Chaplaincy Innovation Lab: Recent Episodes
Michael Skaggs
https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org
https://www.sankofacpe.org
What does it mean to provide spiritual care to people who are unhoused and locally incarcerated?
Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab for a conversation with Chaplain Charlotte Cramer, founder of Temple of the Forgotten. Chaplain Cramer provides spiritual care to those who are unhoused and locally incarcerated in Marin County, California. Temple of the Forgotten is a non-denominational spiritual community that equips local organizations to build professional and community-based spiritual care for those living in the institutions of poverty, homelessness and county-level incarceration.
We thank Sankofa CPE for their support of this webinar. Accredited by ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education to offer Level I and Level II Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Units, Sankofa offers innovative, unique CPE programming that features online CPE groups, African-centered curriculums, LGBTQIA+ inclusivity, along with social justice-oriented and digital ministry clinical site placements. Learn more at sankofacpe.org.
Charlotte Cramer is an ordained Interfaith Minister and Chaplain with her Master of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry, a Certificate in Chaplaincy from The Chaplaincy Institute, and four units of Clinical Pastoral Education from The Shaw Chaplaincy Institute. She works as a street minister with The Street Chaplaincy in San Rafael, Marin County, CA, providing spiritual care for the many unhoused folks currently living in the city. Rev. Charlotte also works in Marin County Jail, providing direct spiritual care to inmates (with a list of at least 10-16 clients) and leads weekly tarot card reading group sessions. Prior to this work, Rev. Charlotte worked in family ministries for a UU congregation, lived in and managed a retreat center in Costa Rica, and lived in a spiritual community in Nevada City, CA. Rev. Charlotte has been studying, both personally and academically, inter-spiritual mystical experience, deep listening, non-ordinary states of consciousness and death/dying for over 5 years. She has a deep passion for spirituality, caring for the human soul, and for her calling as a street minister. Rev. Charlotte lives in San Anselmo, CA, with her little puppy dog, Willie, and spends her free time in nature, practicing jiu jitsu, and going to ecstatic dance.
https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.orghttps://www.fetzer.orgThe Chaplaincy Innovation Lab (CIL) is collaborating with the Fetzer Institute to support and build networks of spiritual care providers who do not identify with a religious tradition or identify as non-religious (sometimes referred to as “spiritual but not religious”).This work brings together chaplains and scholars from diverse spiritualities, racial and ethnic backgrounds, geographies, and sectors of chaplaincy. It will help identify the needs of this population, which are neither well defined in the literature nor adequately addressed in many settings.This webinar will present new research on unaffiliated chaplaincy, including a new working paper that will be made available for reading and comment.We thank Fetzer Institute for their support of this work.We are joined by:Melissa Bennett (she/her) is a storyteller, storylistener, writer, educator,spirit worker, and chaplain. She is a descendant of the Umatilla, Nez Perce, Sac & Fox, and Anishinaabe Nations. Melissahas been reading tarot cards, building altars, channeling spirit, and chatting with the ancestors for over 25 years. In 2012 she earned a Master of Divinity degree along with graduate certificatesin spiritual counselingand theological studies. The following year she completed her chaplain training in forensic mental health specializing in the care of Indigenous people. Melissa has a decade of experience providing spiritual care in higher education settings and approaches her workfrom atrauma informedhealing justicelens. Melissa is the founder of Nnoshé’s House (aka Auntie’s House) where she provides spiritual care tools and mentorship to a diverse client base. To learn more visit: https://www.nnosheshouse.com/.Jason Callahan, MDiv, MS, BCC, is chaplain at the Thomas Palliative Care Unit at VCU Massey Cancer Center and Instructor in the VCU Departments of Patient Counseling and Pastoral Care.Anthony Cruz Pantojas, MATS, MALS (they/he/elle/él) is a cuir/queer Afro-Boricua who is deeply informed by decolonial humanisms,Cultural Studies, Afro-Caribbean subjectivities, and Spirituality. Cruz Pantojasregularly presents at numerous conferences and facilitates workshops on humanistic orientations and sensibilities within this current sociopolitical climate. As a humanist chaplain at Tufts University, they collaborate with diverse stakeholders to promotehumanism and to encourage more expansive and reparative modes of thought and relationship. Cruz Pantojas earned master’s degrees in Theological Studies, and Leadership Studies from Andover Newton Theological School and Meadville Lombard Theological School, respectively. Additionally, they hold a Certificate in Humanist Studies from the American Humanist Association Center for Education. Anthony has also published in various scholarly and popular outlets.
Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and Kathy Fogg Berry, author of When Words Fail: Practical Ministry to People with Dementia and Their Caregivers (2018) and chaplain at Westminster Canterbury Richmond, for an introduction to spiritual care in memory care settings. We’ll discuss the unique needs of older adults with dementia diagnoses, how current chaplains can begin thinking about providing this care, and how prospective chaplains might consider training and education to pursue this work.
https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.orgHow does dorm chaplaincy redefine spiritual care in higher education residential settings?Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and chaplains from the University of the South to learn about a model of providing spiritual care in higher education residential settings. We’ll discuss how chaplaincy training can be incorporated into students’ own progress through academic programs, how residential chaplains impact the experience of residential students, and how this model differs from providing spiritual care through university-wide spiritual life or student services offices.We thank the Association for Chaplaincy and Spiritual Life in Higher Education (ACSLHE) for its support of this webinar. ACSLHE seeks to be the leading authority on religious and spiritual life in higher education. ACSLHE supports higher education chaplaincies and nurtures religious and spiritual life professionals through scholarship, education, and collaboration. Learn more at https://acslhe.org/.The Rev. Amanda Gott is the Interfaith Chaplain at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Amanda supervises the Chaplains-in-Residence program, supporting the Seminarians who live in undergraduate residence halls and serve as non-sectarian chaplains to the college students where they live. She continues to be amazed at the extent to which a dormitory laundry room is a liminal place of holy encounter, where sacred conversations often happen. Amanda came to Higher Education Chaplaincy after a long career in parish ministry, during which she moonlighted as a Chaplain in various educational contexts with children, teenagers, and young adults.Kelton Riley is a trans-man from rural Limestone County, Alabama, where he developed a heart for small-parish ministry and volunteered with LGBT+ youth. He currently serves in the Chaplains in Residence program at Sewanee, providing pastoral care to the young adults in the undergraduate program. Riley graduated with his M. Div. from the School of Theology at the University of the South in 2023 and is currently completing a Masters of Sacred Theology. He also has a Masters in Religion from Athens State University and Bachelor’s degrees in English, History, and German.Sam Haisten is from Milledgeville, Georgia and is currently in their final year in seminary at The School of Theology at the University of the South where they serve as a Chaplain in Residence. During their time in seminary, they have grown to love the different faces of chaplaincy and have participated in both hospital chaplaincy and dorm chaplaincy. Before seminary, they earned a BA in Spanish from Georgia College & State University, and they often joke that they work in order to maintain the standard of living to which their cats, Goblin and Mr. Neelix, have become accustomed. In their free time, Sam enjoys watching The West Wing and visiting the nearby state park.
Interfaith America is working to promote our nation’s religious and spiritual diversity as an asset in quality healthcare and lever for building health equity.Join Interfaith America and the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab for conversation about the importance of equipping all providers to work in partnership with spiritual care experts to strengthen care for people of all faiths and none. A chaplain, a health professional, and a patient will share stories of impact as they invite others to build interfaith competency across health settings.Anu Gorukanti is a public health practitioner, pediatric hospitalist, and co-founder of Introspective Spaces, a social venture committed to building reflective space and community for women in healthcare. She is also a member of the Sacred Journeys and Witness fellowships. She cares deeply about the well-being of her colleagues in healthcare and is passionate about healthcare reform to create equitable and compassionate care for patients and communities. In her free time, she loves to photograph landscapes, learn to dance and spend time with her wonderful husband, friends and family.Hadia Mubarak is Assistant Professor of Religion at Queens University of Charlotte. She previously served as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Guilford College and as a Research Fellow at New York University-Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). Her forthcoming book, Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands: Controversies in Modern Qurʾanic Commentaries (Oxford University Press, March 2020), explores significant shifts in modern Qurʾanic commentaries on the subject of women against the backdrop of broader historical, intellectual and political developments in twentieth-century North Africa. Mubarak completed her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Georgetown University, where she specialized in modern and classical Qurʾanic exegesis, Islamic feminism, and gender reform in the modern Muslim world. She currently serves as a scholar-in-residence with the Muslim Community Center of Charlotte (MCC).Reverend Mary Martha Thiel is the Director of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Hebrew SeniorLife (HSL). Drawing on the energy and nimbleness of its CPE program, the Religious and Spiritual Care Department spearheads the LGBTQ+ initiatives on HSL’s six campuses. Mary Martha lives in Brookline with her spouse, and has two daughters. She is active at First Church Cambridge, UCC. She is an avid reader, traveler, and lifelong learner.
https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org
What is EMS chaplaincy? In this webinar, Katie Tunks Leach of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney will offer an overview of emergency medical services (EMS) chaplaincy. We'll learn what the daily work of EMS chaplaincy looks like, what kind of training EMS chaplains have, what interventions they use, and how those interested in this area of spiritual care can take next steps toward serving in this space.
