On Thursday evening, October 27, 2020, the FaithHealth Chaplaincy & Education team celebrated 75 years of Clinical Pastoral Education. The room was full of special guests, current and former staff and alumni. At the event, we recognized several current and former Certified Educators: Sharon Engebretson, Maurice Briggs, Mark Jensen, Jane Litzinger, Francis Rivers Meza, Rosalind Bradley and Mac Wallace. This group of Certified Educators represented over 120 years of clinical pastoral supervision at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Health.

We had students and/or staff present who had served in our programs during each decade beginning with the 1960’s. I wonder if Dr. Richard K. Young or Dr. Wayne Oates could have imagined the generativity of this clinical education program when they brought that first group of seven students from Kentucky in the summer of 1947. And, we would not have existed at all if it weren’t for the generosity and faithfulness of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina who opened the doors of our hospital nearly 100 years ago.

— Emily Viverette