CPE - Wk. 2

It feels like I've been here a month at least! The second week of Clinical Pastoral Education was a flurry of learning and preparation for the day when we were pushed out of the nest and expected to fly. We had didactics on how to approach Jewish patients and Catholic patients, taught by a rabbi and a priest, respectively. We spent an entire day in a training to be Designated Requestors of tissue, bone, and organs. My response to that training brought on a poem but no joy.

And then... I shadowed an on-call chaplain on the evening shift. In that four hours of shadowing, I attended patients and families who were there for gunshot wounds, stabbings, and cancer. I was present for patients surrounded by loved ones and patients who were completely alone. I was at the bedside of a patient who died after life supporting machines were turned off. It was my joy to end that day by visiting in Children's Hospital as a private citizen, looking in on the daughter of a friend of a friend. My friend had asked me to check on this little girl who underwent heart catheterization that day. I arrived at her room near 10:00 PM. She was awake, lively, smiling, happy, and going home the next morning. I was good to be with her and her mother (my friend's friend) to end the day.

On Friday, the time had come, and we CPE students were sent out to our units to serve as chaplains. My assignment is primarily on the neurology and neurosurgery floors. This work is private and sacred. The need for confidentiality is paramount. So you will not hear stories from me about my encounters with patients and their families.

After the day of visiting patients came to a close, I stuck around in theological discussion with a second-shift chaplain for an hour, then headed to the apartment to scarf down some leftovers before heading to temple.

It was Social Justice Shabbat at Central Reform Congregation. In addition to singing the prayers that are the central element of the Shabbat Service, Rabbi Susan led the congregation in honoring two of CRC's commitments to inclusivity: interfaith couples, who make up a quite significant percent of the congregation, on the one hand, and LGBTQ individuals, couples, and families, on the other. From the Torah portion for the week, she centered in on the story of Eldad and Medad, which ends with Moses expressing a desire for everyone to prophesy, rather than leaving prophecy in the domain of a favored elite. The sermon, then, was delivered by someone she said was outside the tent with Eldad and Medad.

The sermon was a presentation by gay CRC member Scott Emmanuel about the prophetic work he facilitates with the organization Growing American Youth, a safe-space social organization supporting LGBTAQ individuals age 21 and younger in the St. Louis area. It was a very moving presentation, which he concluded by allowing young people who are served by the group to speak from their own experience. The mother of one of them also spoke, an African American woman who is an ordained minister. Very moving experiences from all of them.

After the oneg I walked the four blocks back to the apartment. With each step, the wind got stronger. It started sprinkling. Distant thunder grew closer. I was barely inside the door when the heavens opened, with heavy rains and frequent lightning and thunder. I loved it! Just wish I could have watched it from a porch. But then I wouldn't have been able to watch it unfolding over the city from my 10th-floor window. A beautiful end to an intense week.