What is the work of private school chaplains? While we often mean college or university when we discuss spiritual care in educational settings, one field of the profession does serve private institutions at the secondary level. Join us for a discussion on spiritual care for teenage individuals at the ninth through twelfth grade levels, especially in private institutions where community considerations are unique and require close attention from chaplains.
https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.orgHow can chaplains help healthcare institutions respond best in moments of crisis? One chaplain proposes Go Teams for healthcare.Following a series of traumatic incidents and losses, including on-site suicide, colleague deaths, and assaultive patients that deeply shook the staff community, Chaplain Alyssa Adreani created and launched a crisis response program called the Newton-Wellesley Hospital GO Team.Inspired by Critical Incident Stress Management, the GO Team is comprised of professional colleagues from Spiritual Care, EAP, Behavioral Health, Peer Support and other trained and experienced professionals. The team are activated and deployed by executive leadership following crisis events at the hospital. Supportive responders debrief after every incident.This webinar will discuss the history of the GO Team, the path taken to create and launch it, and how other chaplains can create similar resources in their own healthcare institutions.We’re joined by Alyssa Adreani, Director, Spiritual Care Department, Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
We thank Religious Naturalist Association for their support of this webinar.
With the roots of professional spiritual care as we know it today in religious traditions, the credentialing process — from classroom education to CPE and endorsement and board certification — long has been associated with religious organizations. But what does this mean for chaplains who either do not wish to pursue credentialing through those organizations, or who do not identify with a religious or spiritual tradition?
This webinar will offer practical guidance for such chaplains and provide the elements to consider when pursing chaplaincy credentialing as a humanist chaplain.
www.chaplaincyinnovation.orgWe thank Chaplain Distance Learning for their support of this webinar on psycho-spiritual first aid. Learn more at https://www.chaplaindl.org.Join Chaplain Deb Wacker, M.Div, MBA, BCCC, FHPC for an introduction to psycho-spiritual first aid, a key intervention in disaster and crisis response. Participants will learn the principles of psycho-spiritual first aid, how it differs from other interventions (such as critical incident stress management), where to learn more about psycho-spiritual first aid, and how they might implement it in their own practice of spiritual care.
Join four chaplains of color and panelist-authors who have contributed to a special issue of the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy on the history, experiences, and future of chaplains of color. You can find the full issue here.
We’re joined by:
Rev. Marilyn Barnes is Rev. Robert B. Lantz Chair of Patient Counseling at VCU College of Health Professions and Director of Pastoral Care at VCU Medical Center.
Calvin Bradley, Jr is Assistant Professor of Patient Counseling at VCU College of Health Professions.
Rev. Lex Cade-White is Ethics and Mission and Spiritual Care Health Equity Manager at Advocate Aurora Health.
Dr. Jaclyn Williams is Assistant Professor of the Practice of Preaching and Chaplaincy at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Join contributors to Workplace Wellness: From Resiliency to Suicide Prevention and Grief Management: A Practical Guide to Supporting Healthcare Professionals (Springer International, 2023) for a discussion of this recent, vital publication. The Lab community can order at a 20% discount using the code found in this PDF.
Participants will learn about the particular workplace needs of healthcare professionals as well as current research on how spiritual care providers can support those professionals.
From the publisher:
This book uniquely provides actionable strategies along the wellness continuum in multiple dimensions: personal, institutional and professional; while applicable across disciplines: nursing and allied health, advanced practice providers and physicians. Further, the content is presented in a manner that can be taught to those entering the workforce, or serve as a primer for Wellness Officers. Most mental health texts focus on the needs of patients and ignore the mental health needs of clinicians. This book fills that gap embracing wellness initiatives as a matter of mental health. Wellness strategies for Inclusion Diversity and Equity are presented. The often ignored subject of suicide is approached head-on with evidence-based strategies for prevention. At the far end of the continuum of wellness, grief management after losing a colleague to death and/or suicide will be addressed. Each chapter includes learning objectives, a brief presentation of the science, application of principles into wellness practice, opportunities for future research and discussion questions. Artwork created by healthcare workers are included to augment transfer of knowledge through art as a way of knowing. Videos are offered to demonstrate through simulation lessons taught through the book.
We’re joined by:
Allison Kestenbaum is Supervisor of Spiritual Care and CPE at UC San Diego Health.
Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk is Vice President for Health Promotion and Chief Wellness Officer at The Ohio State University.
Maggie Mortali is Vice President of Programs and Workplace Initiatives at American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Amanda Choflet is Interim Dean of the School of Nursing and Associate Clinical Professor at Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences.
Clare Dickens MBE is Academic Lead, Mental Health and Well-being, University of Wolverhampton.
Join Rev. Sarah Bowen, Animal Chaplain and Program Director of Compassion Consortium’s Animal Chaplaincy Training Program, as well as Rev. Ginny Mikita and Susan Shannon for a conversation on how chaplains can help individuals and communities experience and process the animal and habitat loss.
We’ll discuss practical methods of supporting those experiencing anticipatory grief, animal death, humans moving into settings that do not accommodate animals, and more.
We thank Compassion Consortium for their support of this webinar. We are joined by:
Reverend Sarah Bowen, MA, Alt Div is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister, animal chaplain, and program director of Compassion Consortium’s Animal Chaplaincy Training Program.
Rev. Ginny K. Mikita, JD is a certified Animal-Friendly Attorney and ordained interfaith minister/animal chaplain.
Susan Shannon, MDiv, BCC is a seeker, teacher, earth and animal steward, devotee of the heart.
We thank Compassion Consortium for their support of this webinar. Learn more at CompassionConsortium.org.
Animal Chaplaincy Training from Compassion Consortium:
- For curriculum and enrollment information about our 9-month ordination program, please see https://www.compassionconsortium.org/act
- For info on Interspecies/Animal CPE, please email ccanimalchaplaincytraining@gmail.com
More tips on meaningful rituals for animal and habitat loss, we suggest:
- Sacred Sendoffs: An Animal Chaplain’s Advice For Surviving Animal Loss, Making Life Meaningful, & Healing The Planet by Sarah A. Bowen. Available wherever you get your books, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Also available on audiobook at: https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Sendoffs-Chaplains-Surviving-Meaningful/dp/1948626594/
- Animal Chaplain Sarah Bowen’s website: https://www.sacredsendoffs.com/
- Animal Chaplain Ginny Mikita’s website: https://www.animalblessings.love/resources
- Animal Chaplain Susan Shannon’s website: https://www.chaplainoftheheart.com/
Compassion Consortium is a non-sectarian center. We offer well-being resources, spiritual guidance, support, and community fellowship to all humans who care about and advocate for animals and the planet. Learn more at compassionconsortium.org
Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab for a conversation with Timothy O. Benedict, author of Spiritual Ends: Religion and the Heart of Dying in Japan and Assistant Professor in the School of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan.
From the publisher, University of California Press:
What role does religion play at the end of life in Japan? Spiritual Ends draws on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with hospice patients, chaplains, and medical workers to provide an intimate portrayal of how spiritual care is provided to the dying in Japan. Timothy O. Benedict uses both local and cross-cultural perspectives to show how hospice caregivers in Japan are appropriating and reinterpreting global ideas about spirituality and the practice of spiritual care. Benedict relates these findings to a longer story of how Japanese religious groups have pursued vocational roles in medical institutions as a means to demonstrate a so-called “healthy” role in society. By paying attention to how care for the kokoro (heart or mind) is key to the practice of spiritual care, this book enriches conventional understandings of religious identity in Japan while offering a valuable East Asian perspective to global conversations on the ways religion, spirituality, and medicine intersect at death.
This book is available as an open access eBook here.
We will be joined by:
Timothy Benedict is Associate Professor in the School of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan. His education includes a PhD in Asian Religions from Princeton University and an MA in Asian Religions from Harvard University. He was also a Foreign Research Fellow at Kyoto University.
As a result of the 21st Century Cures Act, patients in the United States have greater and more immediate access to their care notes. What are open notes, and what is the role of the chaplain in this new paradigm?
