The International CPE Community of Practice held a hybrid retreat from December 2nd until December 4th. Seventeen people attended in person, seven attended virtually, and 11 countries were represented. The intention of this retreat is to cultivate the relationships that we have not been able to achieve during the COVID pandemic, and it is also to experiment with CPE practice that can be culturally relevant to various cultural contexts.

We brought into our gathering cultural practices from places around the world. The retreat began with a Call to Community Ritual. It is a ritual incorporating the Australian tradition to start a meeting as the participants remember the First Nation People, the Aboriginals, acknowledging the fact that the land we call home, wherever it is in the world, might have belonged to a group of people that were culturally quite different from the current population like us.

Friday, December 16th at 12:00PM (EST) / 11:00AM (CST), please join us for a free webinar titled:  Spiritual Care HCPCS Codes: Purpose, Progress, and Promise. Recently the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved the first Healthcare Common Coding System Codes (HCPCS) codes usable by all healthcare chaplains. This webinar will offer an overview of the decision and its implications for spiritual care providers. We will also consider what it may mean in the future for chaplains and spiritual care providers as clinical partners in the healthcare system.

The ACPE Staff met up last week for their annual holiday gathering. The team enjoyed lunch at Santo Cantina and Cocina in Avondale Estates, GA, followed by a glassblowing class at Decatur Glassblowing. This was the first time since December 2019 that the team could gather in person to celebrate the end of the year. It was a wonderful time of connection and reflection as we look toward the new year.