In honor of National Pastoral Care / Spiritual Care Week Oct. 24-30, Penny Driediger was asked to share a reflection about her work as chaplain at Sentara RMH Medical Center.

Her article appeared in an internal newsletter and is shared here with permission. Dreidiger is director of Clinical Pastoral Education at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and an .��

To hear her and four of chaplaincy students share more about their experiences from the summer CPE program, (there is no obligation to join Facebook). EMS chapel services stream each Tuesday at 11 a.m. and an e-chapel reflection is posted each Thursday.

“In light of all the burden on healthcare workers during COVID’s resurgence this fall, our EMS CPE program is providing an important spiritual support service to Virginia hospitals, retirement communities and medical facilities,” said EMS Associate Dean Sarah Bixler. “In some cases, our CPE students provide the only chaplaincy services available; in others, they supplement care offered by existing chaplaincy staff who are often overwhelmed by the needs. This experience, supported by Penny’s expert guidance, is shaping their ministerial formation in profound ways as they practice a ministry of presence during this difficult moment in American history.”

Eastern Mennonite Seminary is unique as one of only eight seminaries in the United States with its own ACPE-accredited CPE program.

On the Chaplain’s Work: by Penny Driediger

CPE is a nationally accredited educational program that trains chaplains and pastors in providing spiritual care to those whom they serve. We have a good partnership and many Chaplain Interns have served at SRMH through our program for 20 years. I have the privilege of walking alongside patients, families, staff and students, promoting healing through spiritual and emotional care as a part of the wonderful care team at SRMH.

My work involves caring for individuals in some of the most distressing and challenging moments of their lives. I am constantly amazed by the resilience, courage and faith that so many exhibit as they face health challenges, pain and loss. I am aware of the importance of connection, of caring – sometimes holding hope for someone when they can’t hope for themselves. I have discovered that joy and sorrow are close companions. Often in the midst of deep sorrow, laughter will make its way to the surface in a way that offers a sense of healing and connection in the midst of the storm.

During the COVID pandemic, my Chaplain role has been challenging. It was very disorienting when we could not visit patients with Covid, knowing the fear and disconnect from loved ones that they were experiencing. We needed to be creative about how to care for patients, family, and staff. Sometimes, my heart has felt broken by the emotional toll that caring has taken on our wonderful staff. When the pandemic began, I felt like I was watching their distress from a distance – unable even to touch them, to give them a hug. Often, we resorted to video chats or phone calls to connect with patients and to connect families to patients. I recall one visit last year, once I was able to enter Covid rooms of those who requested a visit. One local chaplain from a residential home had four different patients in the hospital with Covid. I recall “walking” him around to these patients with a tablet so that they could have a visit with their pastor. Often tears would come as they connected with him and with God through his prayers and care for them. This was sacred work for me.

This past year and a half has touched us all and demanded so much, impacting every aspect of our personal and professional lives. As a chaplain whose role it is to listen and to provide space for another’s story, I have witnessed incredible resilience and courage from those on the front line of this pandemic. Not all experiences are equal; some seem to fare better than others. But there has been wounding, disorientation, sorrow, anger, fear. And there has been hope, love, patient compassion which shines through despite the challenges. I bear witness to their stories, to their distress, to their fortitude to carry on…because they have made a commitment to do so.

Last year during some of the worst days of the pandemic, I wrote a reflection after a visit with a patient. I’m including it here to share a glimpse into the unique role that chaplains play and express gratitude for the opportunity to serve the Sentara RMH community.

The man sat in a chair in the corner as I entered the room. I was covered from head to toe, double masked with N-95, goggles, hairnet, protection from him, from the disease he carried in his body and spread through the air with his labored breathing.

Communication was a barrier as he struggled to hear me – unable to see the articulation of my words.

He seemed vulnerable and scared – I had heard this to be true from others – fear for himself and his wife who he believed was dying. How do I meet him? How do I touch his pain without increasing his feelings of despair and isolation?

The feelings were there: fear, pain, anger, grief. The lived experience was there: isolation, sickness, O2 stats dropping, separated from his loved one. Uncertainty that so many with this disease face – will I get better, or will I die with this disease – never able to physically be with my family again?

Chaplain before him—representing God? Hope?

The question that he had lived with for his lifetime took shape. “Why does God allow such horrible things to happen? Over and over – different articulations of the same question – his eyes often pleading with me. And I felt hammered by his words – by his crisis that touched so closely to my own questions, my own unknowing. Between despair and a longing for a God who loves, who cares, who has compassion, who heals. No words, no words.