As we noted in a 2021 webinar, “Healthcare systems are required to make a patient’s electronic medical record directly available via secure portal under the Cures Act. This direct access includes all documentation made by healthcare chaplains, including templates with pre-populated check boxes and narrative notes.”
How should chaplain notes be included in electronic health information? Join three leading chaplain researchers for a research-informed discussion of the Cures Act, open notes, and what chaplains need to know about how they can document encounters.
We are grateful to Transforming Chaplaincy for co-sponsoring this webinar.
We are joined by:
Jo Hirschmann, Senior Director of Education, Center for Spirituality and Health @Mount Sinai Health System
Csaba Szilagyi, Director, Transforming Chaplaincy
Paul Galchutt, Research Staff Chaplain, M Health Fairview
Join us for an intimate, exploratory conversation with Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei about his new book, Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion.
Use code UNTANGLEDCIL for 20% off hardcover orders at geni.us/paley-cil.
Untangled is a welcoming guidebook for finding expansive ease and deep compassion within oneself and through relationships with others based on the Eightfold Path, one of Buddhism’s foundational teachings. In his book, Koshin weaves together anecdotes from his own life dealing with abuse and discrimination, insights from many wise teachers, and invitations to constantly practice showing up to our lives in every moment.
Together, Zen teacher and monk, Jungian psychotherapist, and the co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, Koshin Paley Ellison, and educator, editor, and director of programs at the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, Dr. Michael Skaggs, will discuss how this journey of untangling intra- and interpersonal suffering relates to the core aspirations and activities of those in caregiving partnerships. How might we walk the path of freedom in our everyday lives?
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT UNTANGLED
“Koshin is a visionary spiritual leader who brings together the medicine for fear – bridging the divide between our values and our actions. He gives us the soulful prescription and the companioning needed for integration of personal awareness, social healing, and global connectedness.”
-VAN JONES, Founder of Dream Corps
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we believe our own thoughts! Koshin Paley Ellison shares his wisdom and passion in Untangled. Written with truth, humor, sometimes revealing pain, and always manifesting compassion, Untangled is a gem.”
-SHARON SALZBERG, author of Lovingkindness and Real Change
We will be joined by:
Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, is an author, Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, and ACPE Certified Chaplaincy Educator. After more than a decade as a chaplain and psychotherapist, Koshin co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. The non-profit center offers contemplative approaches to care through education, carepartnering, and Zen practice. Today, New York Zen Center’s methodologies are internationally recognized—and have touched the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.
What is the relationship between congregational service and chaplaincy? No few chaplains also work in congregational service, or other settings of shared and intentional religious, spiritual, or philosophy. How can both types of work be successful? How does one inform the other?
In this webinar, participants will gain a better understanding of the skills and abilities that carry over from congregational service into non-congregational spiritual care, and vice versa. We will also make explicit those aspects of non-congregational care that are unique to chaplaincy. Multiple examples of successful careers in spiritual care pursued while also providing congregational service will be provided, and participants who serve congregations will gain actionable advice on pursuing work in chaplaincy. We will be joined by:
Wendy Cadge, Director of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Tim Shapiro, President of the Indianapolis Center for Congregations
Those wishing to make a public comment on “Medicaid Program; Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Managed Care Access, Finance, and Quality,” a proposed rule by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, may do so here.
Dr. Heaphy’s slides are available here.
This webinar will discuss the work of Dennis Heaphy on spiritual care in healthcare settings for individuals who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare coverage. It emphasizes the importance of coding chaplaincy services for these populations, particularly those enrolled in capitated care plans.
Adapted from Heaphy’s recent article in Health Affairs: Spiritual services are an oft neglected but important part of comprehensive care. While CMS and its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (the Innovation Center) have taken significant steps in the right direction, CMS could require providers in the Fully Integrated Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (FIDE SNPs) and Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) to provide enrollees with spiritual assessments and spiritual care as optional services. We are joined by:
Dennis Heaphy, DMin, MPG, MDiv, MEd joined the Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) in 2008. He engages in Community-Based Participatory Action Research and is also a policy analyst. He promotes legislation and policies at the state and federal level that positively impact social determinants of health. These and other barriers lead to inequities in healthcare access and outcomes for people with disabilities and ethnic and minority populations. Mr. Heaphy is active with the Massachusetts Public Health Association and Health Care for All, developing strategies to increase the utilization of public-health principles in the development, implementation and evaluation of healthcare policies. He is also active in a number of policy initiatives at the national level that increase the voices of persons most impacted by negative social determinants of health and gaps in access to home and community-based services. Mr. Heaphy is also interested in the role of spirituality and spiritual care in improving wellness and health outcomes for persons with disabilities.
We thank our sponsor for this webinar, Interfaith America. Learn more at InterfaithAmerica.org.
Please note that this webinar was presented from a chaplain working in the Christian tradition, with commentary and potential interventions that assume a Christian population being provided spiritual care. The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab stands firmly on its principles — including All Are Welcome and We Respect Differences — and so we encourage viewers to consider how they might adapt Christian-specific approaches from this webinar for a variety of contexts which are non-Christian, non-spiritual, non-religious. We also acknowledge that the video clip towards the end, arguing for the necessity of Christian belief for personal worth, would not be appropriate outside of very specific contexts in which the chaplain and the person being served have the same, pre-discussed theological beliefs.
This webinar will educate, empower and equip chaplains to provide spiritual care to people with disabilities (PWD) without inherent bias.
First, our guest, Rev. Dr. Jackee Jackson, will discuss how chaplains can acquire effective language to communicate with people with disabilities by using person and identity first language. In addition, chaplains will learn about what Rev. Dr. Jackson calls the “Ten Commandments of Disability and Sensitivity.”
Second, this webinar will help chaplains become empowered and see themselves akin to midwives in this area of spiritual care, offering their skilled, compassionate and supportive presence to PWD and their families.
Third, by equipping chaplains with language that removes attitudinal barriers that exist in society, the webinar will help transform the ways in which chaplains interact with PWD in their words and actions. Chaplains will learn the unique ways that language, communication and attitude matters when providing emotional and spiritual care to people with disabilities. We will be joined by:
Rev. Dr. Jackee Jackson, Chaplain, JFK Medical Center, Edison, NJ
Rev. Dr. Jackson has provided three resources that may be useful for chaplains serving people with disabilities:
Jackee Jackson, “Identity First Language”
Jackee Jackson, “The ‘Ten Commandments‘ of Etiquette for Communicating with People with Disabilities”
Kathie Snow, “A Few Words about People First Language“
We thank Interfaith America for their support for this webinar. Learn more at InterfaithAmerica.org.
Join Chenxing Han, author of Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists (North Atlantic Books, 2021), for a discussion of her new book One Long Listening: A Memoir of Grief, Friendship, and Spiritual Care.
From Penguin Random House:
How do we grieve our losses? How can we care for our spirits? one long listening offers enduring companionship to all who ask these searing, timeless questions.
Immigrant daughter, novice chaplain, bereaved friend: author Chenxing Han (Be the Refuge) takes us on a pilgrimage through the wilds of grief and laughter, pain and impermanence, reconnecting us to both the heartache and inexplicable brightness of being human. Eddying around three autumns of Han’s life, one long listening journeys from a mountaintop monastery in Taiwan to West Coast oncology wards, from oceanside Ireland to riverfront Phnom Penh. Through letters to a dying friend, bedside chaplaincy visits, and memories of a migratory childhood, Han’s startling, searching memoir cuts a singular portrait of a spiritual caregiver in training. Just as we touch the depths, bracing for resolution, Han’s swift, multilingual prose sweeps us back to unknowingness: 不知最親切. Not knowing is most intimate. Chinese mothers, hillside graves. A dreamed olive tree, a lost Siberian crane. The music of scripts and silence. These shards–bright, broken, giddy, aching–are mirrors to our own lives in joy and sorrow. A testament to enduring connection by a fresh and urgent new literary voice, one long listening asks fearlessly into the stories we inhabit, the hopes we relinquish, and what it means simply to be, to and for the ones we love.
Chenxing Han is the author of the widely reviewed Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists with North Atlantic Books. She is a regular contributor to Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Buddhadharma, and other publications, and a frequent speaker and workshop leader at schools, universities, and Buddhist communities across the nation. She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Hemera Foundation, the Lenz Foundation, and elsewhere.
Chenxing holds a BA from Stanford University, an MA in Buddhist Studies from the Graduate Theological Union, and a certificate in Buddhist chaplaincy from the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. She is a co-teacher of Listening to the Buddhists in Our Backyard at Phillips Academy Andover, and a co-organizer of May We Gather: A National Buddhist Memorial for Asian American Ancestors.
