OUR STORY

Widening the Range of Pastoral Responses

OUR STORY

Widening the Range of Pastoral Responses

We envisioned a program of transformational education to advance spiritual care competency — a place to expand your range of pastoral responses as you serve those seeking meaning in times of change or crisis, listen to sacred stories, and attend to the wounds of the soul.

Our Vision

The Shaw Chaplaincy Institute is a driver in developing innovative academic programs that advance SPIRITUAL CARE knowledge and skill while engaged in caring activity with persons, families, community, organizations and society.

The mission of SCI is to improve the quality of spiritual care provided through all aspects of trans-professional service where transformative education supports the development of CHAPLAINS, COMPASSIONATE LEADERS, and CARING ACTIVISTS, inspired by our tradition of academic excellence, commitment to alleviating suffering, and passion to develop communities of care where all may increase their capacity for health, healing and resiliency.

Moreover, SCI supports developing competencies in interdisciplinary, interfaith, cross-cultural spiritual care activity through education and collaboration to enable organizations to achieve missions that encompass physical, emotional, ecological, intellectual, and social wellbeing for persons and communities.

Our Mission

Caring Activism

The Shaw Chaplaincy Institute treats spiritual care as a project of “Caring Activism.” Caring Activism shapes and informs our comprehensive suite of educational and service-oriented programs. Caring Activism consists of generative acts of caring and the understanding that no person, institution or social structure can limit how much I or we decide to care.

Caring Activism promotes the use of direct caring action to bring about spiritual, physical, and social changes that foster health, healing and resiliency.

Our Vision

Our Mission

Caring Activism

Caring Activism promotes the use of direct caring action to bring about spiritual, physical, and social changes that foster health, healing and resiliency.

History of Shaw

A generous gift from the Shaw family

SFTS blazed a trail in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) when SFTS alumnus Rev. Dr. John F. Shaw (MDiv, 1954) and Mrs. Julia Shaw endowed the first CPE chair in a theological seminary in 2012. The Shaw name is one with which the entire San Francisco Theological Seminary is very familiar. It adorns the sign in front of the beautifully-restored Shaw Guest House; and denotes the first fully-endowed Chair and Supervisory Education Fellow in the CPE program.

After 20 years as a pastor at several different churches on the west coast, John still felt that he had not truly found his call, and it was through his volunteer work at a local hospital that he discovered his passion for chaplaincy. He noticed how different this form of ministry was to that which he had been performing all his life. After receiving his CPE certification, he then pursued a PhD in pastoral counseling. With the creation of the Shaw Chaplaincy Institute for Spiritual Care + Compassionate Leadership, John describes this as “a dream which was fulfilled.”

Laurie Garrett-Cobbina Realizes Shaw Vision

Garrett-Cobbina, whose endowed chair was first created by a previous Shaw gift, is the visionary behind the newly expanded program. She describes the Shaw Institute as a “school within a school.” She says the Institute embodies the seminary’s commitment to transformative theological education by engaging students in practical spiritual care and service in their communities. “The people of God need skilled, caring professionals who know how to facilitate groups, engage suffering, understand trauma and grief and their complex socio-cultural roots, care for the dying, and bring real transformation and healing to such situations,” she says.

The Shaw Chaplaincy Institute will develop partnerships with healthcare organizations, medical schools, nursing schools, law schools, and social science/social care departments. Garrett-Cobbina envisions continuing education offerings to help nurses, physicians, lawyers, social workers, and chaplains enhance their caregiving skills.

International in Scope

Shaw Chaplaincy Institute students learn to build relationships with, and offer spiritual care to, people of varied cultural and religious backgrounds. In what she describes as “a ground-breaking learning experience,” Garrett-Cobbina led a CPE unit in Ghana, West Africa in 2015 for students from SFTS and a university in Ghana. An important goal is to offer CPE in international contexts to meet the growing interest in ministry competence in a globalized world.

leadership

REV. DR. LAURIE GARRETT-COBBINA

Shaw Chair for CPE, Director of Shaw Chaplaincy Institute

415.451.2889
lgarrettcobbina@sfts.edu

Rev. Dr. Laurie Garrett-Cobbina joined the faculty at San Francisco Theological Seminary in 2006 to start the groundbreaking program in Clinical Pastoral Education. She occupies the Shaw Family Chair for Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), made possible by a $1.3 million gift from SFTS alumnus Rev. Dr. John Shaw (B.D. 1954) and Mrs. Julia Shaw.Garrett-Cobbina’s academic classification also includes Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care and Education. In 2010, SFTS earned the John Rea Thomas Award for excellence in the fields of pastoral care and counseling for its CPE program. Garrett-Cobbina, John and Julia Shaw received the award at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly.

Garrett-Cobbina is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Certified Educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral education, and has served in various capacities at local churches, including pastor at Smallwood Presbyterian Church (Charlotte, NC). Laurie served hospitals as Certified CPE Educator and Chaplain in Indianapolis, In, San Francisco, CA, and Charlotte, NC prior to joining the faculty at SFTS.

Garrett-Cobbina’s PhD is in Interdisciplinary Studies with research focused on Education and Pastoral Care, more specifically the effect of grief, trauma and narrative on educational attainment. Garrett-Cobbina’s education includes PhD from Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA), Master of Theology (Th.M.) and Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ), and Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) from Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY).

