Issue #249 – May 22, 2017

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NACC

1. Executive Director’s Reflection*
2. NACC hosted the second Raskob Partners in Planning for the Pastoral Care Ministry session!*
3. 2017 Annual Campaign Letter was sent to you on Monday, May 15.*
4. Vision seeks articles about interdisciplinary team*
5. Final conference edition of Vision is here!*
6. We are grateful to all who contributed to the May 20-21, 2017 Certification Interviews! *
7. Are you aware of the very helpful overview of the new Common Qualifications and Competencies?
8. 2017 NACC Networking calls for May, June 2017*

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! IMPORTANT DATES TO HOLD

9. Tuesday, October 17, 2017, for a Chaplaincy Leadership Summit!*
10. Thursday, July 12 to Sunday, July 15, 2018, for APC/NACC Joint Conference!*

2017 NATIONAL CONFERENCE APRIL 28-MAY 1, 2017

11. We are deeply grateful to our 2017 Conference Scholarship Donors!
12. We are deeply grateful to our 2017 Conference sponsors!
13. NACC members raised $4,339.11 for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless.*
14. If you missed the NACC Conference, you do not need to miss the excellent plenary sessions. You can still get the live-stream videos of the Plenary Sessions!

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

15. Don’t miss this coming Thursday’s NACC webinar in our 2017 program!*
16. Second and Final Request: What patient satisfaction question(s) are you using and what is your data?*
17. Information on our NACC 2017 Webinar Series*
18. Some helpful resources for you*
19. Healing Tree: a request for prayers*
20. Recent job postings*

*New or updated item

 

1. Executive Director’s Reflection
One of my favorite passages from scripture was from yesterday’s second reading from 1 Peter 3: 15-16: “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence…” Two lasting impressions from this excerpt stay with me.

When I reflect on “sanctify” it remains for me a little odd as I think of sanctify as God’s activity, not mine. Then I think about singing the “Holy, holy,” which is our way of acknowledging and reverencing the awesome and intimate reality of God. So, what an invitation/command to be attentive to and reverence the awesome/intimate God within who sustains and loves us! How do we do that? How do I do that? For me, the mindfulness is through mantras used over the years. I appreciated years ago a wise spiritual guide who helped me transform “talking to myself” to “conversing with God.” That has really helped me.

As one who does not wear my faith on my sleeve and shrinks from most overt expressions of my belief in public settings, I always find consolation and encouragement in the phrase, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence…” First of all, if someone actually sees me as a hopeful person and asks why, I am touched by that. Has that happened to you? How do you respond? Part of me wants to ask, “What did you see that made you think I am hopeful? Passion, energy, drive, persistence laced with love and longing for more?

So what is the reason for your hope most of the time? God’s ultimate end of us? Trusting God’s goodness? Trusting humanity’s ultimate goodness? Believing in the power and beauty of God’s love in a person that will bring to fulfillment the gift planted in that person’s heart? The resurrection story of this season? That we are becoming what we receive in the Eucharist? Are all these too pious? How would you, or do you, express it?

What is the reason for your hope? Do you have this “elevator speech” down, if you are asked?

Blessings on this Easter Season!

David Lichter, D.Min.
Executive Director

 

2. NACC hosted the second Raskob Partners in Planning for the Pastoral Care Ministry session!

This past Tuesday through Thursday, May 16-18, over 20 pastoral care leaders from around the country gathered at the Comfort Suites Hotel near the Milwaukee airport to review the work on developing national competencies for the Catholic pastoral care ministry completed by several work groups that were created from the October 2016 first Raskob planning session. Below is a list of participants. It was a very fruitful meeting that resulted in a consensus on a draft of competencies, agreement on several next steps to advance our work, and a common commitment to continue to collaborate as Partners for Catholic Pastoral Care. We are grateful for all who prepared for and participated in these planning sessions.

