Issue #252 – July 3, 2017

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(Items marked with a * are new or updated items)

1. Executive Director’s Reflection
There are many things that I am just not aware of. Every day I find myself saying, “I didn’t know that” or “I was not aware of that” or “I forgot about that.” Happen to you too?

The first verse of yesterday’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (6:3) caught my attention as it started with: Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. I thought, “Hmm… am I aware of this?”
Is this part of my consciousness? Does it influence my motives, my choices? Is it an interpretive framework for me? Does it make a difference?

Sure, I was baptized, and that was the language used, “baptized into this death, buried with him, raised to newness of life.” However, what difference does this make? Paul moves to implications that death and sin have no power over us. Somehow this “awareness” provides us the conviction and strength not to be overwhelmed, depressed, or discouraged by suffering, sin, and death, but to live with a newness and joy of life.

For me, while reflecting on this, I am in the midst of thousands of Catholics at the Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America. www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/get-involved/meetings-and-events/usccb-convocation-2017.cfm. The USCCB initiated this gathering, which has never happened before. They invited “key leaders from dioceses and Catholic organizations from all across the country” to strategic conversations on the challenges and opportunities for forming missionary disciples, animating the Church, and engaging the American culture with the joy of the Gospel. Hundreds of dioceses have each sent a core group of representatives with their bishop to listen and dialogue on topics, then, before the Convocation is over tomorrow, July 4, to meet together as a specific diocese or organization to decide what they will bring back to their respective diocese to further “form missionary disciples, animate their local Church, and further engage American culture with the Joy of the Gospel.” Remarkable, isn’t it?

Please pray with us for the success of this gathering:

Prayer for the Convocation of Catholic Leaders
O Holy Spirit, you who first enkindled in our hearts the joy of the Gospel, renew the same joy in those who are preparing for the Convocation of Catholic Leaders.
Enflame the hearts of our bishops and their diocesan delegations; leaders of national organizations and movements; clergy, religious and laity; all who make this event possible; and Catholic leaders across the United States.
Move us to welcome the word of life in the depths of our hearts and respond to the call of missionary discipleship.
O Holy Spirit, transform our hearts and enable us to enter into the perfect communion that you share with the Father and the Son.
Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us. Amen.
©2016 USCCB

Going back to the question of Are you unaware?, this gathering is an awareness-building of the implications of our baptisms. The Church leaders (and me) are facing these questions of “Hmm… are we aware of this? Is this part of our consciousness? Does it influence our motives, our choices? Is it an interpretive framework for us? Does it make a difference in our faith communities, our American society?”

I appreciate that the NACC was an invited organization. I am participating on behalf of NACC. Also, NACC has an exhibit table which our dear member, Maritza Ramos-Pratt, is helping to staff. She is a dear and joy-filled presence that embodies the Convocation theme: The Joy of the Gospel. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to share the ministry of chaplaincy with the hope that many might consider this path to continue the healing ministry of Jesus.

As I look back at June, it’s been a month of strengthening our partnerships. At the CHA Assembly (June 11-13), I had the opportunity to network with many Catholic healthcare leaders regarding pastoral care in their healthcare settings. At the APC Conference (June 22-25), Mary T. O’Neill, our NACC Board Chair, and I met with our other Strategic Partner leaders (APC, NAJC, APC) to identify our collaborative strategic priorities to advance the profession for the coming years. And now at this Catholic Convocation (June 30-July 4), we are able to bring a greater awareness of the chaplaincy and the needs of the pastoral care ministry of the Church, and discover more partners to advance the healing ministry.

All of these encounters help me more deeply appreciate our baptismal charism and call. So, I come back to the question, “Am I aware of the gift of my baptism, and does this “awareness” provide us the conviction and strength not to be overwhelmed, depressed, or discouraged by suffering, sin, and death, but to live with a newness and joy of life” Over the past month I have experienced much life, hope, passion, and joy for our profession and ministry. I have been granted more “awareness” of the gift of living out the baptismal call. I hope you are aware as well.

What has made you more aware of the gift and call of your baptism?

Blessings,
David Lichter, D.Min.
Executive Director

2. Thank you to the early donors to the 2017 Annual Campaign!
Many members have already responded generously to our 2017 Annual Campaign. To date we have received 260 gifts totaling $28,628 compared to 270 gifts totaling $30,415 at this time last year. We are most appreciative!

Please note: If you misplaced your Annual Campaign envelope, please contact Phil Paradowski (pparadowski@nacc.org) for a new one. Also, you can make your donation online by going to the Annual Campaign webpage (www.nacc.org/donate) or just click here to donate. Please give as you can! Blessings!

