In this season of presumptive joy and good will, I suggest first that each of us go out of our way to express our solidarity on a personal level with every member of the Muslim and Jewish faith whom we know. As we all are aware, members of both communities are suffering greatly as their comrades and relatives are caught up in a bitter and senseless war. By expressing our sympathy we might be able to chip away at the atmosphere of fierce rancor that is spreading like a virus and disorienting even the best of us. No good can come of this continuing war. Few of us can do much about it, but each of us can do our little bit to share our common humanity with those who are troubled or wounded physically or emotionally.

​Here on the cusp of the 2023 winter holiday season, in the context of such widespread suffering, we in CPSP also have something to be happy about. We have managed to get successfully through a year of disorganization and are now back up to speed and on track. The main problems have centered around our communication system. We must credit Arbenit (Ben) Rrustemaj, with the name no one can pronounce, for rebuilding from scratch our web site, restoring our technical ability to communicate reliably. Ben of course drew help in his work from his colleagues in the Dominican Republic. Our new site is more in alignment with our spirit. Our earlier attempts to work with the big cyber companies were futile and turned out to be an unsatisfactory waste of our time and money.

​Another success to be grateful for is the fact that Angela Hicks Davis joined us a contract Secretary protem last December, and has done exceedingly good work for us over the year. We are grateful for her year-long contribution to our community. She is now being joined by Valery Amos who will serve as Administrator on a part-time basis. Valery has many years of experience working in organizational administration. If you have not already done so, please welcome these two into our community. Together, they make up our only salaried staff.

​Our Planning Committee for our 34th Plenary Meeting in March is once again chaired by Rita Bakr, with committee members Bryan Jones, Linda Cummings and Jonathan Freeman. Others may want to volunteer to serve the Planning Committee as the pace picks up. Much of the meeting will be hybrid, allowing zoom participation. Of course, everything does not fit on zoom, and zoom is always second best to being there. We hope that all who can afford the travel will be present in person. Further details about the program will be announced soon.

​One very significant part of the Plenary 2024 Program will be a repeat of our CPSP Version of The Moth Radio Hour. Our first venture with the Moth model was launched with great success in Virginia Beach last March. Moth has, perhaps unawares, introduced a superior way of presenting and assessing the Clinical Case, and we are thus indebted to Moth and to National Public Radio.

​So, we ask all CPSP Pastoral Clinicians: go to your memory bank, or if you have no more memory, to your file drawer, and dredge up the most problematic and/or the most rewarding clinical pastoral case you can find, preferably the former, and prepare to share it orally with the 2024 Plenary.

​So please plan to bring a clinical case to our 34th Plenary in Atlanta, March 17- 20. We will attempt to make time for all offerings. Registration material will be forwarded to you after the holidays.

​In the meantime, have a rewarding and restoring holiday season.