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September 24, 2018
Stories of Gratitude: Why I Give to ACPE
Biju Chacko,
ACPE Certified Educator
Your gift to ACPE prepares dynamic leaders to offer spiritual care to those in life's vulnerable moments. Their stories remind us of the power of spiritual care in the world.

The Rev. Dr. Biju K. Chacko is an ACPE Certified Educator at Duke University Medical Center. Biju also serves as the Chair of the ACPE International Relations Committee.

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Awards Nominations Deadline Extended to October 4th 
Effective January 1, 2018 the ACPE Foundation Service Awards Committee will receive award nominations, review award nominations, and make a recommendation to the ACPE Foundation Board for awardee selection. This slate of awardees will be shared with the ACPE Board of Directors.

The first task of the new Service Awards Committee was to review the current awards and recognition, procedures, and policies. Below are the revamped criteria and processes including a new award - the ACPE Inspiration Award!
It's Almost Time to Vote
Stephen Robinson,
LDC Chair
I want to thank everyone who applied for leadership positions this year. We had 60 applicants, comprised of ACPE Certified Educators and Spiritual Care Professionals. The Leadership Development Committee (LDC) has been working hard to process those applications. When you apply, a member of the LDC schedules a phone call to follow-up on your application. We have been tasked with clarifying what position the applicant is most interested in pursuing and assessing their readiness for that role in leadership. If you have applied for a leadership position in ACPE and have not been contacted by a member of the LDC, please let me know.

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Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling Volume 72.3 Now Available
ACPE is a proud sponsor of the Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling (JPC&C). Did you know that a benefit of your membership in ACPE is free online access to JPC&C?

Check out their latest volume by logging into the website under the Resources tab on the ACPE website.

Learn more
New Core Curriculum Video Available
Have you seen all the videos developed by the Certification Implementation Team on Core Curriculum?

They recently published a video entitled "ACPE History" presented by Kitty Garlid, Bill Scrivner, and Christopher Brown.  Check out the video here and download the bibliography here.

Additionally, you can find all the videos on the ACPE website here or on ACPE's YouTube channel.
Who? What? When? Images from ACPE's Past

Do you recognize these folks or the event in the photo above? Send us a note at  webmaster@acpe.edu .
Thank you for your responses to last week's photo! Your answers helped us identify Dee Brown-Daniels at the 1998 ACPE Conference in Portland,Oregon.
In Case You Missed It
 ACPE & AAPC Explore a Common Future
Amy Greene
Amy Greene, 
Board Chair
On August 28, 2018, the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) Board of Directors voted unanimously to send ACPE a Letter of Intent (LOI) indicating that AAPC would like to become a part of ACPE. Earlier today, Tere Tyner Canzoneri, AAPC President, wrote her membership to inform them of our discussions. You can read her letter here.

The ACPE Board of Directors will meet via videoconference in the next couple of weeks to carefully review the LOI and decide if the agreement meets with our mission and strategic plan. 

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A Survey about Bioethics Learning Opportunities - Survey Closes September 28th
Every day, patients and families, as well as healthcare staff, seek spiritual support when making complex and difficult medical decisions. These tough choices are frequently made in the context of heightened emotions, lack of uncertainty about outcome, and challenges to long-held belief systems. Chaplains often process these types of ethical decisions with families at the bedside.

Competencies for Level I/Level II, as well as Certified Educator CPE, address integration of applied clinical ethics in the practice of spiritual care and supervision (See Objectives and Outcomes listed in Standards 309.6; 312.2; 318.6; 319.). To help educators address these core competencies we are developing a pilot online program to familiarize chaplains and students in Clinical Pastoral Education with current bioethical issues, concepts, and methods.

Your input is important to the success of this project. Click here for a brief survey that asks 1) which bioethics topics are of most interest to you, and 2) your preferred presentation formats. We hope that you will participate by returning your responses by Friday, September 28, 2019. Thank you.  
Transitioning from the Old Certification Process
Mary Stewart Hall
Commission Chair
Now that we are well into the New Certification Process, we have recognized that it is not only possible, but maybe even preferable, for candidates who are in the Old Process to transition to the New Process.  While the Certification Commission previously stated that those who achieved candidacy had the choice of transitioning to the New Process, the pathway wasn't as clear as it is now, so we are once again presenting candidates with an opportunity to transition to the New Process.

