Letter from ACRP Co-ChairpersonTo: Delegates at ACRP Annual Conference

Date: 25 August 2017

Dear Colleagues

The year is almost done and so many things have happened. We had a successful site visit from SAQA and our application to be recognised as a Professional Body is in the final process. We have worked very hard in the past months, but it was so rewarding. ACRP (The Association of Christian Religious Practitioners), our Professional Body, wil bring new dimensions towards who we are and how we (CPSC – The Council for Pastoral and Spiritual Counsellors) are going to function as a specialist council. As the sun is setting on SAAP, an exciting new day is dawning for CPSC. We hope that our 25 year old dream will come to life as SAQA continues their evaluation process.

In the new dispensation we will have four designations namely: Religious Practitioner, Advanced Religious Practitioner, Religious Professional and Religious Specialist. These designations will be allocated to you as soon as the Professional Body has been recognised. Our office will guide you with this process.

Our task now is to start functioning as a Professional Body and that is why excellence and competence are needed in our practice. We have to abide by our own Ethical Codes, our Code of Conduct and Scope of Practice. These documents will be circulated after our conference. As Pastoral and Spiritual workers, we have the privilege to represent the real Pastoral Caregiver, Jesus Christ, on earth and will become God’s voice and God’s word in many lives. We can only give, what we have received and can only teach what has become part of us – that is why we cannot be a Pastoral Caregiver or a Christian Professional without a living relationship with our living God through His Spirit. To be Professional means that we have to be properly trained with sufficient experience and that is why Training and CPD (Continuous Professional Development) are compulsory for every caregiver.

May we take up our calling and work towards a profession that reflects God’s compassion and care and let us be worthy representatives of God in our communities. May we all pray that our application will succeed and that our dream will be realised in the near future.

Dr Tertius Erasmus

ACRP Co-Chairperson