A daughter and granddaughter of educators, Garrett-Cobbina knows how education can be liberating, transforming and caring. “Learning is risky,” Garrett-Cobbina said. “It can change your point of view, what you believe, what you think you know, what you do, the places you go, and even the people you spend time with. I believe that if you can be open to the transformative, liberating, caring activity of education, you can also be more open to the transformative, liberating, caring activity of God in our lives.” Garrett-Cobbina enjoys encounters with her students in much the same way she enjoys encounters with those being served by students and other caring professional thorough the Shaw Chaplaincy Institute programs. “I am curious about people. I am interested. You never know what stories are sitting right there in front of you. You never know the ways your caring will change someone for the better, nor how you will be changed for the better.”

REV. PAUL GAFFNEY

Program Manager of Education, Community Relations and Spiritual Care Services

415.451.2882
pgaffney@sfts.edu

Rev. Paul Gaffney is the Program Manager of the Shaw Chaplaincy Institute. Born and raised in western PA, the son of a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Gaffney received his BA from Hiram College, where he majored in Sociology/Anthropology and minored in Music.

Gaffney administered an AmeriCorps program in Cleveland, OH for two years before matriculating to SFTS in the Fall of 2000. During his third year at SFTS, Gaffney began working with the Marin Interfaith Homeless Chaplaincy (now the Marin Interfaith Street Chaplaincy). In 2004, he graduated from SFTS with a Master of Divinity degree, and in 2005, Gaffney became the sole chaplain of the Street Chaplaincy, providing emotional and spiritual support to people in transition. For over 15 years, Gaffney worked with the street community in San Rafael and the wider Marin County as a chaplain both with the Marin Interfaith Street Chaplaincy and with the Ritter Center.

Gaffney earned three units of CPE at SFTS while working as a street chaplain. Gaffney became the first Shaw Chaplaincy Fellow in the Certified Educator CPE Program at SFTS. He is currently an ACPE Certified Educator Candidate.

Gaffney was ordained into Christian Ministry by the Northern California/Nevada Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Lafayette Christian Church on June 4, 2006. Rev. Gaffney also is a lay-ordained student of Taigen Leighton in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition.

REV. DR. DONNA ALLEN

Shaw Chaplaincy Institute Adjunct Faculty, ACPE Certified Educator Student

Rev. Dr. Donna Allen has served in ministry as a preacher, teacher, pastor, chaplain and scholar. Presently Allen serves as ACPE Certified Education Student at SFTS, and Chaplain at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center – Herrick Campus, with a spiritual care specialty in Mental Health. Allen is Adjunct Faculty in Homiletics at American Baptist Seminary of the West and Adjunct Faculty in Preaching at Pacific School of Religion, both in Berkeley, CA. Allen previously served as Instructor of Preaching and Worship at Saint Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, MO, Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, PA and pastor of Parks Chapel AME Church in Oakland, CA.

Rev. Dr. Donna Allen is a graduate of Seton Hall University (Biology), South Orange, NJ. Allen attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN. In her third year of medical studies, Allen discerned and accepted her call to ministry and began attending Vanderbilt Divinity School, where she earned her MDiv. Allen when on to earn her PhD in from Vanderbilt’s School of Religion, with an area of concentration in Homiletics.

Allen is a native of East Orange, NJ. Community minded from a very young age, Allen become involved in social justice, community organizing, voter education and registration while still a teenager. Allen is ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Rev. Dr. Allen is founder and pastor of New Revelation Community Church, with locations in Oakland and Vallejo, CA. Allen says, “New Revelation is a non-traditional church. When I say non-traditional, I mean radically inclusive in the ways in which we give care”. As a radically inclusive community, Allen is mindful of issues of mental health, spirituality, diverse ability and gender spectrum where all persons are affirmed and welcomed. Allen was featured in USA Today (2016) and recognized as a pastor of a black church taking up the cause of mental health. Allen was also featured in O, The Oprah Magazine (October 2016) and recognized for her congregational work addressing mental health.

About SFTS

As the only Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) affiliated seminary in the West, San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) reinvents education for service through unparalleled innovation, rigorous scholarship, and a 150-year tradition of commitment to spirituality and leadership in advancing social justice in classrooms, organizations and communities of faith throughout the world.

We are a welcoming multicultural and interreligious community assembled from our global community. Our degrees in theology combine classroom learning with immersion in practical service, preparing students to bridge theological, cultural, and political divides. Any student who exhibits a commitment to theological inquiry, vocational curiosity and caring service is welcome. Here you will refine your unique gifts to cultivate spiritual advocacy and compassionate leadership in its many forms for your journey in our expansive, ever-changing world.

ABOUT The Graduate Theological Union (GTU)

SFTS embraces the belief that an all-inclusive knowledge of religion is tantamount to becoming an effective and inspired agent of positive change.

In 1962, SFTS joined with neighboring theological schools in founding the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), created with the certainty that the future of religious renewal and theological education depends on the willingness of faith traditions to come together. The GTU is composed of eight seminaries — five Protestant, two Roman Catholic, and one Unitarian Universalist — and 12 affiliates, academic centers, and certificate programs.

Today, the GTU provides a forum for dialogue on social justice issues, encourages programs in emerging fields of theological inquiry, and connects students to a wide and diverse community. Curricula amongst the schools includes the arts, biblical studies, cultural and historical studies, ethics, social theory, religious and science, spirituality, interreligious and interdisciplinary studies.

For more info, please visit the GTU website.

Let's have a conversation

In this world poised for healing, do you feel called to bring compassionate presence to others? Get in touch with your questions, and I’ll be very happy to help you explore ways in which the Shaw Chaplaincy Institute is able to help you bring your whole self into service.

- Rev. Paul Gaffney,
Program Manager of Education, Community Relations and Spiritual Care Services