BUSTH and Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Awarded Wabash Center Grant
Contact:
Kimberly Macdonald, Communications Director
Boston University School of Theology
617-358-1858
kmacd@bu.edu
Michael Skaggs, PhD, Executive Director
Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
781-736-4399
mskaggs@brandeis.edu
Boston, MA – July 1, 2020 – Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) and the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab are pleased to announce that the Wabash Center has awarded a grant to support the project “Innovations in Chaplaincy Education,” which will seek to redesign courses on chaplaincy in higher education. The project is led by BUSTH Associate Professor of Theology and Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Senior Advisor Dr. Shelly Rambo and Rev. Dr. Trace Haythorn, Executive Director and CEO, ACPE. The project team includes Dr. Wendy Cadge, Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanistic Social Sciences and Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Brandeis University; and Dr. Michael Skaggs, Executive Director, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab.
“Innovations in Chaplaincy Education” seeks to centralize education for chaplaincy curricula, including the competencies needed for chaplains or other professionals in spiritual care. By bringing together faculty and researchers from eight theological schools, this project aims to streamline and strengthen chaplaincy degree programs at theological schools across the United States.
“By partnering with the Wabash Center and bringing educators from diverse theological schools together, we hope to cultivate a nation-wide conversation about best teaching and curriculum in a highly decentralized field of chaplaincy,” said Dr. Shelly Rambo. “The Wabash Center brings unique expertise and credibility to educational innovations in theological education.”
The primary goals of the project are to:
- introduce teaching faculty to current research in the field, as well as models of teaching innovation;
- assist theological faculty and administration with developing and redesigning chaplaincy-related courses; and
- produce course syllabi that will serve as examples of best practices in the theological field to better train future generations of chaplains.
“We are honored to partner with BUSTH on this project with the support of the Wabash Center,” said Dr. Michael Skaggs. “In the rapidly changing landscape of theological education, this project has the potential to transform how we think about spiritual care education both now and in the future.”
For more information about the Wabash Center, please visit www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu.
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About Boston University School of Theology
Since 1839, Boston University School of Theology has been preparing leaders to do good.
A seminary of the United Methodist Church, Boston University School of Theology is a robustly ecumenical institution that welcomes students from diverse faith traditions who are pursuing a wide range of vocations – parish ministry, conflict transformation, chaplaincy, campus ministry, administration, non-profit management, social work, teaching, justice advocacy, peacemaking, interfaith dialogue, and more. Our world-renowned faculty and strong heritage help students nurture their academic goals and realize any ministry imaginable. For more information, please visit www.bu.edu/sth.
About the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab brings chaplaincy leaders, theological educators, clinical educators, and social scientists into a research-based conversation about the state of chaplaincy and spiritual care. Driving its work are questions about how, in the midst of changes in the American religious landscape, spiritual caregivers can do their best work. It aims to improve how chaplains are trained, how they work with diverse individuals (including those with no religious or spiritual backgrounds), and how chaplaincy and spiritual care coheres as a professional field.
The Lab seeks to foster spiritual care responsive to the needs of all, whoever they may be and wherever they are.
About ACPE
Association for Clinical Pastoral Education is the premier, Department of Education recognized organization that provides the highest quality CPE programs for spiritual care professionals of any faith and in any setting. It does so through a rigorous accreditation and certification process for centers and educators that provide CPE. The depth of its training enables students to realize their full potential to strengthen the spiritual health of people in their care as well as themselves.