3. Read about interdisciplinary teams in the new July-August issue of Vision
“The interdisciplinary team: The whole and the parts” is the theme of the July-August issue of Vision, which is now posted at our website. You can read about chaplains’ collaborations with case managers, heart surgeons, speech therapists, and several other disciplines, as well as advice on writing better chart notes and perspectives from other professionals on how they use chaplains.

4. Vision seeks authors on new skills for chaplains
The September-October issue of Vision will focus on new skills that chaplains need to do their job effectively. Many of them were addressed in last year’s revision of the Common Competencies but we want to give our members more background and ideas on how they can improve their practice. We would like to cover areas such as research literacy; organizational business and cultural practices; writing interventions, outcomes, and care plans; self-examination; and group facilitation. If you are interested in contributing, please send a short summary of your idea to Vision editor, David Lewellen, dlewellen@nacc.org. The copy deadline is July 26.

5. Certification Interviewers Needed for October 14 & 15, 2017 Interviews
If you are in the Milwaukee, WI, or Torrance, CA, area, we are in need of five more interviewers in Milwaukee (two experienced and two new). In Torrance, we are in need of three more interviewers (two experienced and one new). We also are in need of two experienced interviewers at each site as backups (Lancaster, PA; Milwaukee, WI; Torrance, CA) in case of conflict of interest or other instance which causes an interviewer to drop out of the process. Please let Ramona Zeb know your interest and availability as soon as possible at: rzeb@nacc.org or (414) 483-4898.

6. Free webinar for those considering applying for Certification with NACC
Are you considering applying for certification with the NACC? If so, I would like to draw your attention to the upcoming NACC webinar on Thursday, July 20, 2017 – 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. Central Time (10:00 a.m. Pacific, 11:00 a.m. Mountain, 1:00 p.m. Eastern) entitled Certification with the NACC, which will provide participants with an overview of the NACC certification process, with special attention to the revised NACC standards and procedures. We will present key information about certification and provide a forum for answering questions about certification with the NACC. This free webinar will be presented by members of the NACC Certification Commission.

Please note that although this webinar is offered at no charge, you still need to register in order to receive information on how to access both the webinar materials and the webinar itself. 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.

7. NACC Networking calls for July 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 Ambassadors Call – Thursday, July 6, 2017 – 10 a.m. CT
NACC 45 and Younger Call – Thursday, July 6, 2017 – 2 p.m. CT
NACC One-Person Call -Monday, July 10, 2017 – 10 a.m. CT
NACC Spiritual Care Directors Call – Monday, July 10, 2017 – 2 p.m. CT
NACC Retired Call – Tuesday, July 11, 2017 – 10 a.m. CT
OR Tuesday, July 25, 2017 – 2 p.m. CT
NACC State Liaisons Call – Tuesday, July 11, 2017 – 2 p.m. CT
OR Tuesday, July 25, 2017 – 10 a.m. CT
NACC Student Call – Wednesday, July 26, 2017 – 2 p.m. CT
NACC New Member Call – Thursday, July 27, 2017 – 1 p.m. CT

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! IMPORTANT DATES TO HOLD!

8. 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.

9. 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!

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

10. Would you please participate in this survey to help us collect valuable information about innovative spiritual care programs?

The Catholic Health Association Pastoral Care Advisory Committee’s (NACC is a member) Subcommittee on Chaplain Development is planning in the coming months to provide information on spiritual care settings and leading practices being implemented in those settings. We need your help. We need to learn from you what you consider to be your biggest challenges in service and what innovation in service those challenges are calling from you. To that end, would you please provide your responses to this brief survey by the end of July? www.surveymonkey.com/r/MP5R5XH?utm_source=July+2017&utm_campaign=April+2017+Newsletter&utm_medium=email

11. Thursday, July 13, is our next NACC Webinar – don’t miss it!
Don’t miss the next NACC webinar in our regular 2017 program which is scheduled for Thursday, July 13, 2017 – 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. Central Time. Deacon Jack Conrad, BCC, will present “ACE’s In Places – Adverse Childhood Experiences and their impact on Spiritual Care.”
If you have not already done so, it is still not too late to register for this webinar.

As a result of this webinar, participants will:

Gain insight on the current literature concerning Adverse Childhood Experiences.
Hear and discuss cases related to ministering to patients and families with high ACE scores.
Come away with ideas as to how to deal with and minister to families and patients with high ACE scores.

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.

