Illustration by Charity Ellis
Danielle (Danie) J. Buhuro is executive director and CPE supervisor of Sankofa CPE Center, LLC. She serves on the national board of directors for the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education and is the author of Spiritual Care in an Age of #BlackLivesMatter: Examining the Spiritual and Prophetic Needs of African Americans Living in a Violent America. She also serves as a CPE supervisor at Advocate Aurora South Suburban, Trinity, and Christ Hospitals in Chicago, Illinois.
Jaclyn Williams: Can you share your background, how you became a forerunner of movement chaplaincy, and what led to you starting your own CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) center?
Danie J. Buhuro: From age 14 to 17, I had a mysterious illness. My mom and dad took me to some of the biggest and best hospitals in Chicago and around the country to have me tested for every possible disease or illness you could think of, from lupus to cancer to muscular fluorosis. Doctors could never figure out what exactly it was that would hit me, but I’d be left paralyzed and bedridden for about three months. Every time it would hit, I would have to go to physical therapy to learn how to walk all over again. I remember a time during this illness when I was hospitalized in Chicago with a roommate. I’ll never forget when a Catholic priest walked right in, passed my bed, and spoke to my roommate. They talked for what felt like an eternity. And I was saying to myself, “Soon he’s going to come over and talk to me.” So I started sitting myself up, fixing my hair, washing my face, and putting on a little lotion because I wanted to get myself together. I was sure that we were going to have a wonderful conversation. Then he walked right out of the room without looking at me. I was devastated. When the nurse caring for us walked in, I asked her about him and told her how he hadn’t come by to talk to me. “Oh, that’s the Catholic priest. There’s a priest and a chaplain. They talk to the Catholic patients, and your neighbor next door is Catholic.” But I said, “I’m sitting right here. They didn’t even look at me.” And she told me I wasn’t on his list. I remember feeling rejected and invisible. I said to myself, If I ever grow up, that’s going to be the job. We have to visit people who are sick in a hospital so that people feel acknowledgment of presence.
After graduating from seminary and working as a chaplain for a hospital, I began to discern a call to teach. After wrestling with whether to get a PhD and teach in the academy or go through the CP certification process, I became a city supervisor and worked for about eight years for a healthcare system in Chicago. In 2020, I was a seasoned, experienced, veteran CPE supervisor when the world turned upside down; COVID-19 reared its head and George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The president of my healthcare system, which was the largest healthcare system in Illinois, shut down all internship programs across disciplines, including CPE. Chicago has about 10 to 12 seminaries, divinity schools, and theological institutions, so I began to get many calls from seminary deans and presidents throughout the region asking me where all these students, who were dependent on CPE training to graduate or complete their ordination processes, could go to complete their training if not the hospitals.
I began to discern what womanist theologian Katie Cannon meant when she said, “Do the work your soul must have.” In light of COVID-19 and George Floyd’s murder, I saw how we were suddenly focused on the intersectionality of oppression in all its shapes and forms. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to offer CPE in nonhospital settings?” Maybe CPE could be offered in social justice settings for people who wanted to expand their wisdom, knowledge, and insight of spiritual care and how it takes place in a social service organization or social justice setting. So the Divine laid it on my heart to go through the accreditation process of having my own CPE center, Sankofa CPE, which I initially started to meet the needs of a few folks in Chicago. Now, almost four years later, my center has exploded and become global.
I’m also interested in expanding the definitions of chaplaincy. Before 2020, when someone said the term “chaplaincy,” we immediately thought of hospital settings. But now, chaplaincy has started to expand into nonhospital or nontraditional settings. We have a new millennial population going into ministry which, as a result of living in real time during COVID-19 and George Floyd’s killing, desires to provide interreligious spiritual care for those in domestic violence shelters, soup kitchens, or food pantries. Now, chaplain positions exist at domestic violence shelters, soup kitchens, food pantries, higher education, academic life, and the military. We’re also seeing a rise in airport chaplaincy, veterinarian chaplaincy, and various scientific fields. Did you know NASA now employs chaplains to provide spiritual care support for astronauts and other persons in engineering on the NASA team? We’re also seeing a rise in chaplains in thrift stores—Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores now employ chaplains. If chaplaincy is expanding into all of these nonhospital settings, where can people take their CPE? The Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), the standard for spiritual care education, recognizes the tension of folks feeling called to aviation chaplaincy and military chaplaincy and Goodwill thrift store chaplaincy but not having work settings where they can go for their CPE training. Much of the programming only existed in hospitals, so I was encouraged to start Sankofa CPE to provide an opportunity for people to train in an innovative environment. I’m just so excited about how chaplaincy is expanding and how it continues to expand. Now, nonhospital settings and CPE programs are becoming the traditional model of where chaplaincy and CPE take place. And hospitals are now the nontraditional setting.
