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May 16, 2022
We have enjoyed what has felt like an exceptionally beautiful spring in this part of the world. The temperatures have been mild, and the rain has come just often enough to make everything burst with life. It feels like the mood of the last two years has begun to lift. As we make our way around town, we see fewer masks, more hugs, and people gathered in restaurants, theaters, stores, and at the airport. We cannot help but be drawn together, especially after many months of separation and physical distancing.
Join the Executive Community of Practice!
Are you a Certified ACPE Educator serving in an executive role?

NEW Community of Practice opportunity for Certified ACPE Educators who have healthcare system executive roles (e.g., Vice President, Chief Mission Officer) and responsibilities over the health system’s mission and ministry areas. This would include ACPE Educators who oversee at an executive level not only CPE departments but health system-wide chaplaincy and community ministry.

If interested, please reach out to Jay Orlando Perez at OrlandoJay.Perez@AdventHealth.com or ElizabethWatsonMartin@texashealth.org.
ACPE Certified Educator Gordon Hilsman recently published Confrontation in Spiritual Care: An Anthology for Clinical Caregivers. Edited by Gordon Hilsman and Sandra Walker, the book makes a compelling case for the power of confrontation as empathy’s indispensable partner in the work of healing and restoring wholeness. The rich chapters in this book, written by professionals in the field of spiritual care and healthcare, make a convincing case for the growth-inducing power of skillful and compassionate challenge.
In Case You Missed It
In the United States, Latinx individuals and especially Latinx immigrants are vulnerable and at-risk populations. They exhibit rates of psychological distress at the same frequency as the general population but are more likely to exhibit severe symptoms and less likely to receive any mental health treatment.  Read more
The 2022 ACPE Annual Conference is presented jointly with the Association of Professional Chaplains. We’ve teamed up to offer “Freedom, Wonder, and Liberation: Anti-Bias Practices of Spiritual Care and Education.  Read more
Once a month the Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) posts a couple of statements from our Code of Professional Ethics for members. Each posting is accompanied by a brief personal reflection from a member of the PEC discussing some ways this person lives these commitments*.  Read more
We invite all ACPE Certified Educators who are working with Certified Educator Candidates to join us for informal consultations and conversations via Zoom. The drop-in meeting (no RSVP required) will take place on the first and third Mondays of the month, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm ET. Read more
Weekly Highlights
This Week's Reflection
In this month where we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander history in the US, this poem stood out for its “yes, but…” quality as well as its “yes, and.” Evelyn Flores is an Indigenous CHamoru poet, describes this poem as follows: “As it had been for the rest of the world, it had been a year of death and dying for us in the wake of the virus. On an island like Guåhan where families are connected in many different ways, we walked about in a state of shock that this could be happening. Then it was that my neighbor leaning across the fence talked about poisoning the flame tree. Although it made sense, something inside resisted. But it was done. Dying and living came together as I watched that courageous tree refuse to die. We would go on. The beautiful would insist. That’s when the poem came.”
The Flame Tree
by Evelyn Flores

My neighbor has decided to poison the flame tree.
He is right, of course.
The tree is over 20 years old, huge, spreading,
and the termites have worn jagged roads clear to its top.
It’s clearly a danger
tilting toward our house—
some fickle wind
my neighbor says could blow it over. 

Every fañomnåkan, it sends out its bursts of orange blossoms;
it blooms and blooms and blooms relentlessly,
the flares it sends shooting out into space
more stunning than fireworks 
through the window

where my mother
riveted to a bed, doomed by her body to a colorless spot, 
gazes out, her head on a pillow—
might have seemed like forever to her who used to climb green mountain sides—
and watches that tree full of sparrows
chittering
chattering
flitting here and there
and the outlandish blazing petals
steadfastly singing against the blue sky.

My neighbor, true to his word,
injected a poisonous brew bought at Home Depot into the trunk of the tree,
the toxic river
traveling up up up following the termite trails to the heart 
of the fire.

He is right, of course.

The tree came back the following year,
its clusters unflinchingly parading their bursts of rebellious orange.
But the poison had done its work—
see, where there was a canopy of flames
there are now just a handful here and there,
one spray in particular desperately
reaching out 
like a fist full of beauty 
to the window

where she 
used to watch for its return.

 
Copyright © 2022 by Evelyn Flores. 

As the world continues to watch as Russian bombards Ukraine, this song which was produced by UNICEF seven years ago seems not just relevant but necessary for today:

This Week on the Calendar
May 17
Feast of Azamat (Bahá’í)
Baha’is gather every 19 days for a Feast. This is a members-only event comprising three parts: A spiritual portion that’s the time for prayer and reflection; A business portion for consultation about administrative issues (plans for forming classes, organizing to perform community service, observing holy days, or any ideas or projects community members wish to discuss. It’s also a time when local members can ask their Local Assembly to forward their concerns to the National Assembly; A social portion that can consist of anything from just glasses of water to a full-course dinner.

1746 Chhota Ghallughara (Sikh)
The Chhota Ghallughara was the first massacre of Sikhs targeted to wipe out the entire population. Around 7,000 Sikhs were killed, 3,000 were captured and later beheaded, and the persecution lasted several decades. Gurdwaras were destroyed and scriptures were burnt. Anyone caught saying the word “Guru” was sentenced to death.

May 18
Midfeast (Eastern Orthodox Church)
A feast day which occurs during the Paschal season in the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite. Mid-Pentecost celebrates the midpoint between the Feasts of Pascha (Easter) and Pentecost. Specifically, it falls on the 25th day of Pascha. At the feast of Mid-Pentecost, a Small Blessing of the Waters is traditionally performed after the liturgy of the feast.

May 18-19

Lag B’Omer begins at sundown (Judaism)
Celebrates the end of a divine-sent plague and/or Roman occupation during Rabbi Akiva’s lifetime. Lag B'Omer is the 33rd day between the second day of Passover and the holiday of Shavuot. There is altogether a span of 49 days between the two holidays; a time that is traditionally a period of mourning the death of Rabbi Akiba’s 24,000 students over 2,000 years ago. Lag B’Omer is a break in the mourning period and is therefore a time for celebration.
Memorials and Milestones
  • Congratulations to ACPE Certified Educator Shulamit Izen who gave birth to her son Yonah on May 5, 2022.
Visit the ACPE Memorials and Milestones page for more details. Please email webmaster@acpe.edu to add someone to our thoughts.
CAREER & RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITIES
UCSF Health seeks an ACPE Certified Educator and Chaplain Supervisor. Come join our collaborative and vibrant team!
Geisinger Medical Center
Chaplain Resident, CPE Program / Geisinger Medical Center / Danville, Pennsylvania
Other 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.