SHARE:  
February 22, 2021
ACPE holds in our thoughts our colleagues and fellow citizens impacted by the severe weather and dire conditions in Texas and the surrounding area. We pray for your perseverance and safety. Click here for opportunities to help.
Thanks to our generous donors, the Foundation for ACPE was able to award $36,000 in funds to four projects that support innovation in CPE and spiritually integrated psychotherapy.
ACPE welcomed and trained 16 new Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy (SIP) Trainers over the weekend. This second cohort of SIP Trainers spent Friday and Saturday getting oriented to the SIP Program, the 30-hour SIP curriculum, and other details of this new ACPE initiative.
Registration Now Open for the 2021 Annual Conference May 4-21, 2021
Once a month the ACPE Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) posts a couple of statements from our Code of Professional Ethics for ACPE Members
ACPE rolled out a new Salesforce database, website, and SharePoint sites in 2020. Join John Roch, Director of Communications & Technology, and Carl Jones-Reid, Technology Specialist for a Tech Talk ACPE this week on
  • February 24, 9:00am ET
  • February 25, 2:00pm ET
“Proposing Religiously Informed, Relationally Skillful Chaplaincy Theory” by ACPE Certified Educator Judy Ragsdale and Cate Desjardins was published in the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy. This article makes the case that research on the multiple uses of religion/spirituality (R/S) in healthcare and on the practices of healthcare chaplaincy support creation of a middle-range, prescriptive theory for chaplaincy.
In Case You Missed It
The Eastern Central Community of Practice presents "A Culture Under Stress: Standing at the Intersection of Spiritual Care and Psychology" with Dr. Wade C. Rowatt on March 5, 2021 from 9:00am–3:00 pm ET.
Based on feedback from educators, students, and staff, we developed an updated how-to guide for students enrolling in a CPE unit. The guide is also posted on the website for future reference.
The ACPE SIP Program offers trainings to help mental health practitioners work more competently with spirituality in the context of psychotherapy. The 30-hour NBCC-approved continuing education curriculum is a specialty training for persons who have previous training in psychotherapy.
Weekly Highlights
This Week's Reflection
Emilie Townes, the Glaz Plummer invited lecturer for this year’s annual conference, shared the following poem with us. It was written by her father-in-law, Peter Schneider:
Lost in Plain Sight
By Peter Schneider
Somewhere recently
I lost my short-term memory.
It was there and then it moved
like the flash of a red fox
along a line fence.
 
My short-term memory
has no address but here
no time but now.
It is a straight-man, waiting to speak
to fill in empty space
with name, date, trivia, punch line.
And then it fails to show.
 
It is lost, hiding somewhere out back
a dried ragweed stalk on the Kansas Prairie
holding the shadow of its life
against a January wind.
 
How am I to go on?
I wake up a hundred times a day.
Who am I waiting for
what am I looking for
why do I have this empty cup
on the porch or in the yard?
I greet my neighbor, who smiles.
I turn a slow, lazy Susan
in my mind, looking for
some clue, anything to break the spell
of being lost in plain sight.

Poem copyright ©2006 by Peter Schneider, "Lost in Plain Sight," from Line Fence, (Amherst Writers and Artists Press, 2006).
Even in the pandemic, life feels so busy. And yet, there are creative people who do some pretty remarkable things out there. Take a look at these pretty incredible felt designs. The detail is remarkable!
This Week on the Calendar
February 22
Triodion begins (Orthodox Christianity)
Triodion is the three-week preparation period before Lent begins. Followers gradually modify their diets and meditate on themes like humility, repentance and forgiveness, to prepare for the great fast, prayer, and worship that happens over Lent.

February 26
Purim: Feast of Lots (Judaism)
Purim is a joyous Jewish festival commemorating the survival of the Jews who, in the 5th century BCE, were marked for death by their Persian rulers.

Magha Puja (Buddhism)
Magha Puja is the day the Buddha addressed a meeting of 1250 arhats: spiritual practitioners that had reached a certain level of enlightenment. The Buddha introduced to them these principles: cease from evil, do what is good, and cleanse one's mind. On this day, temples in Thailand hold candlelight processions, walking clockwise three times around the Uposath Hall-- once for the Buddha, once for the Dharma, and once for the Sangha.

February 24 - 28
Ayyám -I-Ha (Bahá’í)
The Ayyám-i-ha, or “Days of Ha” are devoted to spiritual preparation for the fast, celebrating, hospitality, charity and gift giving. They are celebrated the four days, five in leap year, before the last month of the Bahá’í year by inserting days into the calendar in order to maintain their solar calendar. These are days of preparation for the Fast; days of hospitality, charity, ministering to the poor and sick, and giving of presents.

February 26
Lantern Festival (Taoism)
The New Year celebration ends with the lantern festival when the first full moon enters the New Year
This Week in our Thoughts
  • No news to report

Visit the ACPE Memorials and Milestones page for more details. Please email webmaster@acpe.edu to add someone to our thoughts.
CAREER & RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITIES
Richmond, VA
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) seeks a visionary and transformative leader to be the next Chair of the Department of Patient Counseling in the College of Health Professions and the Director of Pastoral Care for VCU Health. 
Atlanta, GA
We currently have resident openings at Emory University Hospital, Emory Johns Creek Hospital, Emory University Hospital Midtown, Emory University Hospital at Wesley Woods, and Emory Dekalb Operating Unit.
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.