I sat uncomfortably with him – trying to convey compassion, hearing his lament, anger, questions. I joined him, “I don’t know.” He searched me with his eyes. Finally, he quieted down with a heavy sigh. He asked me what I hold onto – looking for an anchor. I shared brief glimpses because he couldn’t understand everything I said. Of the God I believe in, that I have held to in my own times of despair. The suffering God who also cried out, “God, why have you forsaken me?” The man lowered his eyes and said, “I can’t be forgiven.” I said, “As far as the east is from the west,” God removes our sins from us. I offered grace – in my presence, through being a witness to his questions, his grief. I suggested that he could talk to God, as if God were a friend.

He quieted and again looked pleadingly into my eyes – the only part of me that he could see. “What do I do, he inquired?” I sensed his openness and desire for a connection with this gracious God. I offered; Can I pray for you?” He heartily said, yes! In my prayer, I declared him a loved child of God. I prayed, grace, forgiveness over his life. I prayed for a balm for his broken spirit. I prayed for his loved one whom he could not touch. When I finished, he said, “When do I pray?” I said, how about now? We connected, holding hands. He squeezed tightly. And he talked to God like a friend.

Like the parable of the loaves and fishes, one pastor’s visionary donation more than 20 years ago and his family’s ongoing support to the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary has generated exponential blessings. 

If each one of the nearly 300 students who has taken CPE has ministered to at least 100 people, that makes for at least 30,000 who have been blessed by their gift, estimated Lonnie Yoder, professor of pastoral care and counseling. “The gift of the Yutzy family has impacted lives far beyond what we can imagine.”

Last week’s evening banquet, held during the seminary’s annual School for Leadership Training, brought together celebrants of the program’s 20-year anniversary. Among the audience were CPE alumni, seminary faculty and program advisory council members, EMU cabinet members and trustees.

The honored guests were the family of Lena and Norman Yutzy ’55, SEM ‘58, who provided the $1 million CPE program endowment: daughter Lenora Yutzy Bell ‘79 and husband Rick, daughter Charlene Yutzy Jacob ‘88, son David Yutzy ‘82 and wife Jewel; and grandson Ben Yutzy ‘06, with wife Risa Heatwole Yutzy and their two children.

Program focused on ministering to people in crisis

CPE is “interfaith professional education for ministry” that brings “theological students and ministers into supervised encounter with people in crisis,” according to the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education. The curricula integrates practice, reflection and analysis, and a foundation of knowledge around theories of behavioral science. 

Guest speaker Sara Wenger Shenk, who was the seminary’s interim dean when the program began and is now president emeritus of Anabaptist Biblical Mennonite Seminary, described “the practice of CPE and pastoral formation as “learning to be human, learning to be at home in our own bodies, histories, families, limitations and strengths, learning both what it means to flourish as embodied mortal human beings and flourish to as spiritual beings.”

CPE practices, she said, “help to move pastors on the long arduous journey to becoming comfortable in our own skin, to find a place of deep calm in the midst of crisis, to stay calm when panic threatens everyone in the room … learning to stay grounded in that non-anxious place, to trust and not be afraid as we weather crisis, deaths, serious events, profound regrets … learning the remarkable beauty and  harmony of all we’ve learned of christ’s love and pain.”

A gift in thanks for his own learning

A native of Plain City, Ohio, Norman Yutzy attended school through the 10th grade, then earned his GED and continued to feed his appetite for knowledge at then Eastern Mennonite College, where he eventually earned three degrees: a BA degree (1955), a bachelor of theology degree (1958) and finally, at the seminary, a bachelor of divinity degree (1961). While at EMC, he met and married Lena Beachy (the couple were engaged during an evangelizing tour in Europe).

His first encounter with CPE was while earning a master’s degree at Princeton Theological Seminary, and he regarded that experience as profoundly beneficial for his life and ministry. Yutzy would go on to careers in teaching and the ministry: he taught Bible at EMC and Eastern Mennonite High School during the late 50s and early 60s, and held pastorates at churches in Illinois Pennsylvania and Virginia. After beginning a career as a successful dairy and poultry farmer, he pastored on an interim basis and continued to preach on request.