1. Sr. M. Peter Lillian Di Maria, Director, Avila Institute of Gerontology, Inc., Germantown, NY
2. Denice Foose, NACC BCC, both a healthcare setting of CHI St. Luke’s and a diocesan program of Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
3. Mary Ann McDermott, Faith Community Nursing, Professor Emerita, Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago
4. Lisa Burkhart, PhD, RN, MPH, Faith Community Nursing, Associate Professor , Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago
5. Louise Anne Pinette de Siller, NACC BCC, both healthcare setting and the Congar Institute for Ministry Development, San Antonio, TX
6. Deacon Charlie Stump, NACC member, Director of Pastoral Services, Diocese of Dallas
7. Hyun Underwood, NACC BCC, both healthcare settings and PFE Supervisor of Permanent Deacon Formation, St. Stephen Diocesan Center, Kaneohe, HI
8. Sr. Dominga Zapata, S.H., M.R.E., Faculty, Instituto de Liderazgo Pastoral, University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein
9. Ed Hunter, BCC, Vice President of Mission Services, Presence Mercy, Aurora, IL
10. Kerrigan, Sr. Sharon, RSM, PhD, regional mission officer for Presence Health, Presence Life Connections, Mokena, Illinois
11. John H. Schultz, Chaplain Fellow, VA New York Harbor Healthcare, Brooklyn Campus
Brooklyn, NY
12. Glenda R. Spearman, MDiv, BCC, Senior Staff Chaplain, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Representatives of National Catholic Ministry Associations and Ecclesial Leadership:

13. Richard Deshaies, S.J., American Association of Catholic Correctional Chaplains (ACCCA)
14. Deacon Tom Dubois, National Association of Deacon Directors (NADD)
15. Harry Dudley, Assistant Director, USCCB Subcommittee on Certification for Ecclesial Ministry and Service
16. Elisabeth Román, President, National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM)
17. Fr. Andrew Sioleti, Chair of Certification Commission, National Conference of Veterans Affairs Catholic Chaplains (NCVACC)
18. Carol Walters, President, National Association of Lay Ministry, and oversees the Alliance for Certification of Lay Ecclesial Ministry (ACLEM)
19. Jean Marie Weber, Association of Graduate Programs in Ministry (AGPIM)
20. Vanessa White, MTS, DMin, Assistant Professor of Spirituality and Ministry, Director of Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry and the Master of Arts in Specialized Ministries, Catholic Theological Union (CTU)

NACC leadership:
Mary Lou O’Gorman, Former Chair, NACC
Mary T. O’Neill, Elect, NACC
Jim Letourneau, Chair Elect, NACC

Planning Support:
Facilitation: Carole Veronesi, SGC Consulting Group, Chicago
NACC Staff: David Lichter
NACC Staff: Ramune Franitza

Not participating in May
Fr. Mark Pranaitis, C.M., PhD, Special Assistant to the President, Catholic Charities USA
Brian Smith, Sr. Director, Mission Integration and Leadership Formation, Catholic Health Association, and Co-chair of CHA’s Pastoral Care Advisory Committee
Deacon Edgardo Farias, Director of Detention Ministry, Archdiocese of Miami

 

3. 2017 Annual Campaign Letter was sent to you on Monday, May 15.
Most likely by now you have received the NACC 2017 Annual Campaign letter. We hope that you will be able to participate in our 2017 Campaign. As noted in the previous NACC Now, our Annual Campaign last year ended as a record year for giving. Nearly 22 percent of our members gave to last year’s campaign compared to 6.5 percent of our members contributing to the 2007 Annual campaign. We hope this percentage of members giving will increase each year. Would you help us grow this percentage?

 

4. Vision seeks articles about interdisciplinary team
The July-August issue of Vision will carry a theme of chaplains and the interdisciplinary team. Healthcare is becoming more tightly integrated between doctors, nurses, chaplains, therapists, social workers, pharmacists, etc., and we are seeking articles that show what is happening. If you are part of a tightly integrated team (particularly outside of hospice or palliative care), we would like to hear from you – or from someone you know in another discipline who works well with you. The deadline is June 7. Please send a description of your idea to Vision Editor David Lewellen, dlewellen@nacc.org.

