Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I wanted to get this newsletter out to you as some have been asking about information for this year’s conference. We hope to start taking registrations early in June and information is included in this newsletter. This year we will using Eventbrite to register and take payments at the same time. I want to thank the team at St Louis for their hard work and I can assure you we will be in for a great time.
I do want to remind you all that as part of the application process you will need to acknowledge that you have taken out appropriate travel insurance. We will also ask people to acknowledge that they will take care of their own health and not attend sessions if they feel unwell.
One of the joys I have as President is seeing the impact Chaplaincy has around the globe. I love hearing your stories and seeing some of our chaplaincies being acknowledged through media and social networks.I am also reminded that we must never take for granted the place we have been given to serve our respective communities. I find that I remind myself to hold the chaplaincy lightly. That I am in the airport on the invitation of management and supported by others such as the airlines and ground handlers but at any time they could decide that we are not needed.
I remind myself that we have a part to play and we need to add value to the airport community.I encourage each of you in your place to think about and reflect on the part you play. Our Chief of Aviation said something profound when answering a question on why does the airport have chaplains. His response is the airport is made up of hardware (the physical buildings and resources), the software (the technology to run this complex business) and the humanware. The airport has staff and passengers with many emotions and all sorts of reason to travel and then there are those traumatic things that can happen in our airports. We provide the humanware in our compassion and unconditional love for our fellow staff and passengers.
Please be encouraged in what you bring every day in your space.
Blessings
Martyn
President