David Oliphant

David Oliphant is a retired minister, having served within the Anglican Church (1976-2011), and the Uniting Church (2011-2016).

David matriculated from Canberra Grammar School in 1960, and then obtained a B Arch (Architecture, University of Sydney, 1966), BD, (Melbourne College of Divinity, 1975), Dip Pastoral Studies/Counseling (University of Birmingham, 1980), MA/Theol (University of Birmingham, 1980), Dip Liturgical Studies (Melbourne College of Divinity, 1986), and his PhD (University of Western Sydney, 2006).

Since 1989, CPE has formed an important part of David’s life and ministry, and he is a Level III supervisor with the NSW College for CPE. For many years he conducted CPE units through the Canberra Hospital and Region, and in his retirement continues to offer pastoral care training for the south coast of NSW.

Recent publications of David’s include Towards a general and special theory of Christ (a work on understanding the person and work of Christ from within a scientific epistemology), and Intentional friendship: a philosophy of pastoral care (an exploration of pastoral care suitable for a multi-faith world, allowing each faith tradition to keep its own integrity while working with other traditions). He is currently working on a paper on theological reflection using psychodrama.

As his interests, David lists singing, concertinas, jogging, conversation and discussion.

The essay David submitted for the Diana Goss award is titled My use of psychodrama method in Clinical Pastoral Education supervision. ANZACPE congratulates David on his successful offering of this paper, and for the valuable contribution a publication of this nature makes to CPE supervision.