Moral injury and moral distress are enormously significant ideas in spiritual care, especially when caring for members of certain communities. What do these ideas mean? How should aspiring chaplains understand them and where they fit into career or vocation in spiritual care? This field guide session will provide an overview of moral injury and moral distress, as well as offer examples of their impact on individuals and communities.Why are moral injury and more distress so important for chaplains to understand? As our colleagues at the Shay Center for Moral Injury note,Painful emotions such as guilt, remorse, shame, outrage, disgust and despair are common with moral injury. However, because these feelings come from moral judgments, a person might be able to push them aside to avoid the pain of facing them. A person experiencing moral injury may not be as emotionally available to others as they were and seem distant or different. Their relationships may be disrupted because they fear others will judge them, and they self-isolate. Or they may no longer trust others or themselves and become cynical. They may mask their inner pain with alcohol or drugs or become emotionally numb. They can become alienated from societal norms and lash out in anger at the slightest provocation. They may lose their moral foundations or faith, leave careers they once loved or have suicidal ideation.Understanding moral injury is of paramount importance for chaplains caring for individuals experiencing it.For this session, we will be joined by:Rita Nakashima BrockSarah JobeTim UssetWe thank our sponsors for this event: E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Candler School of Theology, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, and Union Theological Seminary.
What is chaplaincy supply and demand? For some time now, the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab has thought about what it would mean and require to build an approach to spiritual care based on both supply and demand. What does this mean?First, it means thinking about spiritual care first from the perspective of care recipients.Second, it means thinking about spiritual care from the perspectives of organizations like the military, healthcare, higher education, and prisons, all of which employ chaplains.Third, it means thinking about delivery systems.If we want everyone in the United States to have access to spiritual care, we need to think hard about revolutionizing our approaches to spiritual care so they are built based on demand and on sustainable business models.This webinar discusses the Lab’s recently published a gap analysis, naming what we see as the gap between the demand for spiritual care and how chaplains are trained and deployed. It identifies six key gaps and invites the field into conversation on how to fill them. We are joined by:
Wendy Cadge, Founder and Director, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Amy Lawton, Research Manager, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Patients’ loved ones, who often are acting as surrogate decision makers, are among the unique aspects of spiritual care in intensive care settings. In a study conducted at the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine from 2018 to 2021, a research team found that proactive spiritual care offered to ICU surrogates improves their well-being. These findings also provide evidence for the inclusion of chaplains in palliative and intensive care teams.Join study leader Alexia Torke and Research Chaplain Shelley Varner-Perez as they discuss the origins of this study, how it was conducted, and what lessons chaplains and healthcare executives can incorporate into their service to patients and families.
Chaplains provide spiritual care to anyone and everyone. This can mean accompanying those with whom the chaplain may have profound spiritual, religious, political, cultural, or other differences. What is the “radical acceptance” required to provide meaningful spiritual care, and how can aspiring chaplains begin preparing themselves for this crucial, but often quite difficult, aspect of the work?
Tahara Akmal is Clinical Pastoral Education Manager at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC.
Jason Callahan is an instructor in the Department of Patient Counseling, College of Health Professions, and chaplain for the Thomas Palliative Care Unit in Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center.
How can spiritual care providers, including those in healthcare, best serve those with eating disorders? The Lab welcomes Emily Boring, biologist, Yale Divinity Student, and previous chaplain intern to discuss the complex relationship between spirituality, spiritual care, and eating disorders. We’ll learn about how chaplains can best accompany those experiencing eating disorders and disordered eating, how chaplains can integrate their own experiences of illness into their care of others, and the relationship between nourishing the body and caring for the spirit.
You can read her article “What the body means to say” at The Atlantic.
Emily Boring writes and works at the intersection of science, medicine, and spirituality. A native of Oregon, she earned her B.S. in Ecology and Evolution from Yale and her MSc in marine ecology from Oregon State University. She currently studies religion and literature through the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale Divinity School (MAR ’23).
Emily’s creative nonfiction has appeared in publications such as The Christian Century, Yale Distilled, and The Atlantic. In the field of eating disorders, she combines research and personal experience through essays for the FEAST blog, podcasts, conference talks, and one-on-one mentoring of adolescents.
Emily is a postulant for ordination in the Episcopal Church (Diocese of Oregon). She completed her ACPE Level I chaplaincy internship in summer 2021.
Lab community saves 25% off Ellen Cooney’s book with code ONENIGHT25 through March 14, 2023. Order at http://bit.ly/3JqRR55.
Join the Lab for a conversation with the author of this novel centered on the work of a chaplain and informed by Cooney’s life. From the publisher: “I believe in expecting light. That’s my job.” A hospital chaplain offers compassion to her patients over the course of an eventful night shift, and finds some for herself, too. The young interfaith chaplain is joined on her hospital rounds one night by an unusual companion: a rough-and-tumble dog who may or may not be a ghost. As she tends to the souls of her patients—young and old, living last moments or navigating fundamentally altered lives—their stories provide unexpected healing for her own heartbreak. Balancing wonder and mystery with pragmatism and humor, Ellen Cooney has written a generous, intelligent novel that grants the most challenging moments of the human experience a shimmer of light and magical possibility.
Ellen Cooney was born in Clinton, Massachusetts in 1952. She is the author of ten novels, most recently One Night Two Souls Went Walking. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Literary Review, New England Review, and many other journals, and were listed several times in Best American Short Stories. She has received fellowships in creative writing from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Now retired from over twenty-five years of teaching, she was a writer in residence at MIT, and also taught classes and workshops at Boston College, Harvard Extension School, the Seminars at Radcliffe, and Northeastern University, and as visiting writer at Holy Cross College and the University of Maine at Farmington. She left Massachusetts for midcoast Maine at the time of her teaching retirement, and writes full-time at her home on the Phippsburg peninsula. Her new novel, A Cowardly Woman No More, will be published in April by Coffee House Press.
The Field Guide for Aspiring Chaplains series is intended to offer a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy, from education and training through to practice. Each session includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance to those considering careers in chaplaincy; there are also opportunities for small-group discussion afterward (not recorded).
You can view recordings from previous sessions below. Those interested in our Field Guide series should also download our free eBook Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Care, now available here.
This session offers an overview of the fundamentals of CPE, addressing such issues as:
-What is clinical pastoral education (CPE)?
-Why is it important for chaplains to complete CPE?
-How can I identify a CPE program for me?
-What is the process for applying to a CPE program?
We are joined by:
Danielle Buhuor, Founder and Director, Sankofa CPE
Mychal Springer, Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
This information session is offered to assist those interested in applying for a demonstration project grant for creative, evidence-based ways Jewish chaplains can meet the demand for innovative spiritual and emotional support for people not well served in the contemporary landscape. We particularly encourage applications related to the work of community chaplaincy – a distinctive contribution of Jewish chaplains – as well as from leaders in organizations and settings that have not traditionally seen the work of Jewish chaplains as central to their mission.
Four grants of $40,000 will be awarded for work to be completed between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024. Each project team will be supported by an experienced mentor who has demonstrated success integrating chaplaincy in new ways into new settings. These mentors will work closely with project teams for the duration of their grants to ensure the success and ongoing viability of their interventions.
Applications must come from existing 501(c)(3) organizations and must include an executive or other high level organizational leader and a Jewish chaplain on the project team. We seek to fund efforts that have the highest likelihood of success during the grant period as well as the strongest possibility of continuing once the funding ends. We will also privilege projects that have the capacity to be scaled.
This information session is offered for interested and prospective applicants to ask whatever questions they may have about the process. Those interested in applying should read more here. We are joined by:
Wendy Cadge, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Grace Last, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Michael Skaggs, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Mychal Springer, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
We thank the Charles H. Revson Foundation for their support of this work.
Twenty-five years ago, the Center for Disease Control discovered 10 “Adverse Childhood Experiences” that if they occurred before the age of 18 potentially has long lasting impacts on one’s psychological and physical health. In this presentation Dr. Eric M. Brown of Boston University will provide a framework for understanding how early experiences can have long lasting impacts on adult development. Furthermore, he will provide information on ways that faith leaders can serve those suffering from psychological and emotional distress as a result of adversity early in life. The Trauma Responsive Congregations Project, based at Boston University School of Theology, is sponsored by Lilly Endowment, Inc.
We thank Interfaith Chaplaincy at DFW for their support of this webinar. Learn more at http://www.dfwairportchapel.org/.
