Issue #261 – November 6, 2017

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

NACC

1. Executive Director’s Reflection*
2. We welcome our new NACC members who joined us in October*
3. NACC Board of Directors met in Milwaukee, October 17-19, 2017*
4. NACC Board of Directors welcomes two new Board members*
5. NACC announces the 2018 awards recipients!*
6. Continued thanks to donors to NACC Annual Campaign!*
7. Vision seeks authors on spiritual care amid disaster*
8. New issue of Vision focuses on spiritual care in emergency departments.*
9. In Vision: Chaplain on Code Blue team faces unique challenges*

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

APC/NACC 2018 CONFERENCE, Thursday, July 12, to Sunday, July 15, 2018!

For more information about the Conference go to:
www.nacc.org/conference

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

10. Are you aware of the recent issue of Health Progress on end-of-life care?*
11. Did you see recent article in Catholic Health World on spiritual care in disasters?*
12. Would you like to share with colleagues what you did during Pastoral Care Week?*
13. NACC seeking applications for the 2018 NACC Webinar Series!*
14. Upcoming NACC webinars*
15. NACC Local Gatherings in November!*
16. Healing Tree: a request for prayers*
17. Recent job postings*

 

1. Executive Director’s Reflection
Yesterday, tucked between two scripture readings that scold Priests, Scribes and Pharisees for their lack of leadership, listening, and laying heavy burdens (Mal 1:14-2:2 and Mt 23:1-12), was the tender reflection of St. Paul on how they (Paul and his colleagues) sought to be present and minister to this community, the Thessalonians. Did you catch the language of “gentle among you,” “as a nursing mother cares,” “affection for you,” “dearly beloved,” “day and night,” and “not want to burden any of you.” How powerful is this language? What a challenge to us in our daily ministry of care, and our working with one another and our colleagues! How remarkably loving are these descriptions!

I was struck, then, by Paul’s ending where he wrote, “And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.” After all the profoundly beautiful descriptions of the highest human, loving fondness and regard for those he ministered to, they received it as “not a human word, but, as it truly is, the word of God.” So do we take from this that the more humanly loving we are, the more we are channeling God? Was Paul’s profoundly human way of being with the Thessalonians a type of proof that this was divinely inspired?

It reminded me, as it might you, of that Victor Hugo line in Les Misérables, “To love another person is to see the face of God.” This was so poignantly portrayed in the theatrical production where Valjean in the Epilogue on his deathbed experiences Cossette’s loving plea to stay with her, while Eponine and Fantine caringly coax him to join them in heaven, singing, “Take my hand, I’ll lead you to salvation. Take my love for love is everlasting.” Then Valjean joins them in, “And remember the truth once spoken, to love another person is to see the face of God.” http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/les_miserables/the_epilogue.html

I recall the first time experiencing the play; tears flowed. Yes, Valjean’s deep, if flawed, human love embodied the face of God.

So, I wonder. Does my ministry, does your ministry, lead people to receive our deeply human care as “not a human word, but, as it truly is, the word of God?” In our loving, do they “see the face of God?”

Finally, this week is Vocation Awareness Week (November 5-11) in the Catholic Church. We are grateful to all our priests, deacons and consecrated religious who have answered God’s call. Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the Chair of the US Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, invited us to live out our respective vocations this week, “As we go about our everyday life and most especially this week, we must keep vocations in our prayers, while, at the same time, being a mindful witness with our own vocation. We may never know how our lives may have an impact on someone else’s story. Simply living out our call as disciples of Jesus Christ fully and joyfully in the world bears witness to the love of Christ as He generously bestows on each of us our own personal call.” http://www.usccb.org/news/2017/17-185.cfm

Chaplaincy is also a vocation of the Church. As each of us live out our vocation, we pray others hear the call to the chaplaincy ministry because of our example and our explicit invitations to them.

Blessings,

David Lichter, D.Min.
Executive Director

 

2. We welcome our new NACC members who joined us in October
Please join us in welcoming our new NACC members who joined us in October!

