Anne Lamott, in her 2012 piece Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers writes:

I am an ACPE educator.  We are halfway through our 2022-2023 residency. In my experience, the halfway point can be quite painful and revelatory. The action-reflection model in CPE provides a particular transformative space where lives and relationships find healing and new ways of being.

Every Sunday morning, I rise early to send out a scripture accompanied by a brief meditation to my family (my four sisters and two cousins). They are, in many ways, my congregation. I am grateful for them and the ways we nurture and care for each other. When I awakened on Sunday morning, January 29th, I struggled to find words of comfort for myself and my family.

I forced myself to watch the video of Tyre Nichols’ brutal beating on Friday night, January 27th, because I needed to be a witness to what happened. The images are etched in my memory forever. The pain and anger I felt are still very much present. As the mother of a 34-year-old Black son, I live daily with the fear that this may and could happen to him at any time.

Once a month, the ACPE Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) posts a couple of statements from our Code of Professional Ethics for ACPE Members. Each posting is accompanied by a brief personal reflection from a commissioner of the PEC sharing some ways this person lives these commitments*. February’s statements are:

d. Approach the religious conviction of a person, group, and/or CPE student with respect and sensitivity; avoid the imposition of their theology or cultural values on those served or supervised.

e. Respect confidentiality to the extent permitted by law, regulations or other applicable rules.

f. Follow nationally established guidelines in the design of research involving human subjects and gain approval from a recognized institutional review board before conducting such research.

In May 2020, the Board of Directors of ACPE authorized a working group to begin a thorough review, revision, and updating of the Objectives and Outcomes for Level I/Level II CPE. The Outcomes Work Group (OWG) is chaired by Maurice Appelbaum and Liam Robins. The members of the group included ACPE Certified Educators Julie Hanada, Amani Legagneur, Tamekia Milton, Judy Ragsdale, Matt Rhodes, Maureen Shelton, and Dr. Carrie Doehring, the Clifford Baldridge Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Iliff School of Theology, and Jana Troutman-Miller, former chair of the Board of Chaplaincy Certification, Inc. The group initially met monthly and, over time, increased frequency to multiple times per week for the past few months. These revised Outcomes and Indicators are the culmination of significant time and energy, many years of practical experience, and gleanings from the most current research in the field. 

Make plans now to join ACPE as we come together in New Orleans, the South’s Most Interesting City, for what promises to be a unique social and educational conference celebrating our values, sharing our voices, and growing our vision together. Building upon the work we have been doing to become an anti-racist organization that is actively engaging and addressing biases, this conference will begin our transition from knowledge building to application and integration of what we have been learning. Throughout the week, there will be many opportunities to reconnect and engage with colleagues, experience some of the many cultures of ACPE and our host city, and to take time to heal, recharge, and have some fun together!

Poster presentations will highlight and integrate research and evidence-based practices for CPE, spiritually integrated psychotherapy, and spiritual care to inform the future of ACPE and the craft of spiritual care & education.

We invite posters about research projects, quality improvement (QI) projects, and innovative curriculum or practice projects conducted by all ACPE constituents such as ACPE Certified Educators, Psychotherapists, Spiritual Care Professionals, CPE Students, CECs, and Interprofessional Colleagues. We consider reports on projects involving any aspect of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy (SIP), or spiritual care, which may be qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods in their design. All posters, including QI projects and innovative curriculum or practice projects, must report outcomes or results that were evaluated or measured. We also highly recommend spotlighting how your project and findings inform our professional practices.

Hospice and Palliative Care Chaplain Community of Practice (H/PC CoP) is a NEW unaffiliated online discussion network for chaplains working or training to work in hospice and palliative care. It is co-moderated by Denise Hess and Allison Kestenbaum and hosted on the Mighty Networks platform with technical support from Transforming Chaplaincy. This is a virtual space where hospice and palliative care chaplains and those interested in this specialty can build community, share clinical practices and resources, ask questions and more!

The Curriculum Committee is proud to bring you a new Curriculum Resource Room: Constructing and Facilitating Online CPE Units

Click here to view the Curriculum Resource Room SharePoint page for more information and the zoom link.