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Theory Integration Presentation Mentors
Over the past few months, we held our first two training cohorts and now have 25 trained Theory Integration Presentation Mentors. As we know our numbers of CECs will continue to grow, we have scheduled our next four cohort groups so that we can train a sufficient number of mentors. If you are interested in becoming a Theory Integration Presentation Mentor, please click here to complete the sign up and indicate which training cohort will work best in your schedule. If you have questions about the mentor's role, please email Robin Booth or Anastasia Holman.
Spiritual Care Week 2018
Weekly Highlights
This Week's Reflection
In the midst of the high holy days of the Jewish faith, the poetry of Yehuda Amichai has come to mind. This poem seems especially apt for those working in healthcare settings:
 "The Precision of Pain and The Blurriness of Joy: The Touch of Longing is Everywhere" by Yehuda Amichai

The precision of pain and the blurriness of joy. I'm thinking
how precise people are when they describe their pain in a doctor's office.
Even those who haven't learned to read and write are precise:
"This one's a throbbing pain, that one's a wrenching pain,
this one gnaws, that one burns, this is a sharp pain
and that--a dull one. Right here. Precisely here,
yes, yes." Joy blurs everything. I've heard people say
after nights of love and feasting, "It was great,
I was in seventh heaven." Even the spaceman who floated
in outer space, tethered to a spaceship, could say only, "Great,
wonderful, I have no words."
The blurriness of joy and the precision of pain -
I want to describe, with a sharp pain's precision, happiness
and blurry joy. I learned to speak among the pains.
While many of you may have already discovered it, you may be interested in the podcast by David Freudberg called "The Spiritual Care Podcast." Each episode is only about 30 minutes long, and many would be great conversation starters for didactic sessions. You can check it out here: 



Sunday, September 23
* Sukkot [Festival of Tabernacles] begins - Judaism
Also known as the Festival of Booths and the Harvest Festival, Jews celebrate this time as a pilgrimage feast and time of thanksgiving. The booths or huts remind Jews of the tents used by the Israelites during their years wandering in the wilderness, as well as the dwellings used by Jewish farmers at harvest time.

* Ksamavani - Jainism
A day of universal forgiveness, in which Jains ask forgiveness of others for wrongs committed during the previous year, and they also forgive those who have caused them suffering.

Tuesday, September 25
* Pitr-paksha or Mahalay Paksha - Hinduism
The beginning of a two-week period during which Hindu adherents perform shraddha rites to gratify the spirits of their deceased ancestors, including giving food or other donations as a form of charitable service.

Thursday, September 27
* Mashí'yyat - Bahá'í
The beginning of the eleventh month of the Bahá'í year, meaning "will."

Friday, September 28
* Birth of Confucius - Confucianism
The birthday of the philosopher Confucius [K'ung-tzu] in 551 B.C.E. in the Chinese state of Lu, known today as Shandong Province.

Saturday, September 29
* St. Michael and All Angels - Christianity
A celebration of the archangel Michael and all angels (from the Greek angelos, "divine messenger") mentioned in the Bible.

* Navaratra or Navaratri Dusserha - Hinduism
The beginning of a nine-day festival of the divine mother, honoring Shiva's wife Durga and seeking her blessings. It is also observed as a celebration recalling the days of Lord Krishna. Fasting and prayer are practiced.

Sunday, September 30
* Shemini Atzeret [Eighth Day of Assembly] - Judaism
This eighth day of Sukkot [Festival of Tabernacles] features prayers for rain and a good harvest in the coming year. It begins at sundown.
Visit the ACPE website for more information. 
  • We send our thoughts to Jim Wright whose mother died recently. 
  • Earlier this week we received the following message from Cary Melvin, ACPE Certified Educator at Cape Fear Valley Health System in Fayetteville, NC, recently impacted by Hurricane Florence: 
Thank you for your [Steve Goss] voicemail message. It has been pretty rough the last few days. We are surviving and in some cases thriving. Our staff, including me have been pulling some tremendously long hours within the hospital. We suspended our CPE program for the past ten days because we did not want to jeopardize any of our eight students who were already impacted by this storm event. Six of our eight students were directly in the path of this storm event. Thanks to God none of them were bodily injured. Two live in Wilmington, two in Sampson County, and two in Lumberton/Pembroke areas. Today seems to be more normal than any other day since the news broke of this storm. The staff have been super in their response to the events caused by Florence. We are extremely blessed that things were not any worse than what has been and is currently.

So, we thank the God of creation for His grace and mercies toward us. The community where the Church I pastor was hit very hard but there was only one related death that I know of at this moment. Again, I am grateful for wonderful stewards who kept me informed. I just happy to be alive and well through what could have been a more catastrophic event.
Visit the ACPE Memorials and Milestones page for more details. Please email webmaster@acpe.edu to add someone to our thoughts.
This Week's Career Opportunities & Residency/CEC Openings
Visit the ACPE website for a complete list of Career Opportunities and Residency/CEC Openings.

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Other Happenings This Week
ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education
(404) 320-1472 | Email | Website 

ACPE is the premier, DOE-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. 
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