JW: Why did you want “Sankofa” to be the name of your CPE program?
DB: CPE is the understanding that you reflect on personal experiences from your life and wrestle with questions like, “What experiences are helpful as you move forward in chaplaincy?” and “What experiences speak to your pastoral strengths or spiritual care strengths?” You also begin to reflect on which experiences are negative. What experiences hinder you as you try to develop your pastoral or spiritual identity and competency? I really do believe a conversation we don’t have often enough is how much of clinical pastoral education is based on Eastern civilization practices. I know we give credit to Anton T. Boisen, who wrote this amazing book, Out of the Depths: An Autobiographical Study of Mental Disorder and Religious Experience. But CPE existed long before Anton T. Boisen in the form of an African principle held by African bodies. Sankofa is an African term, meaning “go back and fetch it.”
Jaclyn Williams is assistant professor of the practice of preaching and chaplaincy.
Danielle (Danie) J. Buhuro is executive director and CPE supervisor of Sankofa CPE Center, LLC.
Danielle (Danie) J. Buhuro is executive director and CPE supervisor of Sankofa CPE Center, LLC. She serves on the national board of directors for the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education and is the author of Spiritual Care in an Age of #BlackLivesMatter: Examining the Spiritual and Prophetic Needs of African Americans Living in a Violent America. She also serves as a CPE supervisor at Advocate Aurora South Suburban, Trinity, and Christ Hospitals in Chicago, Illinois.
Jaclyn Williams: Can you share your background, how you became a forerunner of movement chaplaincy, and what led to you starting your own CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) center?
Danie J. Buhuro: From age 14 to 17, I had a mysterious illness. My mom and dad took me to some of the biggest and best hospitals in Chicago and around the country to have me tested for every possible disease or illness you could think of, from lupus to cancer to muscular fluorosis. Doctors could never figure out what exactly it was that would hit me, but I’d be left paralyzed and bedridden for about three months. Every time it would hit, I would have to go to physical therapy to learn how to walk all over again. I remember a time during this illness when I was hospitalized in Chicago with a roommate. I’ll never forget when a Catholic priest walked right in, passed my bed, and spoke to my roommate. They talked for what felt like an eternity. And I was saying to myself, “Soon he’s going to come over and talk to me.” So I started sitting myself up, fixing my hair, washing my face, and putting on a little lotion because I wanted to get myself together. I was sure that we were going to have a wonderful conversation. Then he walked right out of the room without looking at me. I was devastated. When the nurse caring for us walked in, I asked her about him and told her how he hadn’t come by to talk to me. “Oh, that’s the Catholic priest. There’s a priest and a chaplain. They talk to the Catholic patients, and your neighbor next door is Catholic.” But I said, “I’m sitting right here. They didn’t even look at me.” And she told me I wasn’t on his list. I remember feeling rejected and invisible. I said to myself, If I ever grow up, that’s going to be the job. We have to visit people who are sick in a hospital so that people feel acknowledgment of presence.
After graduating from seminary and working as a chaplain for a hospital, I began to discern a call to teach. After wrestling with whether to get a PhD and teach in the academy or go through the CP certification process, I became a city supervisor and worked for about eight years for a healthcare system in Chicago. In 2020, I was a seasoned, experienced, veteran CPE supervisor when the world turned upside down; COVID-19 reared its head and George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The president of my healthcare system, which was the largest healthcare system in Illinois, shut down all internship programs across disciplines, including CPE. Chicago has about 10 to 12 seminaries, divinity schools, and theological institutions, so I began to get many calls from seminary deans and presidents throughout the region asking me where all these students, who were dependent on CPE training to graduate or complete their ordination processes, could go to complete their training if not the hospitals.
