July 6, 2021
Life is filled with opportunities for adventure, and fraught with expectations that do not always come to fruition. Sometimes our expectations pale in the light of the actual experience. Some of us will remember ACPE’s 2005 Annual Conference in Hawaii. In anticipation of that experience and as a gift to celebrate my recognition as a fully certified ACPE Educator, my husband and I decided to become Certified Scuba Divers to take advantage of the opportunity to dive in a magnificent environment. We grew up watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventurous exploration of the sea on educational TV programs. Although I wanted to dive, I had negative expectations and self-doubts. While I knew I could swim, I did not have confidence in my swimming abilities. So, my expectations included hard work and hard swimming. My expectation proved to be wrong. I imagined I would always hear myself breathing through the regulator. That too was an error.
Recently, ACPE and APC announced a change to our published timeline for the merger. Although our process changed, ACPE leaders remain committed to the proposed merger. We believe a merged organization will excel at meeting tomorrow's economic and cultural realities, serving our members and communities, and advocating for the practice of spiritual care and education.
The CoP funding process for 2022 has begun! All CoP Conveners should have received an email with instructions for budget requests. If you did not receive this information, or if you have any questions, please contact Katherine Higgins (Katherine.Higgins@acpe.edu).

The deadline for funding requests is 5pm Eastern on Friday, July 30.
Are you a retired Certified Educator looking for opportunities to remain connected to colleagues and the work of spiritual care and education? Then please consider joining the newly forming Council of Elders CoP. The next meeting will be Wednesday, July 7 at 2pm Eastern.

Contact Katherine Higgins (Katherine.Higgins@acpe.edu) for more information.
In Case You Missed It
During our legal due diligence process, our attorneys advised us that we could not proceed with our published timeline. According to Illinois state law, where APC is incorporated, any membership vote must include the proposed bylaws and governance structure.
Think back to your experiences at ACPE conferences. The plenary speaker is stimulating. In the hallway you engage your peers in a rich conversation about how all of this works for students. The ACPE Curriculum Committee would like to replicate part of this "hallway experience" with an online Resource Room series.
I hope this note finds you well as we slowly move out of the disorientation of the pandemic to the reorientation of our personal and professional ways of life. I am excited to share a few of the important things that are happening within the world of accreditation.
Having come to the end of our historic annual conference, I am reflecting on the talent among us, how that is nurtured and encouraged. What a gift to hear the voices of newer educators and particularly those who are pushing and leading us to make anti-racist commitments in our lives and ministries.
Weekly Highlights
This Week's Reflection
This poem is coming to you in the wake of another Fourth of July Celebration, Independence Day for this tired old country. Even as we celebrate 245 years of independence, we know at some level that none of us is ever truly independent. Part of being human is being interdependent, knowing that we rely on each other is we are to survive, to thrive. In the wake of our celebrations, Ada Limon offers a beautiful reflection that captures the complexities of this commemoration:
A New National Anthem
by Ada Limon

The truth is, I’ve never cared for the National
Anthem. If you think about it, it’s not a good
song. Too high for most of us with “the rockets’
red glare” and then there are the bombs.
(Always, always there is war and bombs.)
Once, I sang it at homecoming and threw
even the tenacious high school band off key.
But the song didn’t mean anything, just a call
to the field, something to get through before
the pummeling of youth. And what of the stanzas
we never sing, the third that mentions “no refuge
could save the hireling and the slave”? Perhaps
the truth is that every song of this country
has an unsung third stanza, something brutal
snaking underneath us as we blindly sing
the high notes with a beer sloshing in the stands
hoping our team wins. Don’t get me wrong, I do
like the flag, how it undulates in the wind
like water, elemental, and best when it’s humbled,
brought to its knees, clung to by someone who
has lost everything, when it’s not a weapon,
when it flickers, when it folds up so perfectly
you can keep it until it’s needed, until you can
love it again, until the song in your mouth feels
like sustenance, a song where the notes are sung
by even the ageless woods, the shortgrass plains,
the Red River Gorge, the fistful of land left
unpoisoned, that song that’s our birthright,
that’s sung in silence when it’s too hard to go on,
that sounds like someone’s rough fingers weaving
into another’s, that sounds like a match being lit
in an endless cave, the song that says my bones
are your bones, and your bones are my bones,
and isn’t that enough?

From The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018) by Ada Limón.
Ever feel like you are constantly juggling a thousand things, and yet somehow things fall into place? Here’s a great visual from Michael Moschen, who juggles inside of a triangle structure. This is either mesmerizing or will provoke all sorts of
anxiety!

ACPE CPE students Katie Hoyer and Rabbi Joshua Ackerman co-authored a responsive reading for Mary Washington Hospital's Pride Month flag-raising, the first event of its kind at the hospital in Fredericksburg, VA. 

This Week on the Calendar
July 6
Birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama (Buddhism)
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, was born July 6, 1935.

July 9
Martyrdom of the Bab (Bahá’í)
Observance of the anniversary of the execution by a firing squad in Tabríz, Persia, of the 30-year-old Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad, the Báb, the prophet-herald of the Bahá’í Faith.

July 11
St. Benedict Day (Catholic Christianity)
This day recognizes St. Benedict of Nursia, who lived from 480-547 AD. St. Benedict was the founder of Western Christian monasticism and started twelve communities for monks in his lifetime.

July 12
Feast of Kalimát (Baha’i)
The Baha’i calendar has nineteen months, all named after attributes of God. Kalimat is the Arabic for words. A Bahá'í Feast consists of three main components: spiritual devotion, administrative consultation, and fellowship. Usually held at a community center or in a local Bahá'ís home, Feasts are restricted to members of the Bahá'í Faith, mainly because of the consultative aspects of the gathering.
This Week in our Thoughts
  • ACPE Certified Educator Pat Roberts grieves the loss of husband ACPE Retired Educator Reverend Joseph (Joe) Arthur Roberts, who passed from this world on Father's Day, June 20, 2021 in Dallas, TX from a sudden illness. Joe's celebration of life will be on July 10, 2021 at 10:00am at Northway Christian Church in Dallas, Texas. 

Visit the ACPE Memorials and Milestones page for more details. Please email webmaster@acpe.edu to add someone to our thoughts.
CAREER & RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITIES
We are looking for compassionate, caring, and dedicated ACPE Certified Educator to join our team.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital is an ACPE accredited Level I - 1,200 bed - trauma and academic medical center.
Educational Opportunities
ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education
ACPE is the standard for spiritual care and education. Our diverse membership includes Certified CPE Educators, Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapists, Spiritual Care Professionals and Practitioners, Pastoral Counselors, Chaplains, Faith Communities, and Seminaries. Our multi-disciplinary, multi-faith, multi-racial community of professionals provides education, connection, and formation through continuing education, networking, and leadership development.
 
ACPE is the premier, Department of Education recognized, organization that provides the highest quality CPE programs for spiritual care professionals of any faith and in any setting. We do this through a rigorous accreditation and certification process for centers and educators that provide CPE.
 
The depth of our training enables students to realize their full potential to strengthen the spiritual health of people in their care as well as themselves.
 
ACPE members are actively engaged in a wide variety of professional development activities including communities of practice, conferences, spiritual care research, and informal networking. We are more than just an association: we are a movement committed to the transformation of the human suffering.Our opportunities for formation and community enrich our member's work of healing and transforming people and communities in the US and across the globe.