It is interesting to think about my memories of the IPCNSR. Mainly I remember the people and how they changed my ideas about Pastoral Care.  The IPCNSR sparked my first conscious awareness of the importance of Social Justice Issues in Pastoral Care and Counseling.  Without a doubt my professors of Pastoral Care and Counseling in Seminary, David Switzer, and in Graduate School, Howard Clinebell and Paul Schunnan, taught me about the relationship between the social and the personal, but it did not sink in too deeply.  They tried but I was so involved in individualistic models and worried about becoming a "good Pastoral Counselor" in terms of technique, that the ideas of social responsibility, critique and justice remained in the background.

     The IPCNSR Theory Building Conference in Santa Severa, Italy in 1994 changed all of that.  Until that conference I had been on the fringes of the IPCNSR.  I remember receiving e-malls and letters about Social Justice Issues and Pastoral Counseling, but at that point, as in my training, I had other priorities.  I was concerned with learning Portuguese and teaching classes at the Methodist School of Theology in Brazil.  So, once again, Social Justice Issues and Pastoral Care and Counseling were present in my thought and experience, but not connected in any intentional way.

     The Theory Building Conference in Santa Severa changed all of that.  For the first time in my life I saw the intimate connection between Justice and Pastoral Care and Counseling.  They were no longer two compartmentalized pieces of my life.  I do not know exactly what sparked the change, but it was there that I truly began to think about the relationship between the personal, the political and the social in terms of the word Pastoral.  Michael Cordner edited the papers from the Conference.  The book that was produced from the conference is entitled Pastoral Theology’s & Pastoral Psychology’s Contributions to Helping Helping Heal a Violent World. To this day the book is within easy reach.

     It was there that I also remember meeting a truly fascinating group of people.  I met people with a passion for justice. I met people with a passion for social realities.  I met people who believed in something beyond the highly individualistic models that dominated my understanding of Pastoral Care and Counseling.  It was a meeting that changed my life.

     I have been actively involved with the IPCNSR for only seven years, since the Santa Severa Conference.  So, I cannot offer great insights regarding our history. I can say that in the short period that I have been involved I have constantly been challenged to rethink what Pastoral Care and Counseling is, or needs to be.

     One of the important transitions in our recent history has to do with our central theme or identity.  With the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, the central challenge or problem that defined our identity changed radically.   No longer was the nuclear threat an immediate issue.  The Cold War was, for all intents and purposes, over.  The threat of nuclear holocaust was radically diminished.  This was the central theme that motivated the creation of the network, and which dominated the IPCNSR for years.  With this profound change in international politics the IPCNSR was put in a position of rethinking, or redefining, its reason for being, its purpose.  The question was not whether or not there were issues to be dealt with around the themes of Social Justice or Social Responsibility, but where should we invest our energies.  The central theme that emerged from our discussions was Violence.  However, with so many forms and expressions of violence, where should be start and where should we go?  After much discussion it was decided to focus on various themes in blocks of two years.  Each two years the IPCNSR will deal with a general theme as it relates to Pastoral Care and Counseling and Social Responsibility. Our first theme, for 2001-2002, is Pastoral Responses to Violence.  In light of the events of September 11^th discussions on Pastoral Responses to Violence have become all the more important.  Not only in terms of the violence that occurred that one day, but the violence that is taking place in light of those events.  As such, the IPCNSR has redefined itself.  I genuinely believe that this is an important transition in terms of our present and our future.

     The IPCNSR is a network.  That means that most of our contacts are through e-mail and letters.  However, the face-to-face meetings I have participated in over the past six or seven years have proven to be both a joy and a blessing.  I have participated in meetings of the IPCNSR held in conjunction with the International Congress in Toronto, Canada, the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and the Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counseling.  There have been, of course, many other meetings, such as in Ghana, Africa, that I have not been able to attend.  The point is that the IPCNSR is alive, well, and very active.   Every e-mail and face-to-face meeting creates a bond, and keeps alive a vision of what it means to be Pastoral and to seek Justice.

     Let me close with one further comment about our history.   I do not remember exactly when the IPCNSR Home Page was started.  It has been only a few years.  However, I believe that it marks an important moment or phase in our history.  The IPCNSR is not content to simply trade ideas between a small group of people.  The Home Page marks a new phase in our history.  We are intentionally reaching out to a wider world.  We are intentionally trying to teach, inform and challenge a broader audience.  I believe that it is this attitude of passionate concern that makes the IPCNSR what it is.  It is a living Network composed of passionate people who are not satisfied with simply "doing pastoral counseling."  We are passionately concerned with living and teaching what we believe.  We are passionately concerned with seeking Justice.  We are passionately concerned with being truly "Pastoral."  These are the qualities that have marked our history, and will continue to do so.

Dr. James Farris
President, IPCNSR