Journal of Pastoral Care Publications Inc. moves into cyberspace

[RCCAtl]

Journal of Pastoral Care Publications Inc. moves into cyberspace. The Greater Atlanta Region is blessed with many organizations offering specialized care and counseling that integrates religion/spirituality and psychology in order to achieve healing – and many of those organizations also train persons who wish to specialize in providing this kind of care and counseling (chaplains, pastoral counselors, marriage & family therapists, etc.). JPCP is a resource for these ministries.

 

Journal of Pastoral Care Publications Inc. (JPCP) was created in 1994 to oversee publication of The Journal of Pastoral Care, which began publishing in 1947, and to develop a program of publishing books and monographs in the field of pastoral care, counselling, and education. For many years, JPCP had its business office in the offices of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education in Decatur. ACPE, the original owner of The Journal of Pastoral Care, is one of several US and Canadian organizations that own JPCP, a 401 (c) 3 corporation registered in the state of Georgia.

 

Beginning in 2013, JPCP began a gradual evolution towards existence primarily in cyberspace, an evolution made possible by the transformation of the publishing industry and the development of internet-based communication tools.

 

For most of its 70-year history, The Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling (“& Counseling” was added in 2003) was published in partnership with Kutztown Publishing in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. JPC&C began to publish online (2009 – 2014) at the website of the Public Knowledge Project of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Kutztown Publishing continued to produce a limited run of print versions of JPC&C.

 

Beginning in 2015, JPC&C is published online by SAGE Publications, with offices in London, UK; Thousand Oaks, California; and New Delhi, India. A print version is also available. However, most libraries and many individuals now access professional and academic journals primarily online. The members of professional associations that own JPCP have online access as a member benefit.

 

JPC&C articles, reflections, poems, book reviews, and media commentary are written by practitioners and academics from all over the world.

 

Effective 2016, all of JPCP’s books (9 of them are still available – see this) are published as “print on demand” books that can be ordered online either in print or as an e-book. One of those books was written by Atlanta resident, John Patton (From Ministry to Theology: Pastoral Action and Reflection).

 

JPCP’s editorial office has always been located in the home of the Managing Editor (now Editor in chief) – previously in Boston and then in Calabash, NC. Currently, the Editor in chief is Rabbi Dr. Terry R Bard, who lives in Newton Center, Massachusetts.

 

JPCP’s Associate Editors and WebKeeper are located in various communities in the United States. The members of JPCP’s Board of Managers live in various cities throughout the United States and Canada, necessitating the scheduling of online meetings in 3 to 5 ½ time zones (when there was a Board member living in Newfoundland, Canada).

 

JPCP’s auditing firm, located in Atlanta, GA, is JPCP’s official agent and that firm’s office is JPCP’s legal address. An accounting firm in Lawrenceville, Ga., manages accounts receivable and payable under the supervision of JPCP’s Treasurer, who is located in Peachtree City, Ga.

 

We share this story because we think it might be of interest to the religious organizations of Greater Atlanta, which is the birthplace of our organization. For further information, consult the JPCP website.

 

John C Carr, ThM, PhD, RPsych (Alberta)

Secretary, Board of Managers

Journal of Pastoral Care Publications Inc.

www.JPCP.org