 

5. Final conference edition of Vision is here!
You may remember that during our annual conference at the end of April, we experimented with a blog format for the May-June issue of Vision, posting articles as soon as they were ready. Now we have gathered all of our content together at the usual landing place on our website for Vision. This is your chance to catch up on conference items that you may have missed — plus the first appearance of Executive Director David Lichter’s reflection, and reviews of two books that may be useful in your ministry.
Vision – May/June 2017

 

6. We are grateful to all who contributed to the May 20-21, 2017, Certification Interviews!
The National Office and many volunteers were busy completing preparations for the May 20-21, 2017, certification interviews. The interviews were held in five locations: Milwaukee, WI; Middletown, CT; Indianapolis, IN; Omaha, NE; and Torrance, CA. There were at least 120 people involved in the interview weekend: 47 applicants, 51 interviewers, 11 Interview Team Educators, five Site Coordinators, one Certification Commissioner-on-Call, and five Pastoral Presence Volunteers as well as Other Volunteers. Thanks so much for all our volunteers’ hard work and dedication to the NACC Certification process! Thank you also for keeping our certification applicants and all those involved in your thoughts and prayers as they prepared for certification interviews.

 

7. Are you aware of the very helpful overview of the new Common Qualifications and Competencies?
Whether you are preparing your certification materials or will be preparing your materials for renewal of certification, you need to be aware of and familiar with the recently revised NACC certification qualifications and competencies. In 2016 the five strategic partners of the chaplaincy associations (ACPE, APC, CASC, NACC, and NAJC) revised and adopted the Common Qualifications and Competencies (CQC’s). NACC then added the USCCB-approved NACC competencies to the CQC’s. You can read about the background of these changes, and access these revised CQC’s at https://www.nacc.org/certification/nacc-certification-competencies-and-procedures/important-background-nacc-certification-competencies-procedures/.

Also, our NACC members, Tom Chirdo and Jim Letourneau prepared an excellent background on these new CQC’s that will help you understand them. You can access this video at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLHeqkdIMi4.

 

8. 2017 NACC Networking calls for May, June 2017
If you wish to participate on any of these calls and are not already on that particular call list, please contact Ramune Franitza at rfranitza@nacc.org.

• NACC Palliative Care/Hospice Call – Thursday, May 25, 2017 – 10:30 am CT
• NACC Canadian Group Call – Tuesday, June 20, 2017 – 2 pm CT
• NACC Palliative Care/Hospice Call – Thursday, June 22, 2017 – 11 am CT

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! IMPORTANT DATES TO HOLD

 

9. Tuesday, October 17, 2017, for a Chaplaincy Leadership Summit!
The NACC is collaborating with its Strategic Partners in Chaplaincy (ACPE, APC, CASC, and NAJC) in preparing an important Leadership Summit on Tuesday, October 17, 2017. Dr. Christina Puchalski will be the keynote presenter, along with the presidents of these five chaplaincy associations. The program will provide an overview of the state of chaplaincy and our collaborative initiatives to advance the profession. Please plan on participating via live-streaming. While the event will be held at the APC headquarters in Hoffman Estates near Chicago, this day program will be available to all through live streaming. So please hold the date! More details to follow in the coming weeks.

 

10. Thursday, July 12, to Sunday, July 15, 2018, for APC/NACC Joint Conference!
Mark your calendars for the APC/NACC Joint Conference in 2018! This conference will be held Thursday, July 12, through Sunday, July 15, 2018 at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, California. It will be preceded by preconference workshops and our NACC retreat. Plan to join us!

2017 NATIONAL CONFERENCE APRIL 28-MAY 1, 2017

 

11. We are deeply grateful to our 2017 Conference Scholarship Donors!
We are thankful for the generosity of all those who donated to the NACC Scholarship Fund. All donations received help NACC members to attend the NACC National Conference. Your support is appreciated. To view the conference scholarship donors, please go to: www.nacc.org/conference/2017-conference-scholarship-donors

 

12. We are deeply grateful to our 2017 Conference sponsors!
The ability to keep the conference fees reasonable relies very much on the willingness and generosity of a variety of sponsors. We received $34,500 in sponsorships. We are deeply grateful. To view the sponsors, please go to www.nacc.org/conference/2017-conference-sponsors

 

13. NACC members raised $4,339.11 for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless.
At the Sunday, April 30, 2017, Conference Luncheon by State, NACC members raised $4,339.11 for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless. Thank you to all who gave! For NACC members who would be interested in supporting AHCH, please visit our website to learn more about their work and for information on how to donate: www.nacc.org/conference/2017-conference-charity

 

14. If you missed the NACC Conference, you do not need to miss the excellent plenary sessions. You can still get the live-stream videos of the Plenary Sessions!
The NACC 2017 national conference is over, but you still have the opportunity to enjoy the opening prayer ceremony and the four plenary speaker sessions by registering for the recordings of these sessions, which were live-streamed.

