Tuesday, June 30, 2009

UPCOMING LECTURE: “A Buddhist Reading Kant, a Kantian Reading the Buddha” by Justin Whitaker

I'm very pleased to announce that the Department of Religious Studies at UWest will soon host a lecture by my good friend Justin Whitaker of Goldsmiths College/The University of Montana. Friends of the university and our program are welcome to attend. You'll find all the pertinent information below:



The Department of Religious Studies at University of the West presents

“A Buddhist Reading Kant, a Kantian Reading the Buddha”

a lecture by
Justin Whitaker
of
Goldsmiths College/The University of Montana

Monday, July 13th, at 3:30 p.m.
AD207 (“Smart Classroom”)

Justin Whitaker is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His dissertation title is "Buddhist and Kantian Ethics: A Comparative Analysis." He holds an M.A. in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University in England and a B.A. in Philosophy from The University of Montana. In addition, before studying in London, he did graduate studies in Philosophy at The University of Montana. He was an Instructor in Buddhist Studies at The University of Montana in 2006-2007, and served as Administrative Officer at the institution’s Center for Ethics this past year. Justin has lectured on Buddhist ethics, meditation, and philosophy in Spain, England, and the U.S. A practicing Buddhist for eight years, he has led meditation groups since 2003. He currently resides in Missoula where he leads the UM Campus Sangha and meditates on Montana's mountains and rivers. His award-winning blog is American Buddhist Perspective (http://americanbuddhist.blogspot.com).

Lt. Jeanette Shin on "A Growing Chaplaincy"

Our friend Lt. Jeanette Shin, CHC, USN, the first commissioned Buddhist chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces, offers a lovely reflection at Buddhist Military Sangha about the "a growing chaplaincy":
    Buddhist chaplains come from all three major Buddhist traditions: Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana. There does not seem to be any one specific tradition or school which is more conducive to or works better within chaplaincy than others. Also, as chaplaincy is a new dimension for many of these traditions; this offers an opportunity for Buddhists of very different practices to come together and share ideas and theories on chaplaincy (which is already occurring via the Buddhist Chaplains Network and other venues). This is unique in the history of Buddhism itself!

    The importance of Buddhist Chaplaincy therefore lies in the interfaith and intra-Sangha dialogue it provides. One of the misconceptions of chaplaincy is that chaplains will simply care for their own. Chaplains are called upon often to provide spiritual care, counseling, or simply just to listen, for all persons. It is not the case that a chaplain will just sit in an office waiting for the buzzer to ring for a specific faith group. Chaplains very often are out and about, making visitations, counsel persons not of their own faith, and often those not belonging to any faith group. Proselytizing is not in the chaplain's job description. Negative media reports involving chaplains nearly always involve someone's blatant attempts at conversion, or ethical violations. Chaplains must navigate a thin line on when and where to share faith, and what behaviors are and aren't acceptable. Buddhists are not immune from this, and we can even learn something about this from our Christian and Jewish colleagues. Even as chaplaincy is "new," we must also have to explain it to other Buddhists who may not understand what it is, why it is important, or why a Buddhist teacher or monk or nun must associate with non-Buddhists: it has also been my experience that we must justify our presence not only to some non-Buddhists, but also to our fellow Buddhists who misunderstand chaplain work.
Read her full post here.

Monday, June 29, 2009

L.A.P.D. Names First Muslim Chaplain

"Sheik Qazi Asad prays five times each day. The Pakistani-born immigrant, who is now a U.S. citizen, first got involved with law enforcement after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, working with the Sheriff’s Department." Photo by Jake Stevens for the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Times reports today on the appointment of the Los Angeles Police Department's first Muslim chaplain:
    Sheik Qazi Asad, 47, will serve as a reserve chaplain at the LAPD's North Hollywood station.
Warmest congratulations and As-Salāmu `Alaykum, Imam!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care Graduates Its First Clinical Pastoral Education (C.P.E.) Students

"Back row (left to right): Rick Panteleoni, Robert Allen, Susan Small, Kate Kalin. Front row (left to right): Rev. Trudi Jinpu Hirsch, Mel Sebastiani, Chodo Campbell, Anne Reigeluth, Koshin Paley Ellison." Image via Koshin Paley Ellison.

This from our friend (and a past interviewee at my personal blog) Koshin Paley Ellison of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care's Buddhist Contemplative Care Training Program:
    On June 26, 2009, the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care graduated it's first class of CPE students, each receiving one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. We are proud to be the first Buddhist organization to graduate Buddhist Chaplain students with ACPE accreditation. This is made possible through our partnership with Healthcare Chaplaincy of New York. NYZCCC has expanded its programing to offer two Buddhist CPE units commencing in September 2009. Both classes are fully enrolled. Rev. Trudi Jinpu Hirsch, the Center's ACPE Supervisor leads the training.