I began to discern what womanist theologian Katie Cannon meant when she said, “Do the work your soul must have.” In light of COVID-19 and George Floyd’s murder, I saw how we were suddenly focused on the intersectionality of oppression in all its shapes and forms. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to offer CPE in nonhospital settings?” Maybe CPE could be offered in social justice settings for people who wanted to expand their wisdom, knowledge, and insight of spiritual care and how it takes place in a social service organization or social justice setting. So the Divine laid it on my heart to go through the accreditation process of having my own CPE center, Sankofa CPE, which I initially started to meet the needs of a few folks in Chicago. Now, almost four years later, my center has exploded and become global.
I’m also interested in expanding the definitions of chaplaincy. Before 2020, when someone said the term “chaplaincy,” we immediately thought of hospital settings. But now, chaplaincy has started to expand into nonhospital or nontraditional settings. We have a new millennial population going into ministry which, as a result of living in real time during COVID-19 and George Floyd’s killing, desires to provide interreligious spiritual care for those in domestic violence shelters, soup kitchens, or food pantries. Now, chaplain positions exist at domestic violence shelters, soup kitchens, food pantries, higher education, academic life, and the military. We’re also seeing a rise in airport chaplaincy, veterinarian chaplaincy, and various scientific fields. Did you know NASA now employs chaplains to provide spiritual care support for astronauts and other persons in engineering on the NASA team? We’re also seeing a rise in chaplains in thrift stores—Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores now employ chaplains. If chaplaincy is expanding into all of these nonhospital settings, where can people take their CPE? The Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), the standard for spiritual care education, recognizes the tension of folks feeling called to aviation chaplaincy and military chaplaincy and Goodwill thrift store chaplaincy but not having work settings where they can go for their CPE training. Much of the programming only existed in hospitals, so I was encouraged to start Sankofa CPE to provide an opportunity for people to train in an innovative environment. I’m just so excited about how chaplaincy is expanding and how it continues to expand. Now, nonhospital settings and CPE programs are becoming the traditional model of where chaplaincy and CPE take place. And hospitals are now the nontraditional setting.
JW: Why did you want “Sankofa” to be the name of your CPE program?
DB: CPE is the understanding that you reflect on personal experiences from your life and wrestle with questions like, “What experiences are helpful as you move forward in chaplaincy?” and “What experiences speak to your pastoral strengths or spiritual care strengths?” You also begin to reflect on which experiences are negative. What experiences hinder you as you try to develop your pastoral or spiritual identity and competency? I really do believe a conversation we don’t have often enough is how much of clinical pastoral education is based on Eastern civilization practices. I know we give credit to Anton T. Boisen, who wrote this amazing book, Out of the Depths: An Autobiographical Study of Mental Disorder and Religious Experience. But CPE existed long before Anton T. Boisen in the form of an African principle held by African bodies. Sankofa is an African term, meaning “go back and fetch it.”
Jaclyn Williams is assistant professor of the practice of preaching and chaplaincy.
Danielle (Danie) J. Buhuro is executive director and CPE supervisor of Sankofa CPE Center, LLC.
It usually is a symbol of a bird with a gold nugget in its mouth and feet that are planted forward while his or her head looks backward. I named my CPE center Sankofa because, alongside the tenets of Clinical Pastoral Education, Sankofa represents going back to look at your family of origin and deciding what golden nuggets to hold on to that will serve you in your call to ministry moving forward, and also deciding which gold nuggets you’ve been holding that no longer serve you and need to be let go of in order for you to continue to move forward. And so this idea of “going back and fetching it,” is a reflective practice based on Eastern civilization or African principles that encourage examining your family history of origin. “What are those golden nuggets that Big Mama always told me? What are those gold nuggets that Big Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, my aunts, uncles, and cousins have told me that have helped me?” Asking these questions has continued to serve me.
JW: I’ve taken your course on movement chaplaincy and want to ask you more about it. How would you define “movement chaplaincy”?