In 1993, Yutzy first met with seminary administration to share his idea of beginning a CPE program.* Ever thankful for his own CPE experience, “he desired others to receive that gift for use in their ministries,” recalled son Dave Yutzy. Endowing such a program at the seminary was a way that he and Lena could contribute towards “supporting ministries that blessed others’ lives and furthered the work of God’s Kingdom.”

Norman Yutzy’s idea was truly visionary: he hoped the CPE curricula and experiential learning would be a requisite for graduation. Basing the program at an institution of higher learning, instead of at medical facilities or psychiatric hospitals, would help to integrate the CPE curricula, mentorship and experiential learning model that Yutzy found so valuable to his own pastoral formation into the formal education of seminarians.

By 1999, when six students enrolled, EMS was only the third seminary in the United States to host CPE (it was initially a Satellite Center under the UVa Health System’s Department of Chaplaincy Services). Later that year, Kenton Derstine became the program’s first (and until recently, only) director.

Recognition of first director’s leadership

At the banquet, Derstine recalled his own personal connection to Norman Yutzy, who was his pastor at Souderton Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania. “I was a teenager then and he would often stop to purchase milk at our farm and get into lengthy conversations with my father about church matters … Even now, I still marvel at the mystery of how our paths would cross later.”

The evening included recognition of Derstine’s long contributions to the program and his “strong and visionary leadership,” Yoder said. Under his guidance, the program is now accredited to offer units of Level I and II and Supervisory CPE. Initially EMS developed relationships with Rockingham Memorial Hospital (now Sentara RMH) and the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC) for clinical placements. Opportunities have expanded to Sunnyside Presbyterian Retirement Community and the Bridgewater Retirement Community.

New director Penny Driediger, who has been serving as a clinical educator since 2010, is also a staff chaplain at Rockingham Memorial Hospital. 

On the occasion of the program’s 20th anniversary, Derstine has been able to reconnect with many past students. “It has been gratifying to learn how so many alumni have gone on to serve as transformative ministers and leaders in a wide variety of ministry contexts, noting the value of their CPE experience for their life and ministry,” he said. “In sum, I think it remarkable how one person’s transformative experience in CPE birthed a vision to multiply that experience for others, generating a vision and resources that when joined to that of  others has produced this powerful legacy.”

*CPE had been offered at the seminary before. An extended unit of CPE was offered for more than 10 years from EMU Lancaster, with internship settings at Landis Homes in Lititz, Pa., and Garden Spot Village, in New Holland, Pa.

Additionally, from the Harrisonburg campus, from 1980-83, Will Agee (based at Western State Hospital in Staunton) supervised three units of CPE at Rockingham Memorial Hospital for EMS students and others. This involved 23 interns over the three-year period.

We’ve invited a series of guest writers to share about how CPE training has shaped their life and ministry. Join us at a celebration during the January 2020 School for Leadership Training. To learn more, visit /seminary/cpe/anniversary

Lisa Meyer Vineyard offers reflections below. Also enjoy posts by our guest authors Anne Kauffman Weaver, Melanie K. Lewis and Shawn Gerber.

After serving as a Carilion Clinic staff chaplain for 20 years, I took my third and fourth units of CPE at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. I completed the Advanced Leadership seminar in May 2019. Participating in these EMS classes gave me a place to reflect upon my work and life in new ways. 

Kenton and Penny created a safe place to do family systems thinking and practical reflection. I explored my family patterns of interacting with others such as my issues of over-functioning, perusing others and feeling as if I had to fix other people’s problems while learning with some amazing classmates. Penny, Kenton and my classmates invited me to become a more thoughtful chaplain and person. They encouraged me to develop my curiosity and breathing techniques in order to be more present with my patients, the staff, family and friends. I was surprised at how anxiety producing CPE was. Reflecting upon my life in new ways caused me great anxiety at times. I am grateful for the growth that resulted.

As I began working on my own family patterns of interaction through generations, I saw how I brought these patterns to my daily life at work, church and home. I spent more hours than I would ever like to admit reflecting upon how I work with others and how I wanted them to act in a certain way. When they did not change, I realized I had to change. This was not easy but through the classroom work, readings, writing, verbatims, presentations and supervision, I had a safe place to explore myself and my behaviors. CPE, for me, was an experience of grace and encouragement. 

I loved coming to class because I was challenged to grow and become a better person. — not by being beaten over the head but encouraged to look deep within to find the beauty and grace of God within. I didn’t have to be 100% better, just 2%. I could manage 2%.

