Issue #322 – March 30, 2020

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

1. Executive Director’s Reflection
So much has transpired since our NACC Now of two weeks ago. Our Listening/Resource Sharing Sessions have brought many of our members together to learn of each other’s ministry settings and how to care for patients, residents, the incarcerated, the displaced, and their families, and how to remain rooted in prayer, grounded in one’s care for self and for one’s loved ones. Each day brings a wakefulness different than it was two months ago. We seek to stay alert to how to process and respond to invitations to love and trust. I hold you all in prayer.

I could not help but to hear and reflect upon differently yesterday’s Gospel of Lazarus given our current pandemic! How did you hear the line, “So the sisters sent word to him saying, ‘Master, the one you love is ill?’” (Jn. 11:3) How many times these past weeks was that our prayer for the many people we know who have been taken ill by COVID-19 or other illness! How many times were you and I asked to pray for a family member or friend; we were given the name or names and asked to join in prayer for them? We prayed, “Jesus, the one you love is ill.”

Later in the passage, after Mary meets Jesus and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” the passage notes that Jesus saw Mary and the others weeping, and then “he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, ‘Where have you laid him?’” It is there that he also wept. How important it is for me and for you to know Jesus wept then and continues to weep today through us His body!

Over the centuries so many theologians grappled with how God is present to and with suffering humanity. In the story of Lazarus, Jesus wept, then life comes from death, a precursor of the Resurrection.

How is God present today and how should I pray? In Edward Schillebeeckx’s God in Each New Moment (108) writes, “It [prayer] shouldn’t continue with your saying: God must have an intention here, but rather with your saying: we are still in God’s hands, even in grim situations like this one. This terrible event is not the last word. And you have to say with all the strength that is in your being.”

So, I need to pray that “this terrible event is not the last word.” As we listen to one another and share the cares and worries of one another, and those whom we serve and with whom we serve, I believe we embody both Lazarus’ sisters as we come to Jesus in our worry and loss, expressing, “Jesus, the one you love is ill.” We also embody Jesus in our love and tears for those who experience sickness and death. We also witness to the hope and certainty of new life, and that “this terrible event is not the last word” and “we are still in God’s hands.”

I reflect on all the stories, your stories, of life and hope and resurrection that you and I continue to hear and witness – stories of heroism, generosity, sacrifice, endurance, and resilience! Of course, early in this unfolding of the pandemic, the poem, Lockdown, by Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Friar in Ireland, went viral because it shared brief vignettes of life and hope! Stories of community and care! You can read it on our NACC coronavirus resource page. Lockdown by Brother Richard Hendrick

These stories express our belief in the Resurrection!

Blessings on your Lenten Journey,

David Lichter, D.Min.
Executive Director

2. Recent death of an NACC member
We recently learned of the death of our member, Sister Lorraine Beinkafner, MM, who died on October 18, 2019. She joined NACC as a member in 1993 and was certified that same year. To read more about her, go to: www.maryknollsisters.org/2019/10/28/sisterlorrainebeinkafner.
May the Lord embrace her with compassion and joy!

3. NACC holding more COVID-19 listening/resource sharing ZOOM sessions this week
This message from our Executive Director went out to our members this past Friday regarding ZOOM sessions this week to discuss spiritual care in the context of COVID-19.

Dear NACC members,

Another week has gone by with rapidly changing conditions in our world, nation, states, local communities, and Church due to the speed of the spread of COVID-19. Our NACC listening/resource sharing sessions continue to be helpful for those who participated, as well as providing more ideas for spiritual care practices and resources. Thank you to all those who participated, as well as to all of you who have emailed us, your NACC staff, with questions and ideas for resources. We continue to hold one another in prayer as we realize how much the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting one another and those we love and serve.

Please check back often at this page for information and resources addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. During this past week we added recordings of the prior listening/sharing sessions, more prayers, as well as two documents jointly prepared by NACC and CHA addressing the use of the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick and Questions and Answers on the administration of the Sacrament and other sacraments. The contents of those documents were reviewed with our Episcopal Liaison, Bishop Donald Hying.

We will continue this coming week to offer the listening/resource sharing sessions. We invite you again to participate.

The two general sessions will be:
Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 3:00-4:00 pm Central Time
Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 11:00 am-12:00 pm Central Time

The session for those serving in senior/long term care/nursing facilities will be:
Thursday, April 2, 2020, 2:00-3:00 pm Central Time

We will again offer this coming week a session for members whose facilities are involved in a high volume of COVID-19 infected patients and staff. We will offer this later on afternoon of Tuesday, March 31, at 5:00 pm Central Time (6 pm ET, 4 pm MT, 3 pm PT). You will need to register for this session by contacting Ramune (rfranitza@nacc.org). We will send the ZOOM invite on Monday afternoon to those who have registered. Please indicate COVID-19 in the message line.