The charge for accessing the recordings is $80 for NACC members and $100 for non-NACC members. The fee covers the welcome/opening prayer service and all four plenary speaker sessions. Please note that this is a package deal that includes all the four plenary sessions and welcome/opening prayer and we do not offer separate registration for individual sessions.

We hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to view these sessions.

The sessions that were the subject of live streaming and were recorded are:

* Friday, April 28, 2017: Conference Welcome/Opening Prayer
* Friday, April 28, 2017: LIVING TRADITION: Were Not Our Hearts Burning. Presented by Dr. Dianne Bergant, CSA
* Saturday, April 29, 2017: REMEMBER! AND THEN JESUS WALKS AND TALKS US BACK INTO LIFE. Presented by Dr. Megan A. McKenna
* Sunday, April 30, 2017: WHO IS THIS? Encountering God in Other People and Traditions. Presented by Dr. Emmanuel Lartey
* Monday, May 1, 2017: Catalytic Conversions with Conversing Narratives: Alchemical Traditions that Transform Us. Presented by Dr. Raymond Reyes

7 CEH hours (1.75 hours per plenary session) are offered.

To view the recorded sessions requires a computer with internet access. Please take a few moments to register online: Register. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to the site where the recordings may be viewed.

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

 

15. Don’t miss this coming Thursday’s NACC webinar in our 2017 program!
Our next NACC 2017 webinar is THIS THURSDAY, May 25, 2017 – 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. Central Time. Rev. Victoria M. Kumorowski, JD, LLM, MJS, DMin, will present “Promoting Inner Healing From Addiction.”

If you have not already done so, there is still time to register for this webinar.

Program Summary
This webinar is based upon the Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual (BPSS) Model of Addiction, which takes into consideration the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual dynamics that combine to form substance addictions (Horvath et al. 2016, 1). It primarily focuses upon the underlying spiritual nature and consequences of all addiction. It demonstrates that healing from substance addiction requires much more than just abstaining from the addictive behavior (Rohr 2011, xx). It emphasizes that real healing involves a spiritual transformation of the self that only results from “living into” God’s radical grace (Rohr; May 1988, 125-126). The webinar concludes by discussing ways in which chaplains can help to promote this type of inner healing among patients who are imprisoned by their addictions.

Program Objectives
By the end of this webinar, participants will have:
1. Gained a greater understanding of the nature of addiction.
2. Gained a deeper understanding of the underlying causes of addiction.
3. Gained a greater understanding of the recovery process as a spiritual journey.
4. Gained an understanding of the type of spiritual care that promotes healing from addiction.

About the Presenter
Victoria Kumorowski practiced law for a number of years and served four years as a state trial court judge in Kansas, before changing careers and becoming an ordained minister and board certified chaplain. She received a Masters of Divinity from Phillips Theological seminary in 2000, and a Doctor of Ministry in Formational Counseling from Ashland Theological Seminary in 2012. During the past ten years, she has served as the director of Spiritual Care (and voluntarily as an ethics consultant) for Genesis Health Care System in Zanesville, Ohio, which is partially owned by the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. During the past four years, she has also served as an adjunct professor, teaching online courses in Principles of Biomedical Ethics (Phil 305), Global Issues and Values (Religion 393), and Legal Issues in Health Care (HLSC 406) for Muskingum University. Most important of all, she is the mother of three adult sons, whom she greatly loves and respects, and has three wonderful grandchildren.

Participants qualify for 2.0 CEHs total for the session (which includes 90 minutes for the webinar plus 30 minutes preparation time).

To register for this webinar, as well as for any other NACC 2017 webinars, please visit the webinar page on our website by clicking on this LINK. The web page contains a link to a downloadable paper registration form, and also a link enabling you to register online and pay by credit card.