One of the beautiful gifts of CPE is that I have a better relationship with my siblings. As the third child, I left my home town when I was 20. I have struggled to reconnect with my brother and sister for years. CPE helped me to have the courage to reach out on a consistent basis. When I really wanted to judge my brother’s behaviors, I had a place to look at my own reactions and then be more present with him. I was able to listen, be curious and supportive as he struggled and eventually found happiness in life. I could be with my brother, support him in his life and not need to fix him. He was fine.

I found that I listened and engaged my sister who chose a very different path than me. I would call, giving her space to vent about her life as a mom and business woman. Now she reaches out to talk about her life as well as listens to mine. We have even set up a group text, a small action but a positive changechang to how we communicate and share about real-life experiences. As my parents age, we are becoming a unit to help them in the ways each of us can. It is a wonderful, unexpected gift that CPE gave me. 

In conclusion, participating in CPE and the Advancing My Leadership Seminar at EMS gave me the opportunity to do my own family system work, opening me to my family patterns and the capacity to change how I interact with others and self.  For this, I am grateful.

The Rev. Lisa Meyer Vineyard was born and raised in southern Illinois as the third child of Wendell and Elizabeth Meyer. She grew up in Belleville where she loved to participate in her local church community and ride her bike across town or along cornfields in the country.  

She graduated from the local community college and then went onto Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to earn a BA in sociology and women’s studies.  After college, she spent three years as a head resident and campus ministry associate at Earlham College, a Quaker college in Richmond, Indiana.  

She graduated from Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1992. During seminary, she spent almost a year in Botswana as a theological education student. She was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1995. After seminary she took several ministerial positions in UCC churches in Illinois and Omaha, Nebraska.

When she came to Roanoke in 1996, Lisa worked part-time as a hospital chaplain at Carilion Clinic and part-time as the director for the Pastoral Counseling Center for three years. Since January 2000, she has served full-time as a chaplain working with people living with HIV/AID, oncology, palliative care and heart patients and their families.  After completing her final two units of CPE at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in 2018, Lisa became a Board Certified Chaplain. Lisa became a Reiki Master in 2016 and now teaches Reiki I and II through Carilion Chaplaincy Services.

Lisa enjoys sharing with others, listening to stories of their life, quilting, biking, reading and being with her beloved husband, Frank Vineyard. They met at a dog park and now have three retrievers they enjoy caring for and taking walks with as often as possible. 

We’ve invited a series of guest writers to share about how CPE training has shaped their life and ministry. Join us at a celebration during the January 2020 School for Leadership Training. To learn more, visit /seminary/cpe/anniversary

Read other posts is our series by Anne Kaufman Weaver MDiv ’16 and Melanie Lewis MDiv ’14.

Shawn Gerber is the director of spiritual care and chaplaincy services at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital and the chaplain manager for the south central region of Indiana University Health.

I have been challenged, and honestly am still challenged, with wondering why if God is good, and all powerful, and all knowing, do we experience such pain and suffering in life. I think it has something to do with the flow of authentic relationship between God and humanity but it remains a mystery to me.  Little did I know when I signed up to take my first unit of CPE at EMS that wrestling with these issues in community would be an experience that would shape who I am called to be in ministry and set the trajectory for how I would serve.

I took my first unit of CPE at EMS seven years before I lost my mother to cancer. What I learned in CPE helped prepare my heart to face the pain rather than deny it or turn away, because I have learned that when I love deeply, I can get hurt deeply. I am called to love anyway. Paying attention to the movements of my own heart and the movement of the Holy Spirit in my own life has helped inform the ways I walk with others in their journey of loss and grief. 

A unique gift of CPE is integrating the behavioral sciences with our theology. During my internship at EMS through the supervision of Kenton Derstine, I came in contact with the rich insight and wisdom that comes from Family Systems Theory. In applying the theory to my life, I learned how the streams of emotional processes and themes in my family of origin has informed who I am as a person and a minister. The care of my grandmother who would listen to people at her kitchen table lives on in me as I listen and offer care to patients at the bedside. This gave new meaning to my understanding of how we are “surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” as it says in chapter 12 of Hebrews. Applying the theory to my practice, I learned that as we care for the family or loved ones of a patient or person in the clinic or congregation, we care for the person.

