In the Lutheran church I attend, we are observing Lent. Since I was a boy, something has touched me deeply during mid-week and Sunday worship. Although I couldn’t articulate it as a young person, I’ve come to express it as this being a time of seeking deeper intimacy with the sacred. The Muslim tradition of Ramadan has also given me a framework during this time of year when I redirect my heart to that which gives my life meaning and purpose. Part of what I deal with during this time is an intentional reflection on grief. In my faith, I’ve come to experience that walking through my grief leads me to new possibilities and new life. During this time of year, it feels fitting that we observe such major religious traditions as Passover, Ramadan, Lent, and Easter that we are utilizing this time in our association’s life to reflect and search inward. |
|
As members of the Board of Directors and the Professional Well-Being Committee, we know that all of us have been through a great deal in the last two years. The last time we were together as an association was May 2019. It feels like ages ago. Now our world watches as Russia attacks Ukraine, we hear concerns about the rapid growth of the new COVID Omicron variant BA.2, and we endure the exhaustion wrought by the isolation so many of us have felt in our work and daily lives. So, we want to hear you. We want to know how you are doing in your work, in your practice, in your daily life. We want to find ways to connect us, and we want it to be in ways that can feel meaningful, even if through a screen.
Over the next several weeks, the Board and the Professional Well-Being Committee (PWB) will host several "listening sessions." As we seek to lead the association, we want to make sure our decisions are lining up with your needs. We will limit each group to 20 people so we can really talk, a member of the Board and a member of the PWB will facilitate. Please sign up for one time while we try to make room for everyone. We will be exploring more opportunities as we look to the coming months.
|
|
Register for the 2022 Joint ACPE/APC Conference. Here are 5 reasons why you should register TODAY:
4. Networking opportunities
5. Content available for 90 days post-conference
For ACPE Members: To ensure that you receive the correct pricing, please use the email that was included in your invitation email. If you have questions, please email events@acpe.edu before registering.
|
|
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 member of the PEC discussing some ways this person lives these commitments.
This month Marianne Robbins, ACPE Certified Educator from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the author.
|
|
The Anti-Bias Work Group is partnering with Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training to offer an Introduction to Systemic Racism intensive workshop for ACPE members. Many ACPE Certified Educators and ACPE Psychotherapists have participated in this training over the past 18 months and we are pleased to be offering it again for our general membership of ACPE Certified Educators, ACPE Psychotherapists, and CECs who are currently active in the ACPE Certification Process. To sign up for a workshop, please fill out this form. Spaces for each workshop are limited.
|
|
ACPE’s Accreditation works because of …
- The volunteer commissioners of the Accreditation Commission – Commissioners work to foster relational accountability that supports all ACPE centers to maintain and demonstrate compliance to the ACPE Standards in the center’s portfolio, while encouraging the center to name the uniqueness of how each center has chosen to meet the standards.
- The volunteer Chair-Elect who works with new centers and centers moving from satellite to the two year Provisional Accreditation process.
|
|
ACPE’s Certification Process has changed. While that is stating the obvious, the change has left some of us uncertain and falling back on familiar ways from the former process when meeting with pre-admissions aspirants and Certified Educator Candidates (CEC). The latter is understandable and the reason why this article has been written. Certification wants to help anyone participating in certification interviews understand the intent, structure and process so that all reviewers can be on the same page and the aspirants can have an experience that is consistent as possible throughout their certification journey.
|
|
No Informal Consultation Today |
Due to the Spring Leadership Meeting of the Certification Commission, the Certification Consultation will not take place on Monday, April 4
|
|
ACPE and APC invite you to support our efforts to provide this critical and dynamic educational program for our professionals in spiritual care. Your support will help us to bring the dream of healing this hurting world into reality, so that together we may create a better future for all. |
|
Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy will soon publish a special issue on chaplains of color, edited by Wendy Cadge, Aja Antoine, and Marilyn Barnes. Details of this special issue, as well as a link to instructions for submitting papers, are available here. |
|
|
|
The Foundation for ACPE Service Awards Committee invites you to nominate yourself or a colleague for recognition of outstanding contributions or service to ACPE, the field(s) of spiritual care, pastoral counseling and/or psychotherapy. Read more
|
|
|
|
Dr. Oxhandler will discuss previous research in this area and present the quantitative grounded theory, Namaste Theory. She’ll explain how this research is not only relevant for mental health care providers and chaplains or faith leaders, but extends to everyday helpers. Read more
|
|
|
|
The Editorial Board of Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry is looking for a new Co-Editor for a three-year term. An editor should be familiar with the disciplines of pastoral theology, practical theology and clinical supervision in ministry, a member in ACPE, and possess proven literary skills. Email Carrie Buckner, Board President, at Carrie.L.Buckner@kp.org
|
|
|
|
The Telechaplaincy Community of Practice is hosting a series of trainings and knowledge-exchange events. We invite chaplains, scholars and interdisciplinary team members to contribute to these events by proposing case study presentations, vignettes and didactics. The due date for submission is May 10, 2022. Read more
|
|
If you have not discovered it, we highly recommend the collection of poetry curated by our friends at On Being called “Poetry Unbound.” This poem comes from the episode from April 3, 2020, which was offered as a gift to healthcare workers. Leanne O’Sullivan wrote a collection of poetry while her husband was in hospital for a brain infection.