Associate Members
Ms. Rachelle Barina PHD (St. Louis, MO)
Mr. Peter Lopinski (Hamilton, Ontario)

Full Members
Ms. Kristi Gorgia (Chandler, AZ)
Rev. Michael Louis Harvey OFM (Independence, OR)
Ms. Marcella M. Moore (Phoenix, AZ)
Rev. Servasio M. Mtseka (Wood River, IL)
Mrs. Sandy P. O’Shaughnessy (Plymouth, MI)
Ms. Donna M. O’Brien (New York, NY)
Mr. Michael Spine MHA, MA (Prospect, KY)

Student Members
Mrs. Judy B. Zeringue (Metairie, LA)

 

3. NACC Board of Directors met in Milwaukee, October 17-19, 2017
The fall in-person meeting of the NACC Board of Directors took place in Milwaukee, Wednesday, October 18, through Thursday, October 19. The main focus of the meeting was working on the NACC 2018-2020 Strategic Plan, with the planning facilitation by Mr. Michael Nees. More work will be done in the coming weeks to refine the plan.

 

4. NACC Board of Directors welcomes two new Board members
The NACC Board of Directors welcomed two new board members. Michael Spine has years of experience in communication and strategic planning with diverse health systems. He is the founding partner of 3rd Curve Health Care (3rdcurve.com/team/micheal-spine). Donna O’Brien also brings strengths in strategic planning, and has worked with dioceses, as well as academic and health care institutions. She is the founder and president of Strategic Visions in Healthcare, LLC (www.strategicvisionsinhealthcare.com/index.php/about-us). They both were impactful contributors to our October Board meeting. Please join us in welcoming them!

 

5. NACC announces the 2018 awards recipients!
The NACC Board of Directors is delighted and proud to announce the 2018 recipients of its three awards.

• The Distinguished Service Award will go to Mary Lou O’Gorman, BCC, who has been board certified with NACC since 1985 and has served generously and selflessly the NACC and the profession over all those years.
• The Emergent Leader Award will go to Teresa Sullivan, who has been board certified with NACC since 2005 and has served within the NACC as interviewer and ITE, and serves the profession in diverse ways.
• The Outstanding Colleague Award will go to Beverley Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care (www.ipfcc.org/about/team.html). She has been a strong supporter of chaplaincy services as integral to patient- and family-centered care.

Please join us in congratulating them. Watch for more information in the coming weeks. For more information about these awards, go to www.nacc.org/about-nacc/annual-awards.

 

6. Continued thanks to donors to NACC Annual Campaign!
Many of our members have recently responded to a reminder request. We are deeply grateful to all those who have been able to give to our 2017 Annual Campaign. To date we have received 436 gifts totaling $47,192, compared to 467 gifts totaling $49,187 at this time last year. If you have not yet been able to make a donation, please consider doing so today or this week! Thank you!

Please note: 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!

 

7. Vision seeks authors on spiritual care amid disaster
The theme of the January-February issue of Vision will be spiritual care amid disasters. If you have been deployed to the scene of a disaster – or if you have dealt with large-scale tragedy in your own area – or if your institution has made chaplaincy plans in advance for a disaster – we would like to hear from you. Please send an email describing your idea to Vision editor David Lewellen, dlewellen@nacc.org. The copy deadline is Dec. 4.

 

8. New issue of Vision focuses on spiritual care in emergency departments.
The November-December 2017 issue of Vision is devoted to articles on providing spiritual care in emergency departments. For these quality articles go to: www.nacc.org/vision.

 

In Vision: Chaplain on Code Blue team faces unique challenges
As the designated Code Blue chaplain, Anne Millington never knows when she’ll be called on to help a distraught family or a shaken staff. Read more about her emergency experiences in the new issue of Vision.
www.nacc.org/vision/november-december-2017/chaplain-code-blue-team-faces-unique-challenges

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

APC/NACC 2018 CONFERENCE, Thursday, July 12, to Sunday, July 15, 2018!

For more information about the Conference go to:
www.nacc.org/conference

 

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

10. Are you aware of the recent issue of Health Progress on end-of-life care?
This November-December issue of Health Progress has excellent articles on end-of-life care, including articles by Tom Nairn, Ira Byock, Dan Sulmasy, and others, including one by our NACC member, Linda Piotrowski, MTS, BCC, on “The Chaplain’s Role as a Catalyst for a Good Death.” Linda participated in our July 2017 Palliative Care and Hospice Networking call on which our members discussed this topic to aid in content development of this article. Thanks to Linda and all! www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/article/november-december-2017/the-chaplain’s-role-as-catalyst-for-good-death’

 