My clinical placement during my CPE unit was at Rockingham Memorial Hospital. Offering spiritual care to patients there helped me discover the passion of my ministry to live out Jesus’ call to “love one another as I have loved you.” I learned how to meet people where they are at in their spiritual journeys whether it is one who is devout in their religion, or one who is seeking faith and meaning, or even an atheist. It has been deeply meaningful for me to see the way that God is made known when I am present to another person, compassionately listen to their story and facilitate how they find meaning in their journey. In these encounters, I have witnessed the beauty of the resiliency of the human spirit, the healing power of love in faith communities, and that there is a Source of Love that connects us as humans seeking meaning, purpose and connectedness in our life. I feel this is an experience and skill that is sorely needed in our world that has become so polarized in a number of ways.

My hope, dream, and vision for CPE at EMS is that it would continue to form women and men in the discipline and practice of deeply listening, offering a compassionate presence, and being attuned to the movement of the Spirit in the human encounter so that people might find healing and hope in wellness and suffering, and be amazed at the way God shows up and builds bridges between people of different faiths and walks of life.

Shawn Gerber is the director of spiritual care and chaplaincy services at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital and the chaplain manager for the south central region of Indiana University Health. He earned an MDiv with a concentration in pastoral counseling at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and a BA in Bible and religion with a psychology minor at Goshen College. He completed a fellowship in clinical ethics with the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics at IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. He is a trained facilitator in critical incident stress management. 

As an ordained minister with the Mennonite Church USA and a Board Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains, he has served for over 17 years in ministry. Among other roles, he served as a Chaplain Fellow and completed a chaplain residency at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia; pastored Mennonite churches in Colorado and Virginia; and been a chaplain manager at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver, Colorado and at Goshen General Hospital in Goshen, Indiana.

Shawn and his wife Rachel have three sons, Owen, Connor, and Zachary. Outside of his time at work, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, playing sports, camping and hiking, and traveling. 

We’ve invited a series of guest writers to share about how CPE training has shaped their life and ministry. Join us at a celebration during the January 2020 School for Leadership Training. To learn more, visit /seminary/slt/

Read reflections by Anne Weaver and Shawn Gerber.

***

Melanie K. Lewis MDiv ‘14  is lead chaplain for Valley Health System’s six hospitals. 

Eastern Mennonite’s CPE program changed the trajectory of my career aspirations, entirely. I began seminary as a postulant for ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. Congregational ministry was where I saw myself, and that call had been affirmed by my sending parish and by my denomination.

 A summer unit of CPE, which I did between the first and second years of seminary, is required for ordination in my denomination. Like many Episcopal seminarians, I initially saw this as a requirement to “get through,” and one that wouldn’t have much to do with my ministry. I was like many people going into the training, in that I didn’t understand that CPE is not just concerned with learning to function in a clinical environment. I didn’t realize that it would be learning about myself and how God was connecting me to other people. I did my clinical rotations in a level II trauma center, and experienced a summer of trauma, crisis and death. I remember telling my husband at the end of that summer, “Being a hospital chaplain is amazing work, but I could never do it. It’s just too hard.”

Over time, however, I realized that God was calling me to this “too hard” ministry. Initially I resisted it, because people’s emotions affect me greatly; I couldn’t imagine putting myself in the way of peoples’ crises on a regular basis. I also didn’t appreciate so many of the hard questions that we had to ask ourselves through the training; after all, it’s not usually easy to see one’s faults. CPE was extremely humbling for me. I did take more units of CPE as I finished my Master of Divinity, however, eventually completing four.

Over time, I learned to know myself in ways that I would never have been able to do otherwise – to see my own neediness and anxiety and to recognize my various emotional triggers. In knowing these things, I was better able to to put them aside, and focus on the person/s in front of me, and to honor their needs. I also learned self-care that enabled me to be resilient, and God made me stronger through the many events that I experienced. CPE equipped me for the ministry of meeting people where they are in traumatic or critical situations, and walking with them, supporting them emotionally and spiritually, and sitting with them in their pain.

Today I am the lead chaplain of a six-hospital system. I simply would not be qualified for this job without my CPE training. I divide my time between my leadership and training duties, and supporting patients, families, and staff – mostly in the four Intensive Care Units of our main trauma center. Much of my pastoral care time is spent doing things like supporting those who have made the hard decision to remove life support from a loved one, or who have lost someone in a trauma.