DB: Movement chaplaincy is a call for spiritual care practitioners to provide holistic care to people in various settings that specifically focus on social, emotional, existential, and religious concerns.
Number one, we highlight that spiritual care practitioners provide holistic care, which means care for the body and the social needs of people. Movement chaplains ask, Have you done a community needs assessment of the environment where you currently live or serve? What are all of the food pantries, soup kitchens, domestic violence shelters, LGBTQIA facilities, drug and alcohol rehab or recovery facilities that exist in that community? Do you have a relationship with the legislator, the local legislator of that community? What does that community need in terms of social service resources? How are you working with the social service agencies in that community to provide those resources? Being a movement chaplain means we care for the body or the social service needs of people by making referrals of various social service resources to folks, which means we also work hard in building relationships with the larger systems in the society to be able to make those referrals. We’re also politically active with local legislation to bring those resources to communities. So if we discern that a community does not have a healthy grocery store in their zip code, we actively work with local lawmakers to build a grocery store in that neighborhood.
The second dynamic in movement chaplaincy is that we’re called to care for the minds of people, for their emotional states. We’re not therapists, but we are trained in mental health, first aid, and psychological first aid. So when persons are having a mental health crisis, we, who have been trained in mental health first aid, know how to respond with the psychological or therapeutic tools that we’ve been taught through our mental health first aid certification. So we’re not simply looking at folks who are having a mental health breakdown and saying, “They got a demon. We need to pray for them. We need to read this Bible passage to them.” Rather, we are well-versed in George S. Everly’s crisis intervention strategy and other types of psychological first-aid intervention models that we can employ. We act as sounding boards for people as they wrestle with existential questions about their life’s meaning and purpose. We encourage mental health therapy and keep a list of referrals for professional mental health counselors to those who need it.
Last but not least, we care for people’s faith needs. As people grapple with what Yahweh, Buddha, or God is calling them to be and do, we listen and remain interreligious. We don’t lift up Christianity and Christianity only. We take seriously the addressing of issues such as islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and other concerns our brothers and sisters have whether they are pagan or Hindu or otherwise.
We believe offering holistic care takes into consideration caring for the entire self. I just spoke to an acronym: S, social needs; E, emotional needs; L, life meaning and purpose needs; and F, faith needs. We’re not just hanging out talking about faith or theology or religion. We’re seeing the importance of providing care around people’s social, emotional, life meaning, and purpose concerns.
JW: I love that movement chaplaincy is a model for chaplaincy in general, making connections and helping in an explicit and intentional way. So now where can we learn? Where can we grow? What are current gaps or needs that you see in the chaplaincy landscape?
DB: I’ve experienced imagination to be at an all-time low. We’re so used to going into ministry based on what other people define as ministry and have become bankrupt in our creativity and imagination. So my encouragement is: Don’t be afraid to imagine. Imagine, specifically, What is the space or place where chaplaincy doesn’t exist? Then ask yourself, What skills do you have to meet that need? That’s number one.
Number two: It takes courage to move into a ministry where you might be the only person picking up that mantle. When I graduated from seminary with my MDiv, I was the only one in my graduating class who didn’t go on to become a pastor of a local church and instead pursued CPE training.
Number three: I think it’s so important to redefine ministry. 15 years after starting Sankofa CPE, I’m now moving into social entrepreneurship or spiritual entrepreneurship. I’m interested in social justice and view CPE and chaplaincy as the backdrop to my social justice ministry calling. I sat down with some business folks and decided to open a Jiffy Lube Oil Change location in Phoenix, Arizona, this year and will intentionally employ formerly incarcerated citizens who are struggling to get a job. How do we begin to see things like that as a ministry? What are the ways in which we can merge our business practices, business models, and the formation and creation of businesses with our calls to ministry?
Can you be imaginative and create the solution to a problem in chaplaincy that we need a solution for? What does it mean in your call to ministry to go against the tide and be your radical, authentic self, even if it means being isolated? And are you willing to redefine ministry that pushes the boundary of holistic well-being?
Earl Smith, chaplain for the San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors and former chaplain at San Quentin, shares about the centrality of relationship in both sports and prison ministry.