Padraig O’ Tuama reflects on the poem: This poem, I think, is a profoundly hospitable poem, and a poem with all kinds of depths. On the first reading of it, you understand immediately that somebody’s being written to. It’s written like a sonnet that starts off as a letter: “My love.” And clearly, somebody is leaving early; that’s the title. And they’re entrusting somebody they love to the care of a nurse named Fionnuala. And so you don’t need to have any background, and you can feel like you’re in the poem, and you feel the intensity and the deep trust that the writer, the poet, Leanne O’Sullivan, is imparting into this nurse named Fionnuala. And then there’s another layer to the poem, which you get when you read the book. The book, called A Quarter of an Hour, starts off with a little paragraph, saying that Leanne O’Sullivan, the poet, her husband had a brain infection which rendered him into a coma for three weeks. And so, when you know that from the start of the book, there’s this reference to her wing. And you think of this nurse, showing up in his unconscious and in his dream world of recovery like a bird, guiding him home. And that’s so hospitable and so beautiful.” (accessed at https://onbeing.org/programs/a-poem-in-gratitude-for-health-care-workers/)
|
|
Leaving Early
by Leanne O’Sullivan
My Love,
tonight Fionnuala is your nurse.
You’ll hear her voice sing-song around the ward
lifting a wing at the shore of your darkness.
I heard that, in another life, she too journeyed
through a storm, a kind of curse, with the ocean
rising darkly around her, fierce with cold,
and no resting place, only the frozen
rocks that tore her feet, the light on her shoulders.
And no cure there but to wait it out.
If, while I’m gone, your fever comes down —
if the small, salt-laden shapes of her song
appear to you as a first glimmer of earth-light,
follow the sweet, hopeful voice of that landing.
She will keep you safe beneath her wing.
|
|
The Lions Club holds an annual competition for young people to submit pictures of peace. It seems like we need these so profoundly this year, on so many levels. Here’s a link:
|
|
Chelsea May LaRue is a Chaplain Resident at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, MO. In this resident year, Chelsea May is specializing in working with pediatric patients, their loved ones, and staff. Chelsea May uses journaling and poetry as a way to reflect on experiences in chaplaincy and CPE. Chelsea May wrote a poem titled, "Pulse Check."
|
|
This Week on the Calendar |
April 5
Quingming (Confucianism)
Quingming is a celebration to remember ancestors and to tend to their grave sites. Some leave offerings at graves, such as food, tea and other libations. Willow branches are often carried or hung outside doors to ward off evil spirits.
April 7
Yom Hashoah (Judaism)
Commemorates the murder of six million Jews by Hitler and the Nazi regime.
April 8
Hanamatsuri or Wesak (Buddhism)
The observance of the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, who would eventually become the historical Buddha
April 9
Feast Jalál (Bahá’í)
Feast Jalál takes place on the first day of the month of Jalál, the second month of the Badí’ Calendar. The Badí’ Calendar is a solar calendar consisting of 19 months of 19 days each (361 days), with the addition of either four or five “Intercalary Days” to adjust the calendar to the solar year. The days and months are named after the attributes of God. The Nineteen Day Feast, the primary community gathering for Bahá’ís in each town and city, is held on the first day of each Bahá’í month.
April 10
Palm Sunday (Christianity)
Palm Sunday opens Holy week. Palms recall the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
Ram Navami (Hinduism)
A nine-day celebration in honor of the birth of Rama. Stories from the life of Rama are narrated and religious dances, called Ramalila, depicting scenes from his life are performed.
Hanuman Jayanti (Hinduism)
Hanuman Jayanti is the birthday of Hanuman, a monkey god and devotee of Rama. Seen as a symbol of physical strength and perseverance, Hindus often perform special chants to Hanuman when they are faced with obstacles. On this day worshippers fast and visit temples.
|
|
Northwell Health seeking Senior Chaplain Educator for CPE Residency
|
|
Clinical Pastoral Education Residency in North Florida
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