 

16. Second and Final Request: What patient satisfaction question(s) are you using and what is your data?
In 2008 the Metrics Task Force (including a representative from Press Ganey) that was organized as a result of the CHA/NACC Spiritual Care Summit in Omaha 2007, had recommended a Patient Survey question: If you were visited by a hospital chaplain during your stay, rate your satisfaction with the spiritual care the chaplain provided. It seems that question did not get much traction among hospital/ systems. There is a renewed interest to learn what question is being used and what the patient survey data is telling us. Questions vary: Were you visited by a chaplain? Did a member of the pastoral care department respond to your needs? How would you rate your experience with…?

Would you be interested in sharing your question(s) and your experience/data from the question(s) with other colleagues? It would be good to learn if there is a more widely used question(s) and what national data from the question(s) could be gained. If you are interested, please let David Lichter (dlichter@nacc.org) know by Tuesday, May 30, and you will be included in process.

 

17. Information on our NACC 2017 Webinar Series
Please go to: www.nacc.org/education-resources/nacc-webinars-and-audio-conferences

 

18. Some helpful resources for you

• Our NACC member, Ron Tremblay alerted us to a wonderful reflection by Pope Francis on the Emmaus Journey, which was our 2017 Conference Theme. You can access Pope Francis’s thoughts at: https://www.ncronline.org/printpdf/145381.
• Kevin J. Flannelly, PhD, long time Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, and Senior Researcher, Center for PsychoSocial Research, has recently published a new book: Religious Beliefs, Evolutionary Psychiatry, and Mental Health in America: Evolutionary Threat Assessment Systems Theory. New York: Springer Nature, 2017. The book explains: (1) that the psychiatric symptoms ordinary people experience in everyday life are rooted in our evolutionary heritage; (2) that these symptoms are the product of brain mechanisms which evolved to warn us about threats of potential harm; and (3) that religious and other beliefs can exacerbate or ameliorate such symptoms by acting on the threat assessment systems in the brain that produce them. The book includes eight basic drawings and schematic diagrams of the brain systems involved in threat assessment and psychiatric symptoms, and 40 simple graphs that summarize the results of over 100 studies on the positive and negative associations between various religious beliefs and mental health. If you are interested in buying the book or learning more about it, please go to the following website: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319524870.
• Our NACC member, Dan Lunney, BCC DMin, is graduating from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, with his Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry degree. He is graciously making available to members his thesis-project, “Personalized Music as a Spiritual Intervention with People Living with Dementia. To access his thesis-project, you can go to (https://www.academia.edu/32534669/Personalized_Music_as_a_Spiritual_Intervention_with_People_Living_with_Dementia_D.Min._Thesis-Project_).

 

19. Healing Tree: a request for prayers
Please let us know if you would like our membership to pray for your health and healing. We will leave the person’s name on the Healing Tree list for three months, unless you ask us to remove your or the person’s name earlier. You can always request us to leave the name on longer.

We continue to pray for:  Bernadette Bolton (mother of NACC member, Patrick Bolton), Sr Marie V. Janousek, CSJ, Sr. Romona Nowak, OP, Sr. MariaTheresa Hronec, Sr. Mary Thecla Kuhnline, Fr. Jim Radde, SJ, Mason Richter, Shane Rebholtz, Rosemary Benya BCC,  Julie Bablin, Marie Coglianese, Sheila Amrich (niece-in-law of NACC member Sr. Paracleta Amrich), Isabelita Boquiren, Sister Stephanie Morales, FMI, Susan Balling,  Jim and Frances Castello, Marga Halala, Glenn and Pat Teske, and Gloria Troxler.

 

20. Recent job postings
The following positions have been posted recently on our Positions Available page.
For more information go to www.nacc.org/resources/positions.

DIRECTOR OF PASTORAL CARE
Rockville Centre, New York – Mercy Medical Center

CHAPLAIN – PASTORAL CARE – Full-Time (Days)
Des Moines, Iowa – Mercy Medical Center

CHAPLAIN
Baltimore, Maryland – Mercy Medical Center

DIRECTOR of PASTORAL CARE
Fraser, Michigan – Fraser Villa

CHAPLAIN I – PRIEST
Evanston, IL – Presence Health