ACPE Executive Director Teresa Snorton made her semi-annual trip to Africa last month as presiding bishop of the Eleventh Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church.  She and a team of four other CMEs travelled to Zambia, Rwanda, DR Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya to conduct annual conferences and mission assessments.

Bishop W. Edward Lockett of the Fifth CME District, was among the team members accompanying Bishop Snorton.  Sadly, on his return to the United States, he had a heart attack on the plane and died.  Memorial and funeral services were held for him earlier this month in Birmingham, Houston and Orlando.

The death of Bishop Lockett, also elected in July 2010 when Bishop Snorton was elected, created a void in the leadership for the CME Church.  Following his funeral, the CME Committee on Episcopacy met and reassigned Bishop Snorton from the 11th District to the 5th District, which includes 250+ churches in Alabama and Florida.  A retired bishop was reactivated to assume the work in Africa.

Executive Director Snorton is in dialogue with the Personnel Committee and the ACPE President about the implications of this change.  The Personnel Committee will bring recommendations regarding the Executive Director to the Board of Representatives at its meeting next week in Salt Lake City.  Announcements of any changes will then be made to the ACPE membership.

In the February issue of the ACPE e-news, an article appeared entitled "Understanding and Responding to the Mediation agreement between the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education and the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy." 

The last sentence of the article made a reference to ACPE's relationship to the US Department of Education, as well as a reference to CPSP's relationship to the same.  The latter reference contained inaccuracies and in the spirit of the recent mediation agreement, the ACPE retracts that statement.  The ACPE reaffirms its commitment to refrain from language or publications that implicitly or explicitly comment on the operations of CPSP.