Airport chaplaincy serves perhaps the largest community in the world and yet remains unknown by many in both the general public and the chaplaincy profession. Join Lab Director of Programs Michael Skaggs and three airport chaplains from around the world to hear what the daily work of airport chaplaincy is like, what education and training is needed by airport chaplains, and what the spiritual care of the future looks like in the unique world of air travel. We are joined by: Rev. Canon Jonathan Baldwin, London Gatwick; Fr. Greg McBrayer, Dallas-Fort Worth; Pastor Marieke Meiring, Schiphol.
There is growing interest in how spiritual care providers can incorporate elements of the natural world into their work (sometimes called “eco-chaplaincy”), provide chaplaincy in the context of climate change, and otherwise acknowledge the spiritual implications of the present and future of our natural world. Join the Lab and leading thinkers on spiritual care and the environment as we explore this growing field of chaplaincy. Supplemental materials for further exploration can be found at the bottom of this description.
We are joined by:
Rabbi Katy Z Allen, BCC, founder and rabbi of Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope
Rev. Alison Cornish, Program Consultant at The BTS Center
Rev. Stacy L. Grove, MDiv, Founder of HeartSpace Spiritual Resources
We thank The BTS Center for its support of this webinar. The BTS Center, located in Portland, Maine, is focused on spiritual leadership for a climate changed world. The BTS Center seeks to catalyze spiritual imagination, with enduring wisdom, for transformative faith leadership by offering theologically grounded programs of continuing education and spiritual formation, including workshops and retreats, learning cohorts, public conversations, and projects of applied research.
Inspired by the vision of human hearts renewed, justice established, and creation restored, we are focusing much of our programmatic attention on equipping faith leaders — ordained and non-ordained, clergy and laypersons, leaders of traditional religious communities and other communities of practice — with the knowledge, skills, mindsets, and practices that are needed for effective and faithful ministry in this moment marked by the dual urgencies of a changing religious landscape and a global climate crisis.
Learn more at https://www.thebtscenter.org about the Center’s programs, retreats, Lament with Earth offerings, Climate Changed podcast, book study groups, and more.
The BTS Center’s podcast, Climate Changed, offers intimate interviews and conversations around some of the most pressing questions about faith, life, and climate change. Hosted by Ben Yosua-Davis, Director of Applied Research, and Nicole Diroff, Program Director, and produced by Peterson Toscano, the podcast features acclaimed guests such as Corina Newsome, Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, poet Criag Santos Perez, and many more, all exploring what spiritual leadership looks and feels like in a climate-changed world. You can find Climate Changed on your favorite listening platform or at https://thebtscenter.org/climate-changed/.
https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org The Field Guide for Aspiring Chaplains series is intended to offer a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy, from education and training through to practice. Each session, like this one on online CPE, includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance to those considering careers in chaplaincy; there are also opportunities for small-group discussion afterward (not recorded). You can view recordings from previous sessions below.
Those interested in our Field Guide series should also download our free eBook Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Care, available at bit.ly/beginners-cpe-ebook.
We're joined for this session by Danielle Buhuro of Sankofa CPE and Angela Epshtein of Facing Cancer Together. The Field Guide series is offered at no cost thanks to the generous support of our sponsors:
E Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation https://bit.ly/carpenter-cil-fa22-fg2
lliff School of Theology https://bit.ly/iliff-cil-fa22-fg2
Bayan Islamic Graduate School https://bit.ly/bayan-cil-fa22-fg2
Union Theological Seminary https://bit.ly/union-cil-fa22-fg2
University of the West https://bit.ly/uwest-cil-fa22-fg2
Join us as we launch Professor Wendy Cadge‘s new book Spiritual Care: The Everyday Work of Chaplains, an exploration of the past, present, and future of chaplain work and published by Oxford University Press. Professor Cadge is Founder and Director of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, as well as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Members of the Lab community can use the code AAFLYG6 for a 30% discount on orders.
From the publisher:
Chaplains are America’s hidden religious leaders. Required in the military, federal prisons, and Veterans Administration Medical Centers, chaplains also work in two-thirds of hospitals, most hospices, many institutions of higher education, and a growing range of other settings. The chaplains of the U.S. House and Senate regularly engage with national leaders through public prayer and private conversation.Chaplains have been present at national protests, including the racial justice protests that took place across the country in 2020. A national survey conducted in the United States in 2019 found that 21% of the Americans public had contact with a chaplain in the prior two years. Contact with chaplains likely increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, which thrust chaplains into the spotlight, as they cared for patients, family members, and exhausted and traumatized medical staff fighting the pandemic in real time.Wendy Cadge steps back to ask who chaplains are, what they do across the United States, how that work is connected to the settings where they do it, and how they have responded to and helped to shape contemporary shifts in the American religious landscape. She focuses on Boston as a case study to show how chaplains have been, and remain, an important part of institutional religious ecologies, both locally and nationally. She has combed through the archives of major Boston institutions including the city government, police and fire department, hospitals, universities, rest and rehabilitation centers, the Catholic church, and several Protestant denominations, as well as the Boston Globe, to chart the work of chaplains historically.Cadge also interviewed over one hundred chaplains who work in greater Boston and shadowed them whenever possible, going on board container ships, walking through homeless shelters, and attending religious services at local prisons. The result is a rich study of a little-noticed but essential group of religious leaders.
Panelists
Wendy Cadge, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Brandeis University
Mychal Springer, Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
Barbara Savage, Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought, University of Pennsylvania
John Schmalzbauer, Blanche Gorman Strong Chair in Protestant Studies, Missouri State University
Support for this webinar and research on chaplain work
Barbara Mandel Professorship in the Humanistic Social Sciences, Brandeis University
Join Steven Cunningham, children’s author and Director of Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary Surgery and Director of GME at Ascension St. Agnes, for a discussion of his new book on religious literacy It’s Considerate To Be Literate about Religion, published by Orange Hat Press.
From the publisher:
It’s Considerate To Be Literate about Religion is a book of poems and prose for young readers, their parents, and their teachers. Along with Cunningham’s award-winning books Dinosaur Name Poems and Your Body Sick and Well: How Do You Know?, this new book shares the motif of using the names of things (nomenclature) to introduce topics that otherwise may be unfamiliar, such as the difference between the religious and the secular, or between a devotional approach to practicing a religion and an academic approach to studying religion, or among all the various ways one can be religiously literate and religiously illiterate.
We’re also joined by chaplain researcher Beth Muehlhausen, PhD.
Online chaplaincy degrees: is remote education for me?
The Field Guide series offers a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy. Each session includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance. We also provide an opportunity for small-group discussion (not recorded).
Dr. Carrie Doehring (Iliff University) and Rev. Dr. Pamela Hancock (Starr King School for Ministry) join us for this session. Both are closely involved in their institutions’ chaplaincy degrees and online education. They discuss the benefits of online education, how it compares to fully in-person instruction, and how good educators in spiritual care can model best practices in chaplaincy. There is also public Q&A toward the end of the session.
We offer the Field Guide series at no cost thanks to the generous support of our sponsors Iliff School of Theology, Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Union Theological Seminary, and University of the West. The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation generously supports the Lab’s resources on chaplaincy careers. You can view other sessions of our Field Guide series, on topics such as an introduction to CPE, sector-specific spiritual care, and more here.
Where do Jewish chaplains serve in the United States? How are they trained? Who becomes a chaplain, and how is the next generation of Jewish spiritual care providers being prepared for their work?
This webinar discusses the work of the Mapping Jewish Chaplaincy project, supported by the Charles Revson Foundation. We are joined by:
Wendy Cadge, Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanistic Social Sciences, Brandeis University
Rabbi Mychal Springer, Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow BCC, President of MA Board of Rabbis
Rabbi Dr. Joseph Ozarowski, Rabbinic Counselor and Chaplain for Jewish Child and Family Services Chicago and Jewish Chaplain at Skokie Hospital
Bethamie Horowitz, Research Director, Mapping Jewish Chaplaincy Project
This webinar reports on a survey recently conducted by Gallup on Americans' experiences with and demand for spiritual care providers.
Our panel discusses where chaplains are serving individuals, where demand is not being met, and what chaplains need to know about those they serve into the future. This webinar is part of our project on covenantal pluralism, sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust. We're joined by:
Marilyn Barnes, Director of Pastoral Care, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center
Wendy Cadge, Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanistic Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University
Amy Lawton, Postdoctoral Scholar, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Jessica Hamar Martinez, Associate Research Scientists and Senior Data Analyst, University of Arizona
Taylor Winfield, SSHRC Postdoctoral Scholar, McGill University
A team of chaplains at Indiana University Health recently completed a two-year study about a chaplain-led “pause” – 10-minute compact “defusings” / debriefings for care teams following code blue resuscitation events at an adult Level 1 trauma center. The team gathered survey and interview data prior to implementing the debriefs about the care team’s experiences of these difficult events, and then piloted a clinically responsive intervention.
