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The human beings I have met
have all been graced with astonishing gifts and yet struggle
with desolating doubt, guilt, and shame. We have been created
only "a little lower than God," yet know ourselves
"poor naked wretches" who daily "bide the pelting"
of life’s "pitiless storm." We show ourselves
capable of both high acts of breathtaking generosity and depressing
deeds of violence and destruction. Pastoral care seeks understanding
of these human highs and lows. It neither idealizes, inflates,
or romanticizes human beings, nor carps on, complains about,
criticizes or condemns them. It offers compassion to humans
of all sorts and conditions, accepting and welcoming frail,
fragile, and hurting individuals into a loving community that
aims to embody God’s care for all the world. |
Academic and
Professional History
AB, University of Michigan (Phi Beta Kappa); AM, Harvard
University; MDiv, Concordia Seminary; Graduate Study,
Oxford University; PhD, Princeton University; M.S. in
Counseling (MFCC), California State University, Hayward; Pastorate in Illinois;
Chaplain and Director of Continuing
Education, Grand View College; PLTS, 1976 - . Clergy membership: Grand Canyon Synod
Special
Service
Member, GTU Core Doctoral Faculty; California
licensed Marriage and Family Therapist; Clinical
member, American Association for
Marriage and Family Therapy and California
Association of Marriage and Family Therapists; Member, American Philological Association and American Academy of Religion; Staff, "Tavistock" Group
Relations Conferences; Member, Advisory Committee, Growth in
Excellence in Ministry program, ELCA.
Fall 2004 Courses
PS1012 Pastoral
Care and Counseling
Web Site
Healing Religion's Harm
Contact
gpence@plts.edu
(510) 559-2760
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