As a courtesy, please refrain from logging in until 15 minutes prior to the call as you may enter another meeting that is in session. Thank you.

Again, you do not need to register in advance; just join us. However, if you have resources or helpful links to share in advance of the call, we are glad to post them early.

Here is the ZOOM information for all sessions

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 151 654 751

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Meeting ID: 151 654 751

Again, please do not hesitate to send us resources for our webpage, or raise to us any other issues you want us to address together. Email: info@nacc.org

In the interim, do not hesitate to send us resources for our webpage, or raise to us any other issues you want us to address together. Email: info@nacc.org

Also, NACC’s Vision page will feature in blog-format any article/reflections our members could offer on their current chaplaincy work. Please mail David Lewellen at dlewellen@nacc.org with your contributions.

Finally, our NACC staff members will be working remotely as needed and required. We will be accessible to you both by telephone and email. Please be patient with our responsiveness during this time.

We hold each other in prayer.

Blessings,

David

David A. Lichter, DMin
Executive Director

4. An invitation from our retired NACC members to be Listening Hearts for our members.
We recognize that these are unusual and uncertain times. You are being stretched in new ways and faced with challenging choices. We have a resource called, “Listening Hearts,” to provide you one on one support.

Listening Hearts is available for individuals seeking a listening presence from an NACC retired chaplain colleague. You may be experiencing and feeling the cumulative impact of the present global Pandemic. For those providing support for others and navigating the new normal without the opportunity to gather with extended family/friends, visit a favorite restaurant or workout at the gym, we invite you to share the load by reaching out for a listening heart of an experienced and compassionate retired chaplain. If you wish to have someone call you, so you can share your journey, please contact Ramune Franitza, rfranitza@nacc.org, at the NACC National Office . With your permission, she will send your contact information, to Linda Bronersky, who will help facilitate having one of our Listening Heart Volunteers give you a phone call at a time that works for you. To learn more please read the NACC Listening Hearts Invitation.

5. An invitation to our retired members to be Listening Hearts.
You have spent many hours and even perhaps years listening to the stories of strangers who found a way into your heart. There comes a time in each of our life journeys when we may find it healing to have a chaplain colleague hold with us our persona l sacred stories. As a chaplain, clinical educator or spiritual care companion, you may find yourself wishing to speak with a chaplain.
If you are a retired chaplain, educator or spiritual companion and wish to be part of the “Team of Listening Hearts” for those on the front line, please contact Ramune Franitza, rfranitza@nacc.org, at the NACC National Office. To learn more, go to: NACC Listening Hearts invitation

6. Vision seeks coronavirus contributors
To deal with the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the next issue of Vision will appear in blog form on the NACC website, with articles posted as we receive them. We are looking for experiences, resources, and best practices for spiritual care in this moment. Possible topics include telechaplaincy; moral distress; ministry to families; ministry to staff; personal protective equipment; ministry without touch; and more. Please send your ideas to Vision editor David Lewellen, dlewellen@nacc.org.

7. In Vision: When the gift can’t be received: The double loss of organ rejection
When a family that is already grieving a tragic death learns that their loved one’s organs can’t be used, they may feel a double sense of loss. In the new issue of Vision, Anne Windholz describes how a chaplain can help them find a broader sense of meaning.
www.nacc.org/vision/march-april-2020/when-the-gift-cant-be-received-the-double-loss-of-organ-rejection

8. Applicants for Palliative Care and Hospice Advanced Certification Workshop
The Workshop scheduled for June 19 & 20, 2020, in Milwaukee, WI has been canceled due to the global health crisis. Applications for this certification process (Track 2) were due by March 31st. If you were preparing for this workshop, please contact Lisa Sarenac at lisasarenac@nacc.org to discuss options.

9. Would you contribute your story to our “Paths to Chaplaincy” short videos?
As you know, with the help of Westwords Consulting we have developed an array of inspiring materials(Brochures, Flyers, Posters, Bulletin Ads
Website Graphics, Social Media Graphics) for our Choose Chaplaincy marketing efforts. Visit the Choose Chaplaincy webpage to view and use them all! We have also begun a series of “Paths to Chaplaincy” brief videos. View this one by Elizabeth Kitamura on our NACC Facebook and LinkedIn sites. Would you consider submitting your 60-90 second “Path” video, and possibly be featured in a future episode of Paths to Chaplaincy? It’s easy to do! Go to https://www.nacc.org/about-nacc/choose-chaplaincy/paths-to-chaplaincy-submission/ and follow the instructions. We look forward to viewing your path!

