2015 50th Anniversary Conference Theme: Honoring the Gift

By Beverly Beltramo, BCC
Conference Task Force Chair

“In this 50th Jubilee year, we honor the gifts of our association, the depth of our theological roots, the richness of community, and our shared accountability for this profession. We honor our own unique ministry and call as we nurture that call to remain vital and healthy. And we honor the gifts of others, and lead as the future unfolds.”

As the chair for the 2015 NACC National Conference, I would like to invite each one of you to join us for this very special time in our association as we gather next March to celebrate our 50th!

The theme for the conference speaks about honoring the many gifts we have received. As we celebrate 50 years — our Jubilee! — it feels so appropriate to stop for just a few minutes and open our hearts with gratitude to the many blessings we have received from this association, from each other, from our patients and colleagues, and perhaps most of all, from the ministry itself.

Our time together in March will be about honoring those gifts. We will celebrate our rich and amazing history and we will look to the future and explore the many ways our chaplaincy, and healthcare as well, are changing. And finally, we will look within our own pulled-in-too-many-directions spirits, and reconnect to the call to ministry that brought each of us to this holy and amazing work.

I know that for many of us, budgets — both personal and professional — are much too tight. Perhaps you have never attended a national conference before? This is the time. For those of us who have the ability, I encourage you to consider a scholarship gift so that someone else might have the opportunity to attend.

Finally, I need to tell you about this extraordinary team of creative thinkers who are working hard to make sure that this will be a time to remember! I am so honored to work with Fr. Jack Crabb, plenary chair; Bridget Deegan-Krause, workshop chair; Fr. Rich Bartoszek, liturgy chair; and Deacon Tom Devaney and Victoria Lucas, our local arrangements chairs. We have been meeting via phone each week for the past two months (with incredible support from Jeanine Annunziato and David Lichter!) to plan, pray and prepare. We are so excited about what we see coming together—I hope you will be too!

Blessings to each of you in this, our NACC Jubilee year. May you reconnect to your work, your ministry, and your call in a sacred and joyful way!

Come to the celebration! We’ll see you there!