A military vocation

Nashotah House-trained clergy have long undertaken the work of military chaplaincy. Nashotah House alumni Lamar Reece, Christopher Pokorny, and Lawrence McElrath recently reflected on their formation at Nashotah House, the discovery of their vocations, and life in the field.

“The mission field times 20”

The Rev. Lamar Reece, '13

REECE: My family is full of pastors and others in ministry, and I always felt a call to help people. From a very young age, I knew I wanted to help and knew that God would make that call clearer as I grew older. As a young man, I wanted to be an obstetrician. And, in the provision of how God calls people, he led me on the path to the priesthood and later military chaplaincy, which I like to tell people is the mission field times 20.

As I was discerning the priesthood, it was my uncle, a retired Air Force chaplain who first told me to check out Nashotah House. I was very interested in an Anglican studies program, as I was already ordained, and knew I was being called into the Anglican tradition.

After one visit, I loved Nashotah House immediately. The Benedictine tradition and liturgy was not something I had grown up with, but it was right up my alley. While I was here, I had the opportunity to serve as a sacristan, and I would say that role helped to shape me quickly and get me ready for the field.

A large majority of my day is spent with amazing servicemen and women, where I have the opportunity to work with them in a stressful environment. These are our defenders, the ones who will carry weapons, who guard us at the gate. And there I get to be alongside them when they’re out in the field – especially coming from that perspective of having already gone through basic training – being able to say “I’ve been where you were and I got through it.”

The experience in the field can be incredibly traumatic; as chaplains, we are extremely needed and valued for the message of hope we are able to give. The people who attend worship come from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures, not all Christian. Many express interest in knowing more about Jesus and my Anglican journey. During worship, this is the one place they get to come and actually relax, where they find peace, where they are able to find some hope or some joy or even just receive an encouraging word.

The chaplaincy is a challenge and every day is different, and I think if you have a passion for military men and women, ministering to them and their families, why not? What is stopping you? Maybe God is calling you to the chaplaincy. It might just be for you.

Life-changing formation

The Rev. Christopher Pokorny, '15

POKORNY: One of the first inklings of knowing I wanted to be a priest was the experience of living life in community with others. Growing up in a large family and experiencing the traditions and rituals that come with family gatherings created an ecosystem of chaos, charity,

forgiveness, and acceptance. Pairing that with my experiences on team sports in high school, I was fueled with a desire to lead others towards God in ritual, tradition, and truth. In high school, I recall standing in church and having a profound watershed moment where I thought “why would I not give my life to this?”

In college, I managed a coffee shop, and I discovered the gift of hospitality in providing a welcoming environment to the local workforce and students. God utilized this as a clarifying experience of my vocation as not just a priest, but a military chaplain. I continued my discernment process with my parish and diocese, and through the combination of asking others for their perspective and submitting myself to a discernment process, God continued to open doors for me to walk through.

Reflecting back, I consider my formation at Nashotah House to be vital and life-changing for my vocation as a military chaplain. I am convinced that seminary formation is for the student to solidify their own relationship with God so they can in turn reach into the chaos of the world and make sense of it

personally. It is only from that solid spiritual formation that a priest (and specifically a military chaplain) can then reach into the disorder of society and facilitate order within it. I would not have that ability without my time at Nashotah House. It is why I believe that Nashotah House is the premier institution to train Anglican and Episcopal military chaplains!

I currently serve as a unit chaplain in the Air Force, and my role is to provide spiritual care to service members and their families. On any given day, I field a variety of discussions, ranging from workplace stress, relationship issues, life in general, and of course, spirituality.

Nashotah House taught me three things that have been vital to serving as a military chaplain. First, be generous with your time and be available for discussing deep things. The faculty model this in totality, students living in and embracing community with others enables this practice.

Second, learn how to live in community even when you don’t want to. At Nashotah, you see fellow students several times a day, and you may grow tired of that. The seminary provides an environment where you can learn how to live with the seeming frustrations and mundaneness of campus life. It is an opportunity to grow and stretch yourself in community, and my experiences in the military are reminiscent of my time at the House.

Finally, the Benedictine ethos of work, study, and prayer creates a rhythm of life that is sustainable regardless of location. This has helped my family and me in coping positively with multiple moves, deployments, and the overall transient life of a military family.

In our world where many are questioning religion and spirituality, a military chaplain provides the space for service members and their families to explore truth as they try to see their place in the world. Society can be quite polarizing at times, and I think as a military chaplain, a priest can offer a place of non-judgmental neutrality (i.e., the Pax Nashotah lived out), allowing an opportunity for others to experience hope and make sense of the chaos we often experience on this side of eternity.

Prepared for the unexpected

The Rev. Canon Lawrence McElrath

McElrath: My grandmother was a huge influence on me, as I grew up always knowing about Jesus and loved being in church – the choir, the hymns – and I always knew I wanted to be a pastor and a teacher. Some of the best advice while I was discerning for ministry was: if you’re called to be a minister, go stack chairs, clean the bathrooms, and teach Sunday school. With that, it wasn’t until college that I came to know more about the early Christian church, which was like finding theological gold.

Later, I had entered the Army and was gearing up for deployment when I visited with a bishop who asked me if I had ever thought about Nashotah House to study for a Master of Divinity. And it was at Nashotah House where I fell in love with the presence of God, the prayers in the “prayer-soaked walls of St. Mary’s,” the formation that Nashotah offers to get someone ready for the priesthood. Here was a place that offered more than classwork and study. I was suddenly washing dishes, on work crew, polishing altar serviceware, studying John of Damascus, and diving deep into ascetical theology.

Nashotah House’s routines helped to get me ready for each and every nontypical day I find in the Army chaplaincy. In the military, I am responsible for the spiritual care of 834 servicemen and their families. My day starts at five in the morning with briefings and morning prayer – and it doesn’t stop: counseling, preparing families for baptism, and working with them in the various challenges they face. I have a very real sense of where I belong, being a parish priest in a totally different context, whether it is saying the Mass or taking part in training. In my chaplaincy, the world is my parish, so to speak, and I am called to say the Mass no matter what happens, whether the day brings marriage counseling sessions or I am in the field saying the Mass on top of a Humvee. This is a “parish” that is a very pluralistic environment: Sometimes I plant or water, and sometimes I am able to reap.

A lot of my work takes place with young people. This can be a rare demographic in the traditional parish. They might not always be able to describe what is in their heart or on their mind when they talk to you; they want the conversation to be highly meaningful.

After 1,000 Masses in three years at Nashotah House, I learned a lot about myself and learned what to pay attention to – from Fr. Holtzen’s red pen bleeding all over my papers to his pastoral advice written in the margins to Fr. Olver making sure I memorized key portions of the Mass by heart. There are times I cannot carry a physical book, and I am grateful to Fr. Olver for making us do that. †