    We will also commence our third year of Foundations in Buddhist Contemplative Care Training (a pre-requisite for our CPE enrolment). We are proud to announce that NYZCCC now has over 60 students that have completed the foundations program and this years enrollment is also complete.
We offer our warmest congratulations here at UWest!

For more information about the NYZCCC's work, follow this link.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Important News about U.S. Military Chaplains

Two important articles emerged this week about military chaplaincy. First, the Associated Press reported that the Rev. Tim Vakoc, a Catholic priest from Minnesota who lost an eye and was severely brain damaged by a roadside bomb in Iraq five years ago, has died.
    "A man of peace, he chose to endure the horror of war in order to bring the peace of Christ to America's fighting men and women," Archbishop John Nienstedt said in a statement. "He has been an inspiration to us all and we will miss him. We ask everyone to remember him in prayer."

    The major was hospitalized for four months at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, and was transferred in a near coma to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis in October 2004.

    After many surgeries and infections, he slowly started to recognize friends and family, and began to communicate with squeezes of the hand or slight smiles. In the fall of 2006, he spoke for the first time in 2 1/2 years.

    Vakoc, a Robbinsdale native, served as a parish priest before becoming an Army chaplain in 1996, and serving in Germany and Bosnia. He shipped out to Iraq shortly before his 44th birthday.
We say goodbye, and thank you for your service, Father.

[Image via CaringBridge.org.]



The other article, from Newsweek, offers a strong report on the "problem of an evangelical military culture that sees spreading Christianity as part of its mission." Here's a snippet filled with some good information:
    [This culture] is influenced in part by changes in outlook among the various branches' 2,900 chaplains, who are sworn to serve all soldiers, regardless of religion, with a respectful, religiously pluralistic approach. However, with an estimated two thirds of all current chaplains affiliated with evangelical and Pentecostal denominations, which often prioritize conversion and evangelizing, and a marked decline in chaplains from Catholic and mainstream Protestant churches, this ideal is suffering. Historian Anne C. Loveland attributes the shift to the Vietnam War, when many liberal churches opposed to the war supplied fewer chaplains, creating a vacuum filled by conservative churches. This imbalance was exacerbated by regulation revisions in the 1980s that helped create hundreds of new "endorsing agencies" that brought a flood of evangelical chaplains into the military and by the simple fact that evangelical and Pentecostal churches are the fastest-growing in the U.S.

    The chaplains minister to flocks that are, on the whole, slightly less religious than the general population and slightly less evangelical. According to a 2008 Department of Defense survey, 22 percent of active-duty members of the military described themselves as evangelical or Pentecostal (although the actual number of evangelical-minded believers is likely higher when encompassing personnel who follow more evangelical expressions of mainline Protestant denominations, as well as a sizable percentage of the additional 20 percent that describe themselves simply as "Christian").
We have two students in our program who are military chaplain candidates, but all kinds of chaplains and other clergy should definitely read the article in full here.

[Image via Newsweek.]

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Our Ad on the Buddhist Geeks Podcast!

Our enrollment counselor and co-blogger Jason Kosareff, community and media relations guru, recently bought some ad time for the M.Div. program on the very popular podcast Buddhist Geeks. I recommend the show highly to students of our program (it's one of the reasons I suggested the program as a possible ad venue), and encourage you to listen our ad below or here.

NEWS: Our Program Information Has Been Updated at UWest's Official Website

Good news, everybody: our program's information has been updated at UWest's official website. Take a look here:

http://www.uwest.edu/chaplaincy

One important note: we discovered that we had done our math wrong, and the correct number of total credit hours for the program is 75. This is three credits more than we had previously reported. Otherwise, there's nothing major to report and no surprises--just some long overdue corrections and clarifications and such.

I'm going to submit a couple more updates (including the FAQs that were posted here at this blog), so stay tuned for posting about that.

For these much-needed changes, we have our Office of Extended Studies' web design/media specialist Patrick Gonzaga to thank. Thanks, Patrick!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

A Tour of the Coordinator's Office

Ever wonder about all those signs and symbols and things in my office? Well, here's a personalized tour with explanations:

Friday, June 19, 2009

In Solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi on Her 64th Birthday...

The Los Angeles Times on the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care's Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program

"Bob Allen leads Victoria Exconde in Christian prayer after talking with her about her approaching breast cancer surgery. 'Thank you, Father,' said Exconde, a Roman Catholic from the Philippines. 'You don’t have to call me Father,' Allen replied good-naturedly as he got up to leave." Photo by Nicholas Roberts for the Los Angeles Times.

There's a good article about our friends at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care's Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program on the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning. Take a look!

I previously interviewed article subject Robert Chodo Campbell and Koshin Paley Ellison for my personal blog. You can read the transcript of our conversation here.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Nursing Proposal to WASC Today

I know this isn't chaplaincy related:

UWest President Dr. Allen Huang and his team have sent a proposal to WASC today (June 15) that, if approved, would allow UWest to offer an RN-to-BSN nursing program.

WASC will review the proposal at its August 24 meeting in Sacramento. Wish us luck!