Articles
A Look Back and a Look Forward
Augustine Meier
March 2, 2003
On the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Society for
Pastoral Counselling Research, it is an appropriate time to
reflect upon its mission, recall its beginnings, review its accomplishments
and envision its future.
Mission
The Society is a community of scholars, researchers and practitioners
who aspire to integrate the human, social, psychological, and sacred
dimensions of persons in their practice. The Society embraces this
aspiration and supports the initiatives of scholars, researchers
and practitioners to build models and theories which include these
various dimensions of the human person and to conduct research which
pays attention to these same dimensions. To encourage these activities,
the Society provides a forum where researchers, scholars and practitioners
interact, share and communicate their newly developed models and
research findings with each other and with the broader community.
The Annual Conference serves as one of the principal forums for
this scholarly and professional exchange.
Beginnings
The Society for Pastoral Counselling Research was inaugurated
on May 6, 1994 at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario. It began
as a Saint Paul University and Ottawa area enterprise. It held its
first Annual Conference in May of the same year. There were nine
papers presented at the conference and thirty-six participated in
this event. Augustine Meier, the Founder, was the Society’s first
president. The Society, from its beginning, was bilingual, reflecting
Canada’s two founding cultures.
The second year witnessed the expansion of the Society to include
scholars and researchers from the Waterloo/Kitchener area. Peter
VanKatwyk presented a paper at the Second Annual Conference, was
the Keynote Speaker the following year, and became the Society’s
Third President. Peter VanKatwyk is credited with the expansion
of the Society beyond the Ottawa area and with the establishment
of a strong network of scholars and researchers in the Waterloo/Kitchener
district. By the end of the third year, the Society was well established
in both Ottawa and Waterloo/Kitchener.
Accomplishments
Over the past ten years, the Society developed organizational structures
and instruments of communication, initiated research awards and
prizes, and organized conferences and workshops.
Constitution and By-Laws: For eight months
prior to the first conference, a team of graduate students in the
Counselling Program, Saint Paul University and the Founder of the
Society met weekly to prepare for the conference and to develop
the Constitution and By-Laws for the Society. The Constitution
and By-Laws, written in Canada’s two official languages, were approved
at the First Annual Meeting of the Society, May 6, 1994 and amended
on May 14, 1999. To describe more precisely the tasks of the officers,
the Executive prepared a document called Tasks of the Executive
Officers which was presented to the General Assembly for approval
on May 3, 2002. Electronic copies of the Constitution and By-Laws
and the Tasks of the Executive Officers are available to
members of the Society.
Registered Charity: The Society is an
unaffiliated and non-profit corporation and a Registered Charity
(Canadian). The Society obtained the latter on May 1, 1998. This
status was secured through the hard work of Al MacMillan who continues
to handle the paper work required for continued registration. Because
the Society is a Registered Charity, donations made to the Society
can be deducted when filling out income tax returns.
Annual Conferences: The Society has organized
annual conference since its founding in 1994. These conferences
took place on the first weekend in May (the weekend prior to mother’s
day). A theme was determined for each of the conferences. However,
a small number of papers which did not focus on the theme were accepted
for presentation at the conference. The reason for this was to support
the continuity of a scholar’s research program.
All of the conferences with the exception of two took place at
Saint Paul University, Ottawa. The first conference away from Ottawa
was held at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in May, 1998 and the second
was held at McMaster Hospital, McMaster University, Hamilton, in
May, 2001. Peter VanKatwyk took care of the logistics for the conference
at Waterloo and Thomas and John O’Connor did the same for the conference
at Hamilton. The third conference to be held away from Ottawa is
being organized for this coming May (2003). Marie-Line Morin and
Claude Mailloux are looking after the logistics for the conference
which will be held at Sherbrooke University, Sherbrooke, Québec.
The fact that the conferences will have taken place in four different
cities speaks for its vitality and relevancy.
