US Navy Chaplaincy

Navy | Marine Corps | Coast Guard

What Navy Chaplains Do:

The Navy Chaplaincy is a unique ministry–a diverse and exciting opportunity to bring spiritual values and guidance to the many men and women of the sea services. The Chaplain Corps offers you a future filled with possibilities.

Chaplain Corps officers are religious professionals in spiritual care. They work in collaboration with all Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard commands throughout the world to deliver religious ministry to active-duty personnel and their families. The areas of responsibility include:

• Navy ships at sea

• Homeported in the continental United States and overseas

• Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard units and chapels at home and around the world

• Navy hospitals near military bases; service academies and military training schools

Navy Chaplains conduct religious services, provide pastoral counseling, give spiritual leadership, supply religious education, facilitate the worship of faiths other than their own, serve men and women of many religious backgrounds, and work in a truly interfaith setting. Wherever assigned, you will be a member of a highly professional, committed team.

The Navy welcomes applicants who meet specific eligibility and educational requirements and who wish to begin the highly competitive process that leads to a commission in the Navy Chaplain Corps.

Requirements:

To be an Officer in the US Navy Chaplain Corps, you must obtain an ecclesiastical endorsement from your faith group. This endorsement should certify that you are:

• An ordained priest in a CEC Parish at least two years.

• Qualified spiritually, morally, intellectually, and emotionally to serve as a Chaplain in the Navy.

• Sensitive to religious pluralism and able to provide for the free exercise of religion for all military personnel, their family members and civilians who work for the Navy.

• Possess a Baccalaureate degree of not less than 120 semester hours.

• Possess a 72-semester hour graduate degree in theological or religious studies from ATS accredited seminary. This is usually a Masters of Divinity degree.

Chaplain Candidate Program

If you are in the process of starting or completing your graduate theological degree, you can potentially enter the Navy Chaplain Candidate Program as a student. Through this program, you can be commissioned as a Navy Reserve Officer while you finish your theological studies at an accredited seminary or graduate school.

The Navy Chaplain Candidate Program is a chance for seminary students to see real Navy Chaplains at work. You will be exposed to the challenges and rewards of working in the diverse situations that the Navy has to offer. Students may have on-the-job training wherever Navy Chaplains serve – at sea, at home or overseas.

As a Chaplain Candidate, you will wear the uniform and receive pay and benefits while on your annual training and not in school. You will truly get to experience what it is to serve as a Navy Chaplain. You will know for certain what this incredible experience is like and how it affects the men and women of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

Program Benefits:

As a Navy Chaplain Candidate, you will receive on-the-job training under the direct supervision of a Navy Chaplain during summer breaks. This gives theological students an opportunity to go to the Fleet, to shadow Chaplains on ships, and to have hands-on ministry opportunities at places like Bethesda Naval Hospital or Naval Base San Diego. Completing the Chaplain Candidate Program qualifies you for significant pay advantages once you enter Active Duty.

After the Chaplain Candidate Program, prospective students are interviewed by the Chaplain Candidate Program Manager and by a Navy Recruiter. Then these prospects go before the Selection Board to see if they meet the requirements of the Navy Chaplain Corps.

For More Information Contact:

Bishop David Epps, Military Chaplain Endorser:

Email: davidepps@ctk.life or cell phone at 770-714-2560

Dean of the Cathedral: Father Jason Epps: 678- 858-9200

Address information to:

The Cathedral of Christ the King

Military Office

ATTN: Bishop David Epps

4881Hwy 34 E

Sharpsburg, GA 30277

Endorser Staff:

Reverend Canon Dr. Brett Travis, Retired Army Chaplain (LTC-R):