Professional Ethics in Pastoral Ministry/Spiritual Care

This integrative BD course applies best practice in professional ethics to pastoral ministry/spiritual care, especially for students in the clinical (CPE), counselling (PCE) and social service streams.
The course has three objectives: The first notes the "basic elements" of ethical reasoning which shape contemporary understandings of professional ethics in the healing professions. Special focus is placed on the distinctive opportunities and challenges theological (Christian and other) ethics offers to this discourse in terms of vocation & profession. This will include how faith narratives (especially the student's own) and a theological concept like discipleship can influence professional ethos. The second objective addresses how these "basic elements" are codified in terms of professional conduct and competencies within the specific practices of pastoral/spiritual care. Here the course comparatively explores several concrete professional codes of ethics, with a specific focus on the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC) code of ethics. Finally, the course facilitates sharpening the focus of the two previous objectives by contextually integrating theoretical ethics in three ways: (1) by raising questions of practical concern through the use of cases from institutional (healthcare, church, mosque and otherwise) and private practice; · (2) by having the student grapple with her/his own experience and understanding of professional ethics/values, and (3) by having students write their own "statement of commitment to ministry," a paper which is critically reflective -and resourced in the literature- in regards to their professional responsibilities for their future ministry. This course meets the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC) ethics requirement for certification programs in Supervised Pastoral Education (CPE & PCE).