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News

  • Trace smiling at camera
    2022: How do we continue building on the relational foundations that led to our successes?

    Jan 14, 2022

    Indie Arie sang about him in “One.” Bob Dylan sang about him in “They Killed Him.” Common and John Legend sang about him in “Glory.” U2 sang about him in “Pride.” And Stevie Wonder sang “Happy Birthday” to him.

  • a lake is surrounded by pine trees and there are mountains behind the trees
    For your professional ethics edification in January

    Jan 7, 2022

    Once a month the ACPE Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) posts a couple of statements from our Code of Professional Ethics for ACPE Members. Each posting is accompanied by a brief personal reflection from a member of the PEC discussing some ways this person lives these commitments

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    New Energy in the New Year

    Jan 7, 2022

    Happy New Year! It’s a strange start to a new year, isn’t it? This time of year typically brings hopefulness and anticipation, visioning, and goal-setting. And yet, in 2022, we find ourselves in the midst of a raging pandemic and economic uncertainty. Reflection on the road ahead feels challenging as a deep weariness has set in for many of us and our colleagues.

  • Shawn looking at the camera smiling
    What will we continue to create?

    Dec 22, 2021

    Greetings and blessed 2022 to all of you! My name is Shawn Mai, and I am the new board chair for the ACPE Board of Directors. For the last two years, I’ve had the privilege of serving alongside Melissa Walker-Luckett as she chaired the board. I am an ACPE Educator at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, MN, a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis, MN. I am married to my husband Chuck, have two children and three grandchildren. Several years ago, I decided to work four days a week and provide childcare for our grandchildren one day a week. My grandchildren offer a source for some of my most significant learning in life right now.

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    We Are Better Together: With Gratitude for Your Generosity

    Dec 22, 2021

    As we approach the final days of 2021, I want to express a big “THANK YOU” to all of our donors, supporters, and friends for your incredible generosity of time, talent, and treasure this year. Together, we have navigated another year of a global pandemic, and we have worked together to meet people in the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Your leadership, love, and service do not go unnoticed. You are appreciated for the positive difference you make in the world, and ACPE will continue to be a vibrant community of spiritual care educators and professionals because of you.

  • Trace smiling at camera
    Changing Seasons

    Dec 17, 2021

    The recent storms that have battered the Midwest have been nothing short of terrifying. Imagine going to sleep in a familiar world only to wake up to utter desolation, the community you once knew, reduced to rubble. Of course, the initial response is about basic needs, preserving life, minimizing the risks that come with downed power lines and broken gas mains. At some point—often a moment that is not defined or predictable—people shift towards “now what?” In the words of the ancients, how then shall we live?

  • Before the Time of Quarantine

    Dec 15, 2021

    Jennifer Reek is a chaplain at Christus St. Vincent Medical Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has a Master of Divinity from Regis College, the Jesuit Faculty at the University of Toronto. She is the author of A Poetics of Church: Reading and Writing Sacred Spaces of Poetic Dwelling (Routledge, 2018), a work developed from her PhD research at the Centre for Literature, Theology and the Arts, University of Glasgow. She can be contacted at jenniferreek@gmail.com.

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    A Blessing for Traveling in the Dark

    Dec 10, 2021

    As we approach our second pandemic winter here in the Northern hemisphere, I am trying to make peace with the quiet dark. Gone is the extravagance of spring, flinging seeds far and wide. And the colorful, fragrant summer with abundance of fruit and lingering of days. The crispness of autumn and the slow draining of color have brought us to this point, with bare trees, grey skies and the darkness that descends each day long before I’m ready for it.

  • Melissa smiling at camera
    My Final Reflection as ACPE’s Board Chair

    Dec 6, 2021

    First, thank you to ACPE’s members and students for the privilege of serving alongside you as colleagues in the discipline of Spiritual Care and Education. To the ACPE Board of Directors, thank you for your wisdom, tenacity, and commitment to our association. You have been thoughtful, diligent, and courageous leaders. To the ACPE Staff, thank you for your professional expertise, patience, longsuffering, and dedication to our association.

  • a lake is surrounded by pine trees and there are mountains behind the trees
    For your professional ethics edification in December

    Dec 3, 2021

    Once a month the ACPE Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) posts a couple of statements from our Code of Professional Ethics for ACPE Members. Each posting is accompanied by a brief personal reflection from a member of the PEC discussing some ways this person lives these commitments

  • Dagmar looking at camera
    Thank You!

    Nov 19, 2021

    In this fall season many cultures celebrate the plenty of harvest and encourage expressions of gratitude.

  • Russell looking at camera and smiling
    Relevance of Religion and Spirituality to Mental Health

    Nov 17, 2021

    In its July 2021 edition, the journal Social Work published research of great significance to ACPE and others involved in training therapists to work with spirituality and religion.

  • Melissa smiling at camera
    Board of Directors Brief

    Nov 12, 2021

    ACPE’s Board of Directors met by videoconference on November 8 and 9, 2021. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic forced the association to cancel in-person leadership meetings again this fall. However, although virtual, our time together was productive, meaningful, and exciting. We even participated in a “kindness quest” with volunteers serving on ACPE’s other commissions and committees. The quest was a fun team-building exercise and a rare opportunity to see old and new friends.

  • Trace smiling at camera
    A Word of Thanks

    Nov 11, 2021

    Shawn Mai shared the following beautiful poem as the opening reflection for the ACPE Board of Director’s meeting last week: “The Way It Is”

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    Improvisation

    Nov 5, 2021

    In Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life, Eileen Campbell-Reed explores the ways that people learn the art of ministry. She tells stories of people as they learn the practice, while offering questions for reflection, and conversation with thinkers and scholars about the practice of ministry. The book grew out of a dozen-year longitudinal study of ministers, beginning when they were in seminary and tracing the arc of their ministry practice as they gain experience and confidence.

  • a lake is surrounded by pine trees and there are mountains behind the trees
    For your professional ethics edification in November

    Nov 3, 2021

    Once a month the ACPE Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) posts a couple of statements from our Code of Professional Ethics for ACPE Members. Each posting is accompanied by a brief personal reflection from a member of the PEC discussing some ways this person lives these commitments

  • In Spite Of

    Nov 3, 2021

    Cindy L. Hershberger is a Chaplain Resident at BayCare - Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Florida. She is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America with a MDiv degree from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. She can be contacted at Cindy.Hershberger@baycare.org.

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    Today is Giving Tuesday!

    Nov 3, 2021

    Giving Tuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. ACPE's goal is to raise $10,000 to start a scholarship initiative for underrepresented ACPE students to continue their training as chaplains, psychotherapists, and spiritual care educators. To help us reach our goal, Thorne Consulting will donate $1,000 if we get 20 new donors to make a gift to the Foundation for ACPE!

  • Melissa smiling at camera
    Thank you, ACPE Members

    Nov 1, 2021

    As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I am aware that the past year has included many personal, public, and organizational losses for many of us. And still, I have much for which to give thanks. I am grateful for you, the members of our association. So many of you devote your unwavering engagement nationally, locally, and within your web of acquaintances and interests. Thank you for your energy and commitment.

  • Submit a Workshop Proposal by December 8

    Oct 29, 2021

    All are invited to submit a proposal for the 2022 Annual Conference, jointly presented by the Association of Professional Chaplains and ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care and Education.