Workshops for Practitioners: The Society
is a community of scholars, researchers and practitioners. Prior
to the commencement of a conference, the Society organized one-day
workshops which addressed the needs of practitioners. In this way
practitioners might alert researchers and scholars of topics that
could be the subject of research and researchers might provide evidence
in support of practitioners’ professional work.
NewsLetter: The First SPCR NewsLetter
was published on September 18, 1994. It has been published ever
since in the spring and fall of each year. The NewsLetter
provides information regarding the many facets of the Society including
the date and theme of the annual conferences and workshops, recipients
of the research awards and prizes, publication of conference proceedings,
and so on. The NewsLetter is printed in both English and
French. The Editors of the NewsLetter have been Augustine
Meier and Micheline Boivin. The latter also translated the NewsLetter,
until one year ago, when Claude Mailloux assumed this task. Members
are invited to submit items related to the affairs of the Society
or are of interest to its members.
Research Awards: The Members of the Executive
developed four research awards with eligibility criteria for each.
The eligibility criteria for three of these were presented to the
General Assembly on May 15, 1998, for approval. The four research
awards are: Dissertation Award, Junior Career Research Award, Senior
Career Research Award, and Distinguished Career Research Award.
The purpose of the research awards is to acknowledge the research
of dedicated scholars, to encourage the continuation of research,
and to develop new researchers through their presentations at the
conference and through the publication of their work. The members
of the Society accept the fact that the professions of counselling
and pastoral care require research to evaluate their ministries
and to keep them relevant. Thus far, there have been four recipients
for the Dissertation Award, one for the Junior Career Research Award
and four for the Distinguished Career Research Award. Electronic
copies of the description of the awards and their eligibility criteria
are available to SPCR members.
Research Prizes: Two research prizes,
each worth $500 per year, have been established. These research
prizes will be given for a five year period which began in May,
2001. One of the prizes was donated by the Chaplaincy, Hamilton
Health Sciences Corporation and is called the HHSC (Dissertation)
Research Prize. Rev. John O’Connor was instrumental in securing
the money for this prize. The second research prize was donated
by John Wells and is called the John Wells Research Prize.
The two prizes are given in conjunction with the Research Awards.
Membership Directory: To facilitate communication
and networking among SPCR members, the Executive established a Membership
Directory. The information in the Directory includes
address, business telephone number, fax numbers, and e-mail address.
The Directory was first published in February, 1998 to celebrate
the Society’s Fifth Anniversary. The Directory is updated
each year and is only available to the members of SPCR.
Publication of Conference Proceedings:
The publication of the Conference Proceedings was raised at the
first General Assembly, May 6, 1994. It reappeared as a topic of
concern in subsequent General Assemblies. It was considered important
to have an instrument to publish the papers because many of the
presenters were also professors whose time for research and writing
was limited. They wanted their writing efforts to result in a publication.
The first step in publishing conference proceedings took place with
the publication of The Challenge of Forgiveness (2001) by
Novalis Publishers. Since then conference proceedings have been
published in the book, In Search of Healing (2003) and in
the Journal of Pastoral Sciences, 2003, 22(1). The
Executive of the Society has made it a priority to arrange for the
publication of all future conference proceedings. In this way, the
conference proceedings are made available to the broader community.
Electronic Mail: The Executive of SPCR
is increasing its use of electronic mail to communicate with each
other and with members of the Society. For example, the Society
has established separate group e-mail lists to communicate with
the authors of manuscripts submitted to a book or to a journal for
possible publication. An group e-mail list for the SPCR members
is yet to be built. The use of electronic mail would facilitate
communication and substantially reduce the cost of photocopying
and mailing material to the members.
SPCR Website: Plans are in place for
building a SPCR Website. A SPCR Website will increase its visibility
and will provide information quickly. It is anticipated that all
documents pertinent to the operation and function of SPCR will be
available on the Website.
Expansion of Membership: Participation
in SPCR has increased steadily since its inauguration.