11. Did you see recent article in Catholic Health World on spiritual care in disasters?
This recent issue of Catholic Health World features an article on the role of spiritual care providers during disasters, and features some NACC members. You can access it at:
www.chausa.org/publications/catholic-health-world/archives/issues/november-1-2017/spiritual-care-teams-provide-compassion-elbow-grease-in-crises

 

12. Would you like to share with colleagues what you did during Pastoral Care Week?
Informally, some of you have shared what you did during Pastoral Care Week. If you would like your member colleagues to know about any special programs you had, how you involved other staff, or photos of events, please send them to Ramune (rfrantiza@nacc.org), and we will post them on our website and include them in our next NACC Now.

 

13. NACC seeking applications for the 2018 NACC Webinar Series!
The NACC is in the process of planning its 2018 webinar schedule and would like to invite you to submit an application to present a webinar next year. NACC webinars (hereafter referred to as webinars) are usually held on the second or third Thursday of each month of the year, excluding the month in which the NACC National Conference falls (in 2018 the conference will take place in July). Each webinar is scheduled for 90 minutes (including a 15-20 minute Q&A session after the presentation itself), starting at 12:00 p.m. Central Time. All webinars are recorded, and therefore the presenter(s) will be required to sign a consent form to that effect.

Below is a suggested list of topics that the NACC Education Advisory Panel thought would be of interest to NACC members for our 2018 webinar series:

• Mental health
• Substance abuse
• Palliative care and end of life
• Self-care
• Outpatient services
• Research (how to apply research to accentuate the effectiveness of chaplaincy; how to apply research to improve one’s practice; how research helps us; being able to read and understand existing research)
• Death of a child
• Ethics
• Those at most risk today:
  1. Abuse victims
  2. Sex trafficking victims
  3. Immigration issues (working with people in ICE detention centers)

If you are interested in presenting a NACC webinar in 2018 on one of the above topics (or if you have a suggestion for a different topic), please complete the application form and return it to the NACC national office (akursietis@nacc.org) by December 8, 2017. Submissions will be reviewed and decisions made by December 21, 2017, at which time you will be notified of the results.

 

14. Upcoming NACC webinars:

• Thursday, November 16, 2017. Moral Distress, presented by Dr. Rodger F. Accardi BCC and Karen Pugliese, MA, BCC.
• Thursday, December 14, 2017. Developing & Competent Chaplains, presented by Tom O’Connor, PhD

To register for these webinars, as well as for recordings of previous 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.

 

15. NACC Local Gatherings in November!

• Cincinnati, OH, Thursday, November 9, 2017. The NACC and Mercy Health are co-sponsoring a morning education event on the topic of The New NACC Qualifications and Competencies at the Cincinnati Marriott Northeast. Please click on the following link for more information and the opportunity to register: REGISTER.
• Baltimore, MD, Tuesday, November 14, 2017. The NACC is presenting an afternoon program at Mercy Medical Center. David Lichter will present on the subject of What Do I Do With This? A Spirituality of Suffering. For details about the program and information about registering, please click on this link: REGISTER.

 

16. 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: Anne Murphy, Sr. Mary Clare Boland SP, Sr. Romona Nowak, OP, 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.

 

17. 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 SPIRITUAL CARE
Springfield, Ohio – Mercy Health

SPIRITUAL CARE STAFF CHAPLAIN
Carroll, Iowa – St. Anthony Regional Hospital & Nursing Home

FULL-TIME LEAD CHAPLAINS and STAFF CHAPLAINS
Rhode Island – Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam Hospital, and Newport Hospital

CHAPLAIN – HOSPICE
Fond du Lac, WI – Agnesian HealthCare

VICE PRESIDENT of MISSION
Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center – Marshall, Minnesota

DIRECTOR of MISSION INTEGRATION
Grand Rapids, MI – Mercy Health Saint Mary’s

CATHOLIC PRIEST
Ann Arbor, MI – Saint Joseph Mercy Health System (SJMHS)

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

CHAPLAIN
New York, NY – SBH Health System

MAYO CLINIC CPE
Rochester, Minnesota

CPE OPPORTUNITIES for GROWTH and LEARNING
La Crosse, WI – Gundersen Health System

DIRECTOR of PASTORAL CARE
Baltimore, MD – Bon Secours Health System

View these jobs and more at: www.nacc.org/resources/positions.