Here the research team discusses preliminary findings and what other chaplains need to know about implementing post-traumatic debriefings for care staff. We’re joined by:
Shelley Varner Perez, Research Chaplain and Senior Program Manager, IU Health
Ann Cottingham, Health Services Researcher and Director of Research in Health Professions Education and Practice at IU School of Medicine
Kelly Mathis, Staff Chaplain, IU Health
Greg Morse, Staff Chaplain, IU Health
We are grateful for the support of Transforming Chaplaincy and IU Health for this webinar.
We thank the ACPE Curriculum Committee for its support of this webinar.
Rev. David Fleenor, ACPE Certified Educator, hosts a panel discussion exploring the pros and cons of online CPE with three experienced online clinical pastoral educators: the Rev. Carolyn Barksdale, Veronica Martinez-Gallegos, and Sarah Knoll Sweeney.
This webinar is co-sponsored by the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and the ACPE Curriculum Committee; the research project preceding the event was funded by the Foundation for ACPE.
We thank Providence Holy Cross Medical Center for their support for this webinar.
Join Kevin Deegan, hospital chaplain at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, to discuss a recent LA Times article on Deegan’s spiritual care service in the COVID pandemic. We are also joined by Pulitzer finalist (2012) Francine Orr, a photojournalist who accompanied Chaplain Kevin in his work at Providence Holy Cross.
We will learn more about Deegan’s framing of chaplaincy as taking place on sacred ground as well as why journalists have taken note of spiritual care and what it means for the broader public.
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center is grateful for the opportunity to sponsor this compelling discussion: “Chaplain Kevin Deegan’s time spent with Los Angeles Times photographer Francine Orr made it possible for her to tell a beautiful yet heart-wrenching story of our caregivers’ work through the eyes of chaplains and others during some of the most challenging days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Special thanks to Francine, whose professionalism and deep respect for the dignity of our patients and their families led to unprecedented coverage of an extremely significant moment in history.
Her work placed a spotlight on chaplains and the incredibly important role they play in patient care and family healing. They truly live our Providence Promise: Know me, care for me, ease my way.”
Use discount code 01DAH40 to order the book at 40% off!
With the Centre for Religion and Its Contexts at Emmanuel College of Victoria University, we officially launched Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care in the Twenty-First Century: An Introduction (eds., Wendy Cadge and Shelly Rambo) on Wednesday, June 15 at 2 p.m. EDT. Join the book’s editors and several contributors as they discuss why this book now, the impact it will have on the field, and how educators can put it to use. We will be joined by Pamela McCarroll (Emmanuel College, Victoria University, University of Toronto); Jason Callahan (VCU Health); and Shelly Rambo (Boston University School of Theology).
Use the code 6AS21 to save 40% on this book by ordering through University of Nebraska Press.
Military chaplaincy has one of the longest histories in the profession of spiritual care. Join G. Kurt Piehler, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience at Florida State University, for a discussion of military chaplaincy in World War II.
A Religious History of the American GI in World War II breaks new ground by recounting the armed forces’ unprecedented efforts to meet the spiritual needs of the fifteen million men and women who served in World War II. For President Franklin D. Roosevelt and many GIs, religion remained a core American value that fortified their resolve in the fight against Axis tyranny. While combatants turned to fellow comrades for support, even more were sustained by prayer. GIs flocked to services, and when they mourned comrades lost in battle, chaplains offered solace and underscored the righteousness of their cause. This study is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the social history of the American GI during World War II.
Drawing on an extensive range of letters, diaries, oral histories, and memoirs, G. Kurt Piehler challenges the conventional wisdom that portrays the American GI as a nonideological warrior. American GIs echoed the views of FDR, who saw a Nazi victory as a threat to religious freedom and recognized the antisemitic character of the regime. Official policies promoted a civil religion that stressed equality between Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and Judaism. Many chaplains embraced this tri-faith vision and strived to meet the spiritual needs of all servicepeople regardless of their own denomination. While examples of bigotry, sectarianism, and intolerance remained, the armed forces fostered the free exercise of religion that promoted a respect for the plurality of American religious life among GIs.
Police chaplaincy sits in one of the most high-tension cultural positions of modern times. With an ongoing national conversation about the role of chaplains taking place in the context of multiple moments of extreme social difficulty, chaplains occupy a unique place in this sector.
Join Imam Khalid Latif, retired chaplain Sharon Ellis Davis, Chaplain Rebecca Brown, and Chaplain Eric Skidmore for a wide-ranging and honest conversation about serving law enforcement officers and the many roles that police chaplains undertake.
We thank our sponsors for this webinar: National Association of Catholic Chaplains and South Carolina Law Enforcement Assistance Program.
Over the past two years, staff care has become one of the most important services provided by chaplains in healthcare settings.
In this webinar Dr. Jessica Gold, on faculty at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, will discuss the psychiatry of healthcare workers facing burnout and other ramifications of the intense pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and other stressors.
Dr. Gold will also offer counsel on how chaplains can best support healthcare workers facing these challenges.
Sponsored by Pediatric Chaplains Network
In an era of unprecedented youth mental health needs, chaplains can play a vital role in the transition from primary healthcare facilities to youth mental health treatment. How can chaplains best serve pediatric patients and their families, as well as support healthcare staff, in these in-between moments for vulnerable youth?
The Rev. Anoma Abeyaratne, Staff Chaplain at Franciscan Hospital for Children: The Rev. Anoma Abeyaratne is also Priest Associate at All Saints Brookline. She served as a Cox Fellow at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul and the Diocese, and as a chaplain at Boston Children’s Hospital. Prior to her call to ordained ministry Anoma worked as a Clinical Nurse at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. Anoma is a Registered Nurse, a Board Certified Chaplain and holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Michigan State University.
She was an active lay leader in the diocese of Massachusetts for many years prior to being ordained and maintains a passion for issues of social justice, particularly around the issues of diversity. Her interests include contemplative prayer, walking outdoors, cooking and needlework.
Kristin Canavera, PhD, Clinical Psychologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Kristin Canavera, PhD, is a pediatric psychologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. She provides psychological services to children with cancer and hematological diseases.
She is the psychology liaison to the leukemia and ICU services, and her research focuses on psychosocial outcomes for critically ill patients in the ICU. Dr. Canavera also has additional training in bioethics and health policy and serves on the St. Jude ethics committee. Prior to St. Jude, she worked with children with anxiety and mood disorders, OCD, and disruptive behavior disorders.
Dr. Fatima Watt, Director of Behavioral Health Services at Franciscan Children’s Hospital: Dr. Watt received her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Georgia School of Professional Psychology.
She completed her clinical training in pediatric psychology at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta-Egleston followed by an internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Franciscan Children’s. Prior to returning to Franciscan Children’s as the Director of Behavioral Health Services, she served as a pediatric psychologist at the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children.
Dr. Watt is committed to providing therapeutic services to underserved populations, including low-income, medically and psychiatrically complex, and racially diverse youth and families. Dr. Watt is credentialed by the National Register of Health Service Psychologists.
https://www.chaplaincyinnovation.org
What does healthcare chaplaincy look like today?
The Field Guide series is intended to offer a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy, from education and training through to practice. Each session includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance to those considering careers in chaplaincy. Join healthcare chaplains Linda Golding (New York-Presbyterian Hospital), Caila Rinker (Mayo Clinic), and Beba Tata (Mayo Clinic) for an accessible conversation on what this work looks like and how others can get involved.
Thank you to our sponsors for this season's Field Guide series: the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Bayan Chicago; Boston College School of Theology and Ministry; Candler School of Theology; Claremont School of Theology; Iliff School of Theology; Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.
In this webinar, a panel of leading spiritual care providers across sectors discussed the recent Chaplaincy Innovation Lab working paper “What are chaplains learning? Perspectives on the supply side," by Wendy Cadge, Grace Tien, and Trace Haythorn. Our panel offered their experiences both as chaplains in the field learning new skills and as hiring managers who must close the gap between what chaplains have learned and what they need to know in order to do their jobs best. We'll be joined by Jennifer Bailey, Ron Oliver, Su Yon Pak, and Nathan White.
You can read the working paper in full, and offer comment, at https://bit.ly/supply-working-paper-webinar.
Secularism is one way to describe how many older adults today approach questions about meaning, life, and purpose. How can chaplains effectively serve those without a religious affiliation or spiritual belief beyond the natural world?