12. For information on our NACC 2017 Webinar Series, please go to:
www.nacc.org/education-resources/nacc-webinars-and-audio-conferences

13. A local NACC event in September 2017
We are pleased to announce the 2017 Fall Chaplains’ Conference that will be held on September 21-22, 2017, in Alexandria, MN. The subject of this year’s event is “Moving Beyond Our Comfort Zone: Understanding Behavioral Health for the Provision of Spiritual Care”, with Rev. Michele Guest Lowery as the guest speaker. For more information, and to register for this event, please visit our website at this link: REGISTER.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Andris Kursietis at: akursietis@nacc.org.
We hope you will accept this opportunity to enhance your learning and to meet with fellow chaplains in your region. Please invite your colleagues, even if they are not members of the NACC – all are welcome.

14. Request: Please participate in a study on spiritual assessment tools.
Our NACC member, Chaplain Bethany Turner, working at Kaiser in San Diego, as part of her doctoral dissertation, is conducting a feasibility study to explore the use of spiritual assessment tools that were identified through a literature review. The study seeks to explore what tools as being used by chaplains working in healthcare to include Hospice, Palliative and Hospital where charting is required and what if any relationships there are between assessment tools and training, years in practice or endorsing agency. She would deeply appreciate your participation in this brief (takes less than 5 minutes) survey. She is very willing to share her findings with our membership. Here is a link to the survey.

15. Other educational resources and offerings

The newly revised edition of Disaster Spiritual Care is now available to us. The title is:
Disaster Spiritual Care, 2nd Edition: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy, by Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr. MDiv DMin DH and Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts MBA MHL BCJC. https://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Spiritual-Care-2nd-Practical/dp/1594735875
On Wednesday, July 26 (2:30 – 4:00 p.m.), Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, IL, is hosting a free Spirituality and Health Conference entitled “Holding Space for Stories That Inform and Transform.” The keynote speaker will be Rev. Dr. Carla Cheatham.
Intended audience: chaplains, certified nursing assistants, bereavement counselors, nurses, physicians, social workers, teachers, therapists, volunteers, and all those who “hold it all together” for others.

Overview
Showing up well for others when they are hurting can feel like a daunting task. Holding space with others doesn’t require words, platitudes or clichés. In fact, just being present with others and finding a comfortable space within ourselves to just BE with them is the best thing we can do. However well we process our own pain is exactly how well we will be able to respond to the pain of others. We need our own sacred spaces when the time comes that the-one who-holds-it-all-together-for-others needs someone to hold space for them. In this talk, keynote speaker Rev. Dr. Carla Cheatham will discuss the process of “holding space” to create the environment for transformation that flows from the stories of patients, our colleagues and ourselves.

Objectives:
- Describe the process and five benefits of holding space.
- Identify three steps in the spiritual process of transformation.
- Analyze the role of re-storying and disillusionment in that process of transformation.
- Incorporate into practice an awareness of the four roles struggle can play in transformation.
Registration: Please call 630-933-4234. TTY for the hearing impaired: 630-933-4833. When registering, please advise if any special accommodations are needed. This program is provided without charge to participants. Registration deadline: July 19. Please note that this is not an NACC event, so any questions about it should be addressed to the organizers.

16. 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.

17. 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: Mary Columbo Reichert and family, Betty and Louis Skonieczny, Anne Murphy, Sr. Mary Clare Boland SP, 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, Julie Bablin, Sheila Amrich (niece-in-law of NACC member Sr. Paracleta Amrich), Isabelita Boquiren, Susan Balling, Jim and Frances Castello, Glenn and Pat Teske, and Gloria Troxler.

18. 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.

PASTORAL CARE ASSOCIATE
Orange, California – Regina Residence

DIRECTOR of SPIRITUAL CARE
Putnam CT – Matulaitis Rehabilitation and Skilled Care

CHAPLAIN – Part-Time, Days
Hinsdale, IL and Chicago, IL – RML Specialty Hospita

DIRECTOR of PASTORAL CARE
Chicago, IL – Mercy Circle

CHAPLAIN
Lima, Ohio – St. Rita’s Medical Center

NACC Now #252

Issue #252 – July 3, 2017

NACC

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! IMPORTANT DATES TO HOLD!

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! IMPORTANT DATES TO HOLD!

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

Job Listings

Free Publications

Donate Now

Issue #252 – July 3, 2017

NACC

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! IMPORTANT DATES TO HOLD!

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! IMPORTANT DATES TO HOLD!

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

Job Listings

Free Publications

Donate Now

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