NY Times article on Bellevue’s CPE program
- The Bellevue Chaplains CPE program is a program of the Bellevue Hospital Center, First Avenue at 27th Street in coopreation with Lutheran Disaster Response of New York and the Atlantic District – LCMS.
- Bellevue, the oldest public hospital in America was established in 1736 before the Revolutionary War. The first chaplain, John Stanford, a priest of the Church of England arrived on the scene in 1816. The Carmelite Fathers came from Ireland at the turn of the last century to fulfill their apostolate as hospital chaplains to Bellevue. They continue as the Roman Catholic chaplains to this day. Chapel Hall in the old administration building has a synagogue, Catholic and Protestant chapels and a Muslim Prayer Room.
- Clinical Pastoral Education began at Bellevue in 1940 with the Rev. Ralph Bonacker as the first supervisor. He was followed by many leading lights in the CPE movement; The Rev. Thomas Morris, The Rev. Arthur Elcombe, The Rev. Armen Jorjorian, The Rev. Fredrick Keuther, the Rev. A.P.L. Prest, The Rev. Alvin Hart, and from 1967-1999, the Rev. Glendon Jantzi. The Bellevue Chaplains Clinical Pastoral Education program was renewed January 1, 2005. The Rev. Paul Steinke is the ninth CPE supervisor in Bellevue’s 60-year history of offering clinical pastoral education.
- Bellevue is a microcosm of the Third World – a hospital for the undocumented, impoverished and disfranchised. No one is turned away. Bellevue’s emergency room is the largest in the USA. Lewis Thomas, M.D., the distinguished physician and essayist once remarked, “If I were to be taken in a taxicab with something serious or struck down in a New York street, I would want to be taken to Bellevue.” Bellevue with its 830 beds also includes an outpatient clinic which serves over one million people per year. The Immigrant Health Clinic for victim of torture and the Palliative Care program are world famous.
