tucson, one of the first hospices to secure NIMH funding. She had polio as an infant, and suffered a life-threatening illness at age 29, experiences that propelled her to a renewed spiritual quest, and that led her to return to her faith and to seek ordination.

"Even though CPE is a requirement for ordination in my denomination, I wanted to have an experience outside the church setting," said Evy. "These experiences have helped me see how the strands of my life are being woven together: nursing, research, nonprofit work, spirituality, ministry. I've been able to observe myself being formed for the ministry of my future"

Even with her nursing background, Evy found the summer program more emotionally draining than she expected. "You need to be really clear about where your regeneration comes from, and to make sure you do those regenerative activities." Enjoying nature and doing artwork, both watercolors and weaving, have been restorative, as well as talking with a good friend‹preferably one who is not part of the world of hospitals and healthcare. She expects to be ordained in June 2001.

Love in All The Right Places Jonathan Berkun and Lauren Eichler are conservative rabbinical students at Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). They met in 1996, on the first day of orientation at the seminary, and have been almost inseparable ever since. They are planning to marry this September.

"The buzz at JTS is that CPE is something you don't want to miss," said Jon. "It's the most amazing, transformative experience. You'll learn how to be a pastor, a caretaker, a mensch. You learn so much about yourself and how to interact with people." "I loved it," Lauren said. "I think psychologically, so when I was with a patient, I wanted to figure them out, or fix them. My peers asked me, why are you becoming a rabbi? Why not become a psychologist? That forced me to think about my theological purpose, and it changed my experience with patients. Now, I'm in the room because I want to give love‹that's different than wanting to change someone."

This summer's experience has altered the way Jon and Lauren relate to each other. "Everyone is a bit anxious before getting married, but CPE has changed the anxiety," said Lauren. "Instead of wondering ŒIs this person right for me? Is this person going to live up to my expectations?' we are asking: ŒWill I be able to communicate openly? Will I be able to fully connect with the person I love?' That was a major gift from CPE."

Acknowledging Student Contributions At the closing luncheon at Central Synagogue, trustee Karen Smythe acknowledged the students' contributions. "The care that you provided to so many people, so many families this summer, was appreciated in ways that you may never know," she said. When she told an elderly friend about the role CPE students played, the 65-year old man, "not normally the emotional type," gave her a big hug and said, "Tell them how important what they do is. A chaplain was with me and my family when my sister died and I can't tell you what a difference that made."