News

Regent College is delighted to announce that Master of Divinity (MDiv) students will be able to pursue a concentration in chaplaincy starting in the 2022/2023 academic year. This new concentration meets the growing needs of a world where increasingly more organizations are interested in the spiritual health of the people they work with, while setting our students up for a rich and meaningful career as spiritual care providers.

"This is quite new for Regent College," says Regent's Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology Mark Glanville. "We are taking Clinical Psychospiritual Education (CPE) seriously and encouraging our students to learn about it, think about it, and either dip their toes in the water and take a unit of CPE or consider a career in chaplaincy. Many students find CPE training life-changing. I'm excited about the potential of this concentration as we deepen our partnership with Vancouver's CPE programs at Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health, and Providence Health."

The Chaplaincy concentration integrates Clinical Psychospiritual Education (CPE) training with our Master of Divinity (MDiv) program, and helps students start the journey towards a professional spiritual care career in a variety of fields: healthcare, corrections, military, education, shelters, marketplace, and more.

Having begun his chaplaincy vocation eleven years ago, Matthew Heyn (MDiv '17) started work as a spiritual care practitioner for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) while studying at Regent. Today, he is a Certified CPE Supervisor-Educator with the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC/ACSS) at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), where he visits patients and journeys with CPE students as they work out their calling to provide spiritual care.

"Chaplaincy humanizes people," Heyn shares. "It is about entering into the sacred experience of human suffering, shouldering it with patients on the edge of the unknown, and attentively, without judgment or anxiety, holding their experience with God. The conversations you have with others change you. I have become more open, present, and loving with others. Chaplaincy has helped me find who I really am in relation to God and my gifting. In sum, it has changed my life."

The CPE units offer a mix of inner work, practical training, individual and group supervision, and direct clinical experience with patients. "There is deep soul work in CPE. It can be both difficult and joyful. The learning is really deep and rich and centres around the people: patients, residents, their families, and staff," says Beth Burton from Providence Health. "If CPE leads you further, the field of spiritual health is a fantastic profession."

In order to complete this concentration, MDiv students must complete two units of CPE through one of the following local health authorities: Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health, or Providence Health. Each unit will transfer to Regent for six credits, making a total of twelve transfer credits. These twelve transfer credits will take the place of Pastoral Care (APPL 564), Missional Leadership (APPL 615), Supervised Ministry A (APPL 693), and Supervised Ministry B (APPL 694).

LEARN MORE

Visit our new Chaplaincy concentration page to learn more about Clinical Psychospiritual Education and application details. Reach out to one of the CPE contacts listed to learn more and stay on top of important deadlines!

Curious to learn more about a career as a spiritual care practitioner? Visit the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care website.

To read about other exciting changes in our MDiv program, read this recent article about refreshing the Master of Divinity experience.

Edit: The original version of this article referred to CPE as Clinical Pastoral Education, which was the correct title of the training until recently. In June 2022, the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care members voted to change the program's name to Clinical Psychospiritual Education. This article has been updated to reflect that change.