10. NACC Networking Call for April 2020 – All are welcome to participate!

Wednesday, April 8 at 12 p.m. CT…………..Palliative Care/Hospice

To sign up or for more information, questions, comments or concerns contact Ramune Franitza at rfranitza@nacc.org.

You must reply to participate and receive the ZOOM code for the call. If you replied, we will forward ZOOM passcodes for a video connection via internet or you may still call in using your phone. Registering for the call, even if you cannot participate, will allow you to receive notes of the conversation and resources shared.

Calls with less than 5 participants may be postponed. If you’ve had difficulty in joining calls using ZOOM please let Ramune Franitza (rfranitza@nacc.org) know so that we can address the difficulty. THANK YOU!

11. ATTENTION WEBMASTERS! – If you have been involved in website creation and maintenance, NACC would appreciate your support in creating visibility to some our current initiatives for our Partners in Pastoral Care and the Catholic Prison Ministry Coalition. Please contact Ramune Franitza (rfranitza@nacc.org) if you have an interest in this.

20/20 VISION CONFERENCE NEWS

12. Conference Cancelled
We officially cancelled the 20/20 Vision: The Future of Spiritual Care conference due to the ongoing healthcare crisis and COVID-19.

The Partners for Excellence in Spiritual Care partners are deeply saddened by the need to cancel this conference, and we have done so only after consulting with our Boards, the host city, conference center and hotels. With the ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and the indefinite ban on gatherings in Ohio, along with the recommendation from the CDC to limit meetings to less than 50 people, it is impossible for us to continue to prepare for this conference. The fallout from not having a conference this year will impact each of us, as members and as individual organizations, but this decision is the best one we can make at this time.

If you already registered for the conference, we ask that you please cancel your hotel rooms and flights if you have booked them (many airlines are offering accommodations to reschedule flights for other dates/locations).

Refunds for paid registrations will be processed by the organizing partners over the next several weeks. We ask that you be patient with us as we work through the process of refunding registrations, sponsorships, and vendors.

Please note the following items regarding how refunds are being issued.

Refunds will be issued in the same form of payment in which you registered. Please note that check orders may take longer to process and mail.
All registration fees for the 20/20 Vision conference, including the early cancellation fee ($100) that was previously retained from those that canceled prior to our announcement, will be refunded.
You will receive an email from APC/Joint Conference organizers once your refund has been processed.

If you have additional questions related to refunds, you may send them to conference@professionalchaplains.org.

Thank you again for your commitment to the profession and to each other. Be well and stay safe!

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

13. Seeking volunteers for telechaplaincy

Dear friends and colleagues,

We are facing unprecedented times, and many of us wonder how we can respond. We are receiving requests from institutions seeking additional spiritual care support, particularly through telechaplaincy. At the same time, we know some CPE students have not been able to complete units because of new restrictions for visitation. We hope telechaplaincy might provide some of them additional hours towards the completion of units.

We are seeking volunteers to meet these requests. If you would like to be considered for telechaplaincy support, please complete the following form: https://form.jotform.com/clarkacpe/telechaplaincy-volunteer-form. Names and information will only be shared with institutional leadership working to meet the needs of those whom they serve. If you have questions or need more information, please email COVID-19@acpe.edu. You may also want to explore resources for spiritual care during this crisis, available here from our colleagues at the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab: https://chaplaincyinnovation.org/2020/03/chaplaincy-coronavirus. Thank you for your dedication to our shared work.

— The Executives of ACPE, APC, NACC, and NAJC.

14. Request for participation in the project ‘Disaster Chaplaincy: Spiritual Care in the Earthquake Region Groningen’ conducted by Dr. Hanneke Muthert from the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen. *
Researcher, Monika Staszczyk, is conducting research on ‘The use of mindfulness as a self-care practice among spiritual caregivers serving in post-disaster care in the United States’ as a part of the above mentioned project. She is looking for three priests or spiritual care specialists from the US who served in disaster chaplaincy and used some kind of mindfulness techniques (mindfulness meditation, spiritual meditation, contemplative prayer, mindfulness-based therapies etc.) to interview them. She wants to ask questions about their experience with post-disaster care and focus mainly on their mental and emotional struggles which accompanied them during and after their work. She also wants to examine how mindfulness techniques they used influenced them. If any NACC members who have this experience and want to participate, please contact Monika Staszczyk (m.staszczyk@student.rug.nl).