Join Elizabeth Pringle, principal of Improvement Matters, for a conversation on caring for aging adults who describe themselves as secular, humanist, agnostic, or otherwise unaffiliated with "mainstream" religion.
In this webinar, our guests will offer a presentation for chaplains on psychedelic medicines, with a particular focus on psychedelics' potential application for end of life and palliative care (EOLPC) patients. The presentation will include an overview of data on psilocybin therapy for psychological distress in EOLPC.
Chaplains served as study clinicians in a recent clinical trial of psilocybin therapy at UCSF, and chaplains are now being included in more trials with EOLPC populations both at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Emory Healthcare. This presentation looks toward a future of greater openness to, and recognition of the benefits of, working with chaplains as the field of psychedelic medicine continues to grow.
The Field Guide series is intended to offer a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy, from education and training through to practice. Each session includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance to those considering careers in chaplaincy. Join military chaplains Martine Joseph (USAF), Paul Minor (MNG), and Wesley Sneed (USAF) for an accessible conversation on what this work looks like and how others can get involved.
Thank you to our sponsors for this season’s Field Guide series: the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Bayan Chicago; Boston College School of Theology and Ministry; Candler School of Theology; Claremont School of Theology; Iliff School of Theology; Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.
How can chaplains address what patients believe are medical miracles?Join Dr. Sarah Byrne-Martelli, BCC and Carine Davila, MD for a conversation on how chaplains can best communicate with patients who talk about health miracles. “We are praying for a miracle.” “It’s in God’s hands.” “Only God knows.” These statements likely sound familiar to any clinician who has cared for a patient with a serious illness. Yet even the most experienced clinicians may feel caught off-guard when patients and families use religious- or spiritual-based coping to guide healthcare decisions. This webinar will help chaplains better serve patients and families who turn to the miraculous in search of healing, or attribute medical progress to miraculous intervention.
In this session we will explore, with Rabbi Elliot Kukla, rest as a liberatory spiritual practice that can help us heal as individuals, strengthen loving relationships, and create a more sustainable future. We will begin by discussing the racist and exploitative origins of the stigma surrounding the term “lazy.” Next we will explore sources on rest from Disability Justice activists, ancient Jewish folk wisdom on the sabbath, as well as contemporary rest activists like the Nap Bishop. Finally, we will begin to uncover how to integrate rest into our own lives and spiritual practices.
Join Chaplain Jeffery Murphy of Tyson Foods in Carthage, MS for a discussion of chaplaincy in a corporate setting. What does it mean to support employees? What is the chaplain's relationship to the company, and how does this impact spiritual care? We'll discuss this and more.
We thank our sponsor for this webinar, the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation. Learn more at https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/.
The Institute of Harmonic Science (IHS) is a 501c3 nonprofit educational organization established in 2000 and based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. IHS is dedicated to inspiring and growing communities of people who sing together for healing and transformation. The Institute believes singing in harmony integrates the body, mind and spirit while healing the heart of humanity.
Higher Vibrations Music is a global outreach program of the Institute. Teaching that the cosmos is inherently musical, the HVM curriculum explores harmony through music, which blends the languages of science, the new physics and spirituality. IHS partners with choirs, educational organizations, houses of worship, healthcare providers, and the scientific community to more fully understand and express harmony.
Join HVM founder Harold Moses for an evening of music, reflection, and more as he guides the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab through an experience of relaxation and rejuvenation.
Singing Higher Vibrations Music together in Harmony consciously connects us with the wonder and majesty of our Universe and with one another.
The Field Guide series is intended to offer a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy, from education and training through to practice. Each session includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance to those considering careers in chaplaincy; there are also opportunities for small-group discussion afterward (not recorded).
The Field Guide series is intended to offer a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy, from education and training through to practice. Each session includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance to those considering careers in chaplaincy; there are also opportunities for small-group discussion afterward (not recorded).
Part personal narrative, part spiritual formation guide, Be the Brave One is the story of Rev. Ann Kansfield leaving the grind of Wall Street and finding her calling at a church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; becoming the first female and openly gay chaplain at the New York Fire Department; and getting voted the inaugural New York Times New Yorker of the Year.
Guiding her story are the values that anchor her life in an adventurous faith and have allowed her to transform from “a run-of-the-mill capitalist jerk” into a pastor, chaplain, wife, mother, and spiritual leader.
Be the Brave One weaves gritty, real-life stories with witty commentary and practical faith to explore what it looks like to live out our convictions in our daily lives–and how that can radically change us and those around us. Ultimately, Kansfield’s story will leave readers both comforted and challenged to discover and live out their own spiritual values.
Thank you to our sponsors for this season's Field Guide series: the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Bayan Chicago; Candler School of Theology; Claremont School of Theology; Iliff School of Theology; Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. In this session we introduce participants to movement and community chaplaincy. What does it mean to provide spiritual care within a social justice movement? Or for members of a community experiencing crises? We are joined by:
Hilary Allen, Project Consultant, Faith Matters
Aly Benítez, Curriculum Consultant, Faith Matters
Randy Meyers, Staff Chaplain, Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services
Sponsored by the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care - learn more at TheCTAC.org
Palliative care is one of the most important growing areas of chaplaincy today. How is this field different from other types of spiritual care? And how are chaplains working to integrate palliative care into the whole spectrum of patient and family care? We talk also with several patients and family members who have been recipients of palliative care, offering a key perspective on this area of chaplaincy. We're joined by: Jennifer Moore Ballentine, CSU Shiley Haynes Institute of Palliative Care Jamie Beachy, Naropa University Gina Dietzer, Nurse and Lung Cancer Survivor Allison Kestenbaum, UC San Diego Health Susan King, Oncology Nurse and Palliative Care Recipient
The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and the Fetzer Institute conclude the lecture series Race, Ethnicity, and the Work of Spiritual Care. In this final session, Tahara Akmal and Chaz Howard offer reflections on their experiences as chaplains of color — how they came into this work, barriers and challenges they have faced, and advice for the future.
This webinar offers a series of reflections by Jewish chaplains serving in a variety of settings. Our panel will discuss their work on spiritual care in aging populations, approaches to end of life care, and serving as a Jewish chaplain on a multidisciplinary team / in a non-majority Jewish community. We are joined by Rabbis Lynn Liberman, BCC; Jessica Shafrin, BCC; and Michelle Stern, BCC.
Among the growing diversity in spiritual care providers today is career diversity. Some chaplains combine spiritual care provision with other work; others volunteer on a part-time basis; others pursue education while involved in other careers. In this session, we speak with 3 spiritual care providers who have successfully combined this with other work:
-Omari Jahi Aarons, Howard Thurman Fellow & MDiv Candidate, Boston University School of Theology
-Rev. Bonnie-Jeanne Casey, Chaplain, Phillips Exeter Academy
-Rev. Lindsay Popperson, Chaplain, Sherrill House
Modern society’s obsession with the outer aspects of humanity has obscured the deeper, spiritual dimension of what makes us whole. This results in personal and social fragmentation and the resulting lack of respect for others and burnout in ourselves. In this session, a physician and chaplain will each give their perspectives on how to find and experience that transcendence. They will discuss what COVID has taught us about isolation and burnout and offer up perspectives and practices for chaplains to help others transcend the burnout in this time of unusually intense separation from wholeness.
Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and the Fetzer Institute as they continue the lecture series Race, Ethnicity, and the Work of Spiritual Care. In this second session, we will discuss the history of Black chaplaincy in the US, the results of an intensive interview project with chaplains of color, and the future of the field.
While the field of spiritual care in the US is better and better understand by Americans as time goes by, most American chaplains and researchers are unfamiliar with the state of spiritual care in global chaplaincy.
The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and the International Center for Chinese Buddhist Culture and Education invite you to a panel discussion on the history and current state of global chaplaincy as seen by experts from several places outside the United States. This webinar will help chaplains in all sectors better understand the international aspect of chaplaincy and, as a result, better serve those not from the United States. We are joined by:
Venerable Guan Zhen, Co-Founder and General Secretary, International Centre of Chinese Buddhist Culture and Education
Wendy Cadge, Director, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Ray-Sheng Her, Deputy CEO, Tzu Chi Foundation
Dedong Wei, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the International Center for Buddhist Studies, Renmin University of China
Jue Xiao, Deputy Director, Volunteer Committee, Chinese Association for Life
Scarlett Tong Zuo, Volunteer, Beijing Ciyuan Center, Interpreter
This event is sponsored by The International Center of Chinese Buddhist Culture and Education, USA. ICCBCE was founded and organized by Venerable Master Chao Ding (超定長老), Venerable Master Chuan Yin (傳印長老), Venerable Master Ben Xing (本性和尚), Venerable Master Jing Hua (淨華長老尼), and Venerable Guan Zhen (振冠法師). The ICCBCE vision is to develop socially-engaged Buddhism, harmonize teachings of Theravada and Mahayana, and promote interfaith dialogues between East and West.