 I am more grateful to Kenton and Penny than I can express. Their patience, insight and wisdom has challenged me in ways that helped me to grow in completely unexpected ways. As they move the program into its next 20 years, I have two hopes for CPE: that it can continue to grow, and that it can become more affordable. I would also recommend that at least half a unit be required for the Master of Divinity degree. Everyone engaged in ministry (or any work at all!) would benefit from the training provided through CPE.

Melanie Lewis was born in Germany to American parents. She and her younger brother grew up all over the U.S. and Europe, traveling as a result of their father’s Air Force career. The Lutheran Church was her foundational community; she was baptized at the family church in Norway, confirmed in Worms, and grew up serving her church in every way she could. 

As an undergraduate, she attended Sewanee: The University of the South, and was exposed to the Episcopal Church. As a result of that influence, she fell in love with the Episcopal Church, and became Episcopalian after her marriage to her husband Richard. Before experiencing a mid-life call to ministry, Melanie had an academic career, teaching comparative literature and medieval studies, and serving in university leadership. She graduated from EMS in 2014. In addition to her lead chaplaincy position for Valley Health System’s six hospitals, she also serves Christ Episcopal Church in Millwood, Virginia, where she preaches once a month. Melanie and Richard have a grown son and daughter, and live in Winchester, Virginia.

We’ve invited a series of guest writers to share about how CPE training has shaped their life and ministry. Join us at a celebration during the January 2020 School for Leadership Training. To learn more, visit /seminary/cpe/anniversary

Read reflections by Melanie Lewis and Shawn Gerber.

***

Guest blogger Anne Kaufman Weaver MDiv ’16 has been employed as a chaplain at Landis Homes since March 2016.

Most CPE training centers occur within hospitals during an intense yearlong residency. That model did not suit my schedule or priorities. I wanted to develop my chaplaincy practice in a setting where I could cultivate longer term relationships. I completed four units of CPE at Landis Homes Retirement Community in Lititz, Pennsylvania, one extended unit at time. This slower approach allowed me to deepen my practice and strengthen relationships with residents, families, and staff. It also allowed me to take seminary courses at the same time as a unit of CPE. 

The books, movies, Bowen Family Systems conferences in Washington D.C., process reflections, verbatims, Clearness Committee and papers each contributed greatly to my stash of information and formation. During my final unit of CPE, I became an employee in the Pastoral Services Department at Landis Homes.  It felt like a win-win situation as we knew each other well after several years of interning. 

During each unit of CPE, I developed personal goals. I delved into Family Systems Theory within my own nuclear and extended families. Genogram mapping and story gathering opened my eyes to patterns and the impact of events. I took more initiative to connect with family members in healthier ways. I particularly learned to pay attention to who I am as a person and deliberately care for my own needs.  I also developed goals related to my work among older adults. I received training through the International End of Life Doula Association that shaped the way I walk alongside people who are dying. Assisting residents and families to find meaning and connection in the final months and weeks of life is gratifying and healing.

I continue to integrate what I learned in CPE into my chaplaincy practice at Landis Homes. I pay attention to dynamics such as “Triangles” when I hear a staff person voice a concern. How can I temporarily support this person so that she can go directly to her co-worker? I look for the “Togetherness-Individualness” continuum in the family as a loved one is dying. In what way can I encourage them to come to a healthy place of letting go or being present? I monitor whether I am over-functioning or under-functioning when a resident adjusts to a higher level of care. What resources does this person and his/her family contain to adjust to the new surrounding?

I dream of EMS providing extended CPE units for pastors, lay leaders and seminary students in their own local contexts.  Not all interested individuals can move to Virginia for seminary or CPE. With advances in technology and networks of community-based services, I hope that anyone who wants to take a unit of CPE while engaged in current responsibilities will be able to do so.  I am profoundly grateful for Kenton Derstine’s supervision as well as everything that I learned from my fellow students.

Anne Kaufman Weaver, a chaplain at Landis Homes, completed her Master of Divinity degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary in May 2016.  She also has a Master of Social Work degree from Marywood University. Anne was ordained in 2017 by Atlantic Coast Conference. Previously she obtained life coach training through International Coach Federation and enjoyed her practice, Coaching Connection, from 2006-2016. She served on the boards of Bridge of Hope BuxMont, Lancaster Mennonite School and ��ݮ����.

This lonely outpost was one of numerous stops for Jacobs as he traveled 5,000 miles – mostly by helicopter – to visit the 750 members of his battalion during his 10-month tour of duty in 2009.