15. Don’t miss our next webinar of our 2020 series! Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services; Implications for Spiritual Care Decision-Making, Presented by Nathaniel Blanton Hibner, PhD, Thursday, April 30, 2020 – 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. Central Time *

Program Summary
The webinar will examine the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs) and offer guidance as to how they can be applied for spiritual care.

Program Objectives
As a result of this webinar, participants will be able:

To explain the purpose of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs) and relate the directives to the Catholic moral tradition;
To offer examples for applying the ERDs to situations that occur in the health care setting;
To suggest ways how the spiritual care provider might use the ERD’s in ethical discernment.

About the Presenter
Nathaniel Blanton Hibner, Ph.D., is director of ethics for the Catholic Health Association of the United States. In this role, he provides research and suggested implementation of the church’s moral tradition for CHA member organizations in areas of clinical and organizations ethics. Together with CHA’s senior director of theology and ethics, Nathaniel creates educational and formational programming on moral theology and its relationship to current topics for the Catholic health ministry. Prior to joining CHA in 2017, Nathaniel earned his Ph.D. from the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University, where he researched organizational ethics, bioethics and Catholic health care ethics. He also taught an undergraduate course on Foundations in Health Care Ethics. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and theology and a master’s degree in theological studies from Boston College. He also has a master’s degree in health care ethics from Saint Louis University.

NACC Certification Competencies Covered by the Webinar: ITP2.1, ITP4.1

To register online and pay by credit card for this webinar, or for any other NACC 2020 regular series webinar, please visit the registration page by clicking on this LINK. NACC Student members wishing to register online should use the following special link: STUDENTS. If you prefer to register using a paper registration form and pay by check, a downloadable registration form can be accessed at this LINK.

16. Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition free April webinar scheduled for this Wednesday, April 1st 12:00 pm central time, “Ministering to Returning Citizens” *
The effects of incarceration reach beyond the time of confinement. Upon being released from incarceration individuals often lack the support they need and can struggle to keep a steady footing.
In this session Gina Clegg of Catholic Charities in Chicago and Bishop William Wach of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee address some of the nuances in this often forgotten area of ministry. If you have questions you would like addressed, send them to: cpmc.manager@gmail.com.
This webinar will be recorded and made available by Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition.
To register go to: https://usfca.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f7J8cM9XR0O-euN0tlE98g

17. See the next 6 months of webinar topics from the Catholic Prison Ministry Coalition!
The Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition has now published its webinars through July 2020. You can click here to view the topics and dates. Mark your calendar.

18. Dismas Ministry continues its Mission Minute Blog Postings! *

Enjoy this new post in Dismas Ministry’s Profiles in Prison Ministry blog series. Thank you for your continued interest in “visiting the prisoner.” This week Joshua Stancil interviews his good friend, James, who on February 8 was released from prison after 22 years. Read the interview at: https://dismasministry.org/mission-minute-james-returning-citizen/

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: Polly and Richard Valeriote (Parents of member Catherine Valeriote); Jennifer Luse, Brother Kenny Gorman, Fr. Paul F. Merry, Eugenia Lai (on the death of her mother Monica Ho), Fr. Art Schute, Linda Bronersky (at the death of her husband, Russ), Marybeth Harmon, Nolan (4-year-old grandson of member Dale Recinella), Fr. Jim Radde SJ, Isabelita Boquiren, Susan Balling, Jim and Frances Castello.

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.

SPIRITUAL CARE MANAGER
Muskegon, MI – Mercy Health

MANAGER-PASTORAL/SPIRITUAL CARE & ACPE CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
Fond du Lac, WI – St. Agnes Hospital

SPIRITUAL CARE MANAGER
Albany, NY – St. Peter’s Health Partners

PEDIATRIC CHAPLAIN
San Antonio, TX – CHRISTUS Health

SPIRITUAL CARE MINISTER
Eau Claire, WI & Green Bay, WI – Sacred Heart Hospital

FULL-TIME PRIEST CHAPLAIN
Long Beach, CA – Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center

CHAPLAIN
Baltimore, MD – Mercy Health Services

PASTORAL CARE MANAGER
Charleston, SC – Roper St. Francis Healthcare

CLINICAL PASTORAL EDUCATION, Full Time Day Shift
Rockville Centre, NY – Catholic Health Services of Long Island (CHS)

Issue #322 – March 30, 2020

NACC

20/20 VISION CONFERENCE NEWS

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

20/20 VISION CONFERENCE NEWS

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

Job Listings

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Issue #322 – March 30, 2020

NACC

20/20 VISION CONFERENCE NEWS

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

20/20 VISION CONFERENCE NEWS

CHAPLAINCY NEWS, EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTS

Job Listings

Free Publications

Donate Now

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