The community is run by the board, whose members live worldwide. Venerable Guan Zhen is the Secretary of ICCBCE and the US board representative. Within the ICCBCE is a sangha (community), an expression of Sangha/Buddhism.
Its membership consists of ordained monks and nuns, ordained laity (chaplains), and laypersons. It maintains a center. Day-to-day activities are run by the Abbot and president with the assistance of monastic members and lay volunteers.
One of the most significant components of modern spiritual care training is clinical pastoral education, or CPE. Join Su Yon Pak (Union Theological Seminary) and Mychal Springer (New York-Presbyterian Hospital), two of the nation's leading CPE experts, as they offer a comprehensive introduction to CPE, how students should think about beginning it, and what chaplains ultimately take from it.
The Field Guide series is intended to offer a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy, from education and training through to practice. Each session includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance to those considering careers in chaplaincy; there are also opportunities for small-group discussion afterward (not recorded).
For this session, we are joined by Su Yon Pak (Union Theological Seminary) and Mychal Springer (New York-Presbyterian Hospital).
While the field of spiritual care in the US is better and better understand by Americans as time goes by, most American chaplains and researchers are unfamiliar with the state of spiritual care in global chaplaincy.
The Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and the International Center for Chinese Buddhist Culture and Education held a panel discussion on the history and current state of global chaplaincy as seen by experts from several places outside the United States. This webinar helps chaplains in all sectors better understand the international aspect of chaplaincy and, as a result, better serve those not from the United States.
Sponsored by the Fetzer Institute, this spiritual care lecture series treats the historical development and current work of African Americans and spiritual care in the US. The series is part of a pilot project to support and build networks for spiritual care providers of color and will focus on the expertise, compassion, and care African American chaplains bring to their work; their experiences as people of color in this work; and opportunities for everyone to unite in action around disparities in access to spiritual care. Session 1 features a discussion on how conversation circles can be used to support, network, and draw together chaplains of color to promote professional wellness and mutual uplift. This session also officially launched the eBook Conversation Circles.
We are joined by:
Dr. Su Yon Pak, Senior Director and Associate Professor of Integrative and Field-based Education at Union Theological Seminary. In this hybrid faculty-administrator position, she envisions, creates and oversees the curricular and co-curricular work of the Office of Integrative Education including field education, clinical pastoral education, life-long learning, ministerial formation, and combined courses inside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Prior to her current position, she was the Vice President for Institutional Advancement; and the Associate Dean for Student Life/ Director of Recruitment at Union.
Rev. Kirstin Boswell, University Chaplain and Dean of Multifaith Engagement at Elon University. Prior to her work at Elon, Rev. Boswell was Associate Dean of Student Support Services at Brown University. Her former roles have included serving as Chaplain to the Institute and Director of the Office of Religious Life at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and theProtestant Chaplain at both Brown University and Bentley University and the Director of Operations for The International Association of Black Religions and Spiritualities at the University of Chicago.
The Field Guide series is intended to offer a basic introduction to the profession of chaplaincy, from education and training through to practice. Each session includes an in-depth conversation with spiritual care practitioners on topics of key importance to those considering careers in chaplaincy; there are also opportunities for small-group discussion afterward (not recorded).
In this Introduction to Spiritual Care, we are joined by:
Beba Tata, MDiv, BCC, Chaplain, Mayo Clinic; Jason Callahan, MDiv, BCC, Palliative Chaplain, VCU Health; Wendy Cadge, PhD, Director, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab; Michael Skaggs, PhD, Director of Programs, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab.
Su Yon Pak (Union Theological Seminary) and Mychal Springer (New York-Presbyterian Hospital) discuss their new edited volume “Sisters in Mourning.”
Caring for their mothers at the end of their lives and grieving for them after their deaths brought them together. Seven women from diverse racial, cultural, and religious traditions with differing sexual orientations and life experiences became seven “sisters in mourning,” meeting to share their grief and to remember together–not only their mothers but themselves as daughters.
This book is a rich compilation of narratives that emerged through vulnerable conversations–a spiritual, emotional, and existential exploration of the complexities of caring and grieving.
As their grief transformed over time, and their friendship deepened, their understanding of who their mothers were and the nuances of their relationships with them continued to evolve.
Sisters in Mourning invites readers to a journey of healing and insight.
Although chaplains are quite familiar with using technology, the competencies of providing telechaplaincy are not so evident. This webinar is not intended to cover all of the competencies of telechaplaincy, but to inform you of how to assess your competency and to provide you a broad overview of the competencies of telechaplaincy.
While the legal aspects of telechaplaincy covered here will be most applicable to healthcare chaplains, all chaplains providing distant care will benefit from this webinar.
The following topics were covered: * The need for telechaplaincy * Potential benefits and drawbacks * Research * Legal aspects * Ethical aspects * Privacy law and HIPAA * How to choose technology * Emergency management planning * The setup of the chaplain’s environment * Preparation of the patient * Workflows for providing telechaplaincy services
How can chaplains support faculty and staff in higher education, especially to build resilience in the face of public health crises? Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Director of Programs Michael Skaggs speaks with Cynthia Cheshire, campus minister to Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire, about her project and how she answers this question. They focus especially on restorative circle practices and communal acknowledgements of COVID-19 losses.
This webinar will be of particular interest to higher education chaplains, but also all chaplains concerned for staff in their institutions.
Join Jesse Palidofsky for music and reflection, crafted especially for chaplains.
Azalea City Recordings artist Jesse Palidofsky has been performing his original songs in folk venues, coffeehouses, and festivals for decades. "I Am An Immigrant" reached #1 on the International Folk Radio charts and "Dancing Toward the Light " was the #5 CD . Jesse’s updated “America the Beautiful: 2020” with Bluegrass vocalist Claire Lynch and Blues singer Lea Gilmore has 65,000 hits on YouTube. He is the recipient of numerous songwriting awards.
Jesse’s appearances include: National Theatre, Hugh’s Room (Toronto), Sloop Clearwater “Pumpkin Sail”, Common Ground on the Hill Roots Music & Arts Festival, FOCUS Music, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Institute of Musical Traditions, Association of Professional Chaplains Annual Conference, Washington Folk Festival, Friends General Conference, Common Ground on the Border, Takoma Park Folk Festival, Pastoral Care Network for Social Responsibility, Tikkun Magazine, Club Sandwich, Folkal Point Coffeehouse.
Learn more at JessePal.net.
Join the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and the Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute at Boston University for a discussion on how facilitated support groups can help build chaplain resilience, both in response to COVID-19 and other facts. We discuss broad themes of what chaplains find challenging, why the support group model is beneficial, and why the profession should consider implementing the model more broadly. The webinar will be of special interest to spiritual care managers and educators, both of whom are positioned to educate and lead chaplains who will face difficult conditions over the course of their professional lives.
We're joined by leadership from the Danielsen Institute:
Miriam Bronstein, LICSW, Director of Clinical Services
Laura Captari, MA, MS, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate
George Stavros, Executive Director
Learn more about this project at https://chaplaincyinnovation.org/projects/resilience-frontline-spiritual-providers.
Learn more about the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute here: https://www.bu.edu/danielsen/.
Alice Hunt is Executive Director of the American Academy of Religion. Frank Yamada is Executive Director of the Association of Theological Schools
Beba Tata, MDiV, MS, MPH, BCC is a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota and a Fellow of Transforming Chaplaincy.
Mishca Smith is chaplain at Rush University Medical Center's Emergency Department.
Glenn Calkins is an ACPE Supervisor, chaplain in many public service sectors, and deploying chaplain with the American Red Cross's Disaster Spiritual Care.
Eric Skidmore is a chaplain in the South Carolina Law Enforcement Assistance Program.
Rev. Sarah Jobe is a chaplain in Interfaith Prison Ministry for Women. Bart Campolo is a volunteer humanist chaplain at the University of Cincinnati. Rev. James Weathersby is a chaplain at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Maine. Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Executive Director Michael Skaggs interviews all three about their respective work in spiritual care and what their roles have in common as they work with those in circumstances of transition. http://www.ipmforwomen.org https://bartcampolo.org/chaplaincy https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/riverview/
Rev. Dr. Mote is Missioner for Engagement and Innovation of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. She's also chaplain at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. CIL's Michael Skaggs interviews Donna about her work and what chaplaincy means in a setting like an airport.