On the English side, Martin Rovers is actively advertizing SPCR
within and outside of Saint Paul University; Thomas O’Connor is
passionately encouraging graduate students from Waterloo and Hamilton
to present papers at the annual conferences; Bill Sneck and Kevin
Gillespie are making the Society known at Loyola College, Baltimore;
John Shea and Beverly Musgrave are the SPCR ambassadors at Fordham
University, Bronx, New York; Carrie Doehring is the SPCR beacon
at Boston University; and Paul Rennick is making the Society known
at Assumption University, Windsor.
On the French side, Gilles Fortin and Judith Malette encourage
students at Saint Paul University to take part in conferences and
Marie-Line Morin and Claude Mailloux, from Sherbrooke University,
in hosting the Society’s tenth conference, will make SPCR known
to a large number of French speaking scholars and students.
In brief, the Society has expanded to include researchers, scholars
and practitioners, French and English, from both Canada and United
States.
In addition to the prominent persons mentioned above, there are
others who through their hard work and dedication contributed to
the expansion and accomplishments of the Society. These include
the Members of the Executive (Treasurer, Secretary, Membership Coordinator),
those who presented papers at the Annual Conferences, the participants
who supported the Society through their attendance and participation
in the Conferences, the members of the local planning committees,
the Administration of Saint Paul University, and the graduate students
that toiled for eight months prior to the launching of the Society’s
first Conference.
Archival Material: Over the past ten
years material pertinent to the function of the Society has been
preserved. These include copies of the Conference Programs, NewsLetter,
Minutes of the Annual Conferences, Membership Directory, completed
Membership Application Forms, videotapes of Key Note Addresses,
pictures, and correspondence. In addition, Micheline Boivin prepared
a Picture Album which comprises pictures taken at the annual conferences.
This was displayed at the Society’s Fifth Anniversary. The Picture
Album will be updated and displayed again at the Society’s Tenth
Anniversary. All of this material, most of which is classified,
is stored in Augustine Meier’s university office. All of the material,
with the exception of the pictures and videotapes, is also electronically
stored on diskettes.
Looking Forward
What are the challenges that await the Society? The following suggestions
are meant to be points for discussion by the Executive and by the
members of the Society.
Logo: The Society does not yet have a
logo. The topic of a logo came up at the business meeting of the
Second Annual Conference (May 12, 1995). At that time the Executive
invited submissions. There were several submissions but none were
accepted. This remains a task for the future.
Expansion of the Society: The Society
faces the challenge to make itself known in all parts of Canada
and the United States and to invite scholars, researchers and practitioners
from these regions, who embrace the mission of the Society, to join
it. Currently the majority of the SPCR members come from Ontario
and Québec and from Eastern United States. The Society needs to
reach out to researchers, scholars and practitioners who embrace
the same mission as the Members of the Society. The establishment
of a Website can help to make this task easier.
Funds: The Society is limited in funds
which it receives, primarily, from membership fees and from the
annual pre-conference workshops. Funds are needed to adequately
advertize the Society, to pay the fees for keynote speakers and
workshop leaders, to make it possible for Members of the Executive
to attend conferences (e.g., The American Association of Pastoral
Counsellors) for the purpose of making SPCR more visible, and to
continue with the publication process, even more so, if the Society
is the publisher. The funding issue needs to be seriously addressed
if the Society is going to continue to expand and take on new activities
and functions.
Executive Director: If the Society continues
to expand, it will have to consider appointing an Executive Officer.
With expansion, there will be more responsibilities to organize
and manage the affairs of the Society. Having an Executive Officer
would permit the Elected Officers of the Society (e.g., President,
Program Director) to do their tasks and not be caught up with the
daily operation of the Society.
Permanent Office: With the growth of
the Society and its activities, consideration needs to be given
to the establishment of a permanent office. A permanent office may
mean a designated work area equipped with a computer, telephone,
and internet access and where documents and archival material is
safely kept and stored. The permanent office might be that of the
President, Executive Officer, or some other designated person. Alternative
options need to be considered.
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