Jacobs, who graduated from in 2004 with a master of divinity degree, planned to return to EMS this fall to enroll in . The intensive hospital-based program would prepare him for chaplaincy work among veterans and in hospitals and hospices. But he recently received notice that he is being called up in early 2014 for a 9-to 12-month ��deployment to the Middle East, to be stationed in Qatar.

Meanwhile other military chaplains have enrolled at EMS this fall. “Several new students this school year have expressed interest in being chaplains at veterans’ hospitals or with active-duty personnel,” said , the seminary’s admissions director and communications coordinator. “The EMS focus on chaplain ministry and peace-and-justice theology is a valuable mix to these students who are sorting out how to care for those who have experienced war and military service first hand.”

Jacobs is part of the , so he must be ready for duty at any time – at home or abroad. Stateside duty includes accompanying a senior officer to notify parents that their son or daughter has been killed.

In a war zone, a chaplain’s duty is to nurture the living, comfort the wounded, and honor the dead. In addition to leading Christian services and performing various sacraments, Jacobs prayed with wounded soldiers from the battlefield and accompanied them to the operating room. “In general, we are supposed to bring the presence of God,” he said.

Jacobs also did a lot of marriage counseling for the many soldiers who were separated from their spouses.

Since Jacobs is a Protestant chaplain, he was also responsible for making sure that members of his battalion who were not Protestant had access to Catholic or other appropriate members of the clergy.

Jacobs loves people – all kinds of people. He enjoys the diversity he finds in the Army and the variety of people he met in Afghanistan. He learned to understand the motivation of the Taliban and enjoyed interacting with Muslims. One man, using the Muslim word for clergyman, called Jacobs his “American imam.”

The seed for military chaplaincy was planted in Jacobs’ mind after he completed nearly 13 years of active duty in the U.S. Army. First he had to finish an undergraduate degree and then find a seminary to attend. He picked EMS, arriving with his wife and three children in 2001.

“EMS offered me a safe place to be myself and bare my soul,” he said. “They didn’t make me feel like I had to be a perfect person.”

While in seminary he took part-time jobs, making sure that he was able to interact with “common people,” which he figured would help him in future ministry. In fact, ministry started for him on the job. “I talked about faith with people who would never come to church,” he said.

Jacobs and his wife, Diana Patterson, are both from Lancaster County, Pa. John was raised Presbyterian and Diana was Mennonite. They were married when he enlisted in the Army at age 21. His first Army career took them to Alaska, South Korea, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

Since his seminary days, the Jacobs family has been based in nearby Broadway, Va. He hopes that a future job in hospital chaplaincy will bring more stability to his life and more focus to his career.

Penny Driediger will provide supervision for chaplain interns at Rockingham Memorial Hospital.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS) and Rockingham Memorial Hospital (RMH) in Harrisonburg, Va., are working together to train chaplains and pastors to be more compassionate caregivers in the times of crisis.

The hospital recently hired Penny Driediger as a part-time chaplain and Supervisory Education Student. Driediger is a 2008 seminary grad and a course assistant at EMS. She will provide chaplain support at the hospital and supervise chaplain interns at the hospital who are enrolled in the EMS Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program.

“The collaboration between EMS and RMH provides Driediger, and future Supervisory Education Students, with an opportunity to have a foot in both worlds – the clinical world of patient-focused care and the educational world, encouraging the growth and development of clinical pastoral education students,” said Robin Martin, manager of Chaplain Services at RMH.

Step forward for CPE

This step forward for EMS’ Clinical Pastoral Education program means that EMS can provide another level of education for those interested in the chaplain ministry and can provide more opportunities for students who want to go through the first level of the CPE program.

“The 40 percent time position with Rockingham Memorial Hospital represents a shared commitment to pastoral education,” said Kenton Derstine, CPE director at EMS. “It symbolizes the hospital’s confidence in our CPE program and an appreciation for what our chaplain interns have contributed to their patients and staff.”

“For the hospital, this agreement to have a Supervisory Education Student means that we will get an employee with a theological degree and several years of supervised ministry experience,” said Martin, “and someone who has learned active listening and empathic caregiving and is able to reach out in a compassionate pastoral role to connect with others, especially those who are suffering.”

For Driediger, this role seems a perfect fit.

“I have been serving as course assistant for Mentored Ministry and Clinical Pastoral Education at EMS,” Driediger said. “This new role with RMH means I will be continuing my education and further developing my ministry skills and pastoral identity.

