wfn.org | [ELO] Presiding Bishop visits military chaplaincies in Washington, D.C.

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal Life Online
>December 24, 2008

Presiding Bishop visits military chaplaincies in Washington, D.C.

>By Lucy Chumbley

[Episcopal News Service] Additional images accompanying this story are
available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78698_103996_ENG_HTM.htm

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori concluded a three-day visit
to military chaplaincies in the Washington, D.C., area with a December
23 trip to the Pentagon.

Jefferts Schori arrived at Bolling Air Force Base on December 20, and
spent the following day there, preaching at the 8:15 a.m. service and
learning about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the Rev. Michael
McEwen, an Episcopal Army chaplain.

Touring the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on December 22, the
Presiding Bishop spoke with soldiers who had lost limbs in service and
met with the families of those suffering from traumatic brain
injuries.

"It's been very, very good," Jefferts Schori said as she traversed the
Pentagon's corridors with the Rt. Rev. George Packard, the Episcopal
Church's bishop suffragan for chaplaincies; the Rev. Gerry Blackburn,
director for federal chaplaincies; and members of the Pentagon's
Episcopal community. "We had long discussions with the chaplains about
the work they do."

>But this day she was quiet, thoughtful.

Putting on sunglasses and turning up her collar, she stepped outside
into the bright, cold morning to visit the memorial to the victims of
the September 11 attack on the Pentagon.

She crunched along the gravel that surrounds the 184 memorial units --
marble benches with water flowing beneath -- and stopped next to one.
Putting one arm across Packard's shoulders and the other across
Blackburn's, she said a quiet prayer, accompanied by the sound of
flowing water and jets taking off from nearby Ronald Reagan National
Airport.

"Father Blackburn and I worked at Ground Zero in New York," Packard
said. "So to cross the threshold [of the memorial] just after 9:37
a.m. was really something for us. It's a very powerful memorial."

There are 360 military installations in the United States and
overseas, Blackburn said, and 106 Episcopal chaplaincies, including
some on Navy ships. He and Packard prepare twice-monthly reports for
the Presiding Bishop on the work of these chaplains.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_104001_ENG_HTM.htm