The History of CPE in Qld

‘Consultation on Clinical Pastoral Education’ was the theme of a meeting held at St. Francis College on January 31, 1967.  Convening this meeting was a group called ‘the Clergy-Doctor Group of Brisbane’, who consisted of members from various groups attempting to fulfil the needs of theological students and full time pastoral workers to have some understanding of the medical and psychological issues which impact on pastoral work.

As we know, CPE had its beginnings in the USA when the Rev. Anton Boisen saw a similar need after he endured some time in hospital as a patient.  About 1925 he conceived the phase “Living Human Documents” and this has continued to this day to be a basic concept for clinical education for Pastoral Associates.

That 1967 “Consultation’ in Qld was the starting point for all the effort and organisation which went into that first CPE course which commenced in June 1970. But between 1967-69 that effort included appointing a steering committee which made a study of CPE courses in Australia and overseas before it prepared a draft Constitution. The greatest recommendation was the establishing of a more substantial supervised course for training parish clergy of various denominations and pastoral workers for students and supervisors.

QICPE has come a long way since those tentative but significant beginnings. In 1983 a major change took place culminating in a CPE course that set in place the process we recognize today; but CPE has continued to grow and develop to be one of the finest training programmes in experiential learning available to Pastoral Care Associates.

The Institute became an incorporated body on the 25 June 1990 and a member organisation of the Australian New Zealand Association for Clinical Pastoral Education at its inauguration on 29 June 1990.