The origins of the Art of Pastoral Care (AoPC) began with a D.C. congregation's request to a pastoral counseling agency for pastoral care support during the anticipated sabbatical of their priest. Since 1972, Pastoral Psychotherapists, Hospital Chaplains, Parish Clergy, and other professionals have offered instruction and supervision in various facets of pastoral care as faculty and consultants to the AoPC. Modeled after the clinical pastoral education offered to seminarians, for three decades the AoPC has been helping restore an historic ministry to the laity-- "introduc[ing] people to the Healing Presence within them, that they might be empowered to extend it to others with competence and compassion."
Ms. Lilly R. March, an Episcopal Religious Educator (an AoPC instructor since 1978) was Director of the AoPC from 1985 until her retirement in 2000. Ms. Kathy Alcorn Garrison, a consecrated Deaconess of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has served as Director of the AoPC since July 2000. The Rev. Don Lowe, a retired Methodist pastor, was recruited as an instructor for the AoPC program in 1983 and continues in that position. In the spring of 2006, Beth DeCristofaro was invited to join the faculty of the AoPC. She brings the experience of a comprehensive background in Pastoral Care along with her activities as a Lay Minister in the Roman Catholic Church. Since its beginning, various hospital chaplains and pastoral counselors have served as clinical supervisors and consultants.
AoPC classes first met at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. Later the Church of the Brethren in D.C.; St. Mark's Presbyterian; Bethesda United Church of Christ in Maryland; St. Luke's Episcopal, First Baptist Church, Fairlington United Methodist Church in Alexandria, and Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church have served as hosts. Currently, Trinity United Methodist Church at 1205 Dolley Madison Blvd. in McLean is the educational site for the AoPC.
Since 1985 Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Columbia Hospital for Women, Sibley Memorial Hospital (since 1974) and Alexandria Hospital (since 1985) have served as centers for the supervised hospital clinical experience. In the fall of 2002 Shadygrove Adventist Hospital joined the available clinical sites for the AoPC. In January 2006, the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington became an additional site for the program.