Home WEOI News Latest Deadline Approaching to Register for the 2009 Pastoral Care Specialist Certificate
Deadline Approaching to Register for the 2009 Pastoral Care Specialist Certificate PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 06 November 2008 16:21

Pauline Oates
Pauline Oates

The next peer learning group for the Pauline Oates Pastoral Care Specialist Certificate is forming and the deadline for applying to be part of this group is December 1. The group's first seminar, Introduction to the Ministry of Pastoral Care, will be in January 2009.

 

The Pastoral Care Specialist Certificate offered by the Wayne E. Oates Institute provides training in brief and supportive pastoral care and counseling that will strengthen participants' pastoral care skills for pastors, deacons, and other congregational leaders who are often the first to be called when individuals and families suffer trauma or experience a crisis.

The Pastoral Care Specialist Certificate is a course of study developed for clergy or laity who are responsible for giving congregational care. Utilizing the Oates Institute's Connected Learning approach to make this certificate program available online, pastoral care givers may earn the certificate from any location as long as they have internet access.

By utilizing the resources of the participant’s personal faith tradition, this program is designed to strengthen the individual’s pastoral identity and to enhance his or her pastoral care skills. The PCS certificate equips participants to:

  • Listen with understanding
  • Maintain boundaries
  • Differentiate the “being” from the “doing” in the role of the pastoral caregiver
  • Respond appropriately to crisis
  • Utilize referral resources

This certificate program is structured around small cohort groups. It utilizes the Oates Institute’s Connected Learning approach, which uses cyberspace to connect participants with other learners, educational resources, and facilitators. By transcending the need for participants to be available at the same time or place, this methodology makes it possible for persons to participate from anywhere in the world with internet access. With the high degree of schedule flexibility participants have time for personal reflection in the context of supportive peer group interaction.

 

Each group consists of 8-12 persons who will work together through the four core seminars and the pastoral care practicum. Participants will learn from each other as well as from the readings and faculty facilitation.

 

The curriculum for this certificate program features four three-week core seminars and a six-week practicum utilizing one's placement in a ministry context. (A total of 72 contact hours.)

The next cohort group is forming to begin this certificate program in January of 2009.

For more information about the PCS Certificate
Last Updated on Monday, 10 November 2008 20:48