Reverend Jack Abel

Rev. Jack is also the principal presider for the historic Caron Chapel Service, a gathering of family members, alumni, and current patients for a weekly celebration of recovery. As part of this, Rev. Jack oversees the chapel music program, which invites musician patients to share their creativity with the Caron community as a therapeutic element in their treatment experience.

A popular teacher and speaker, Rev. Jack has led efforts to establish and affirm clinical spiritual care as a core component in the panel of disciplines that shape integrated clinical addiction care in the United States and around the world. He helped to design and launch Caron’s unique program in clinical pastoral education (CPE) that educates chaplains in the work of addiction-related spiritual care.

Rev. Jack began work at Caron in 2008 as the Director of Pastoral Services and worked collaboratively with Father Bill Hultberg to evolve the chapel program and clinical spiritual care services on Caron’s Pennsylvania campus until Father Bill’s retirement in 2015.

An ordained and authorized minister of the United Church of Christ, Rev. Jack previously served as an elder and endorsed chaplain in the United Methodist Church and pursued advanced studies in sacramental theology at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. He holds a Master of Divinity summa cum laude from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., and also an MBA from Wilmington University in Delaware. A graduate of the interfaith studies program at the New Seminary in New York, Rev. Jack completed his undergraduate studies in mathematics and music at Hampshire College in Massachusetts and began his liberal arts studies at the New School for Social Research in New York City.