” I’m especially excited by the dual role of chaplain and educator for students who are ministering in the hospital,” she stated. “This is a growing edge for me, one that I am embracing with energy and a sense of fulfillment.”

“I am delighted that Penny Driediger has joined our team in this dual capacity of RMH chaplain and EMS/SES student,” Martin said. “Penny’s own skills and gifts allow her to be very effective at coming alongside persons in crisis, in assessing their need and offering just the right note of support.”

“After the first time Penny responded as a chaplain to a real crisis situation, RMH staff members spontaneously stopped me in the hall to say how meaningful her responses had been to those in need. She will be a great asset to our team,” Martin added.

“Clinical Pastoral Education at Eastern Mennonite Seminary is a unique opportunity for theological students, clergy and laypersons to develop their ministry skills and leadership capacity,” said Derstine. “The practical ministry experience students gain in hospitals, retirement communities and congregations during their CPE experience is invaluable to their education as clergy and caregivers.”

��ݮ���� has received $6,585,205 in total contributions for the 2005-2006 fiscal year ending June 30, a 24 percent increase, or $1,293,843 more than last year.

Kirk L. Shisler, vice president for , reported that contributions of $1,730,000 to the set a new record, surpassing the 2005 annual fund total of $1,591,000 by more than eight percent. The University Fund supports student financial aid, funds for and other program budgets and the (CJP), Shisler noted.

Support for EMU’s undergraduate and graduate programs included endowment giving of $1,651,000 and bequests and restricted grants of $3,154,000, Shisler noted. The increase by more than $1 million in endowment support “was largely the result of three major gifts to establish endowments for undergraduate faculty release time, the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and the Clinical Pastoral Education program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary,” he said.

Giving by EMU alumni continued to increase both in total giving – $2,981,878 compared to $1,995,475 in 2004-05 – and in the number of donors at the $1,000-plus level, Shisler said.

Included in the giving totals are gifts from 175 EMU faculty and staff who supported the university with contributions of more than $112,000.

“In a host of unique ways, EMU donors have responded with a resounding ‘Yes’! to our persistent, and hopefully gracious, invitations to join with the university in its transformative work,” Shisler said.

“EMU is blessed with the support of many alumni and friends who care deeply about our mission,” said President Loren Swartzendruber. “Our intent is to be good stewards of the investments donors make toward the education of our students. In addition to signficant financial support, we value the prayers of God’s people on our behalf.”

A group of EMU faculty from a cross-section of departments are seeking to improve growing conditions in this arena by forming the Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society (SASS) for constructive engagement of science and religion.

The group has received a three-year, $15,000 matching grant administered by the the , a Philadelphia, Pa.-based organization, with funding from the John Templeton Foundation.

One of the SASS organizers is Kenton T. Derstine, director of (CPE) at . He said that the Metanexus funds “will be used to support ongoing study and discussion groups, bring outside speakers on the subject to campus, support publications that emerge from the group’s work, organize conferences and provide other forms of outreach in the larger Shenandoah Valley area.”

Events and special presentations “will be open to all interested people from the broader community,” Derstine said.

Another steering commmittee member, Roman J. Miller, professor of at EMU, said the Society “will provide resources and a formal context to encourage the integration of Christian faith – particularly in its Anabaptist expression and convictions concerning peacemaking and service.”

“The Society will help deepen our faculty’s collaborative work across departments and disciplines as well as provide opportunities for students to benefit both from ongoing discussions and outside resource persons brought to campus,” Dr. Miller said. “We expect that students will gain important practical experience in helping with the organizational work and in learning more about major real-world issues at the intersection of science and Christian faith,” he added.

Society activities have started over the Thursday noon hour in the east dining room with a weekly discussion of the book, “Whatever Happened to the Soul: Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature,” by Nancey Murphy and others. Discussion leaders are Theodore (Ted) Grimsrud and Christian Early of EMU’s department. The book’s author will be on campus Oct. 27 to interact with faculty, students and community persons.

SASS membership is open to EMU students, faculty and staff and community persons, including faculty and students from neighboring academic institutions. Membership dues are $5 for students and $10 for others. For more information, contact Ann G. Hershberger of the EMU department, (432-4190 or hershbea@emu.edu) or Kenton T. Derstine of the seminary (432-4565 or derstine@emu.edu).