Many 'Firsts' for Naval Academy Chaplain Susan Carney
Episcopal News Service. April 15, 1993 [93073]
Jerry Anne Hopkins, Free-lance writer in Annapolis, MD. This article is based on an article she wrote for the Maryland Church News.
She was the first woman Episcopal priest to become a chaplain in any branch of the armed forces. She was the first woman chaplain of any denomination to serve aboard a Navy ship of war -- and the first actually to go to war. And now Lt. Cdr. Susan Carney is the Episcopal chaplain at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. You guessed it; she's the first woman of any denomination to serve there in the chaplaincy.
Reconciling the duties of Naval officer and priest is complex and demanding, requiring a great deal of organization, decisiveness, patience and enthusiasm. Chaplain Carney exhibits all these qualities in abundance, along with a certain wry humor. Up close, you see that her blue eyes twinkle kindly, her smile is warm and wide, and when she throws back her head to laugh, it's an honest, full-bodied laugh, the kind you can't help joining.
For Episcopal midshipmen at Annapolis -- "midshipmen" is always used,as an inclusive term -- she celebrates the Eucharist every Tuesday in the chapel opposite her office in Bancroft Hall, dormitory for all 4,500 aspiring Navy and Marine Corps officers. For Episcopalians she started a First Holy Communion Class. At her suggestion, baptisms now take place during the main Sunday service rather than privately.
In addition to her sacramental duties -- which include preaching and celebrating at the Protestant services and performing weddings, lots of weddings -- Susan is pastor and counselor to the midshipmen, not only Episcopal midshipmen. She and the Academy's six other chaplains, are a part of the middies' daily routine. "The Commandant likes us to be with the midshipmen," she explained. "We're here to train them and to be role models for them all the time. They're under a lot of pressure and there's always a lot going on."
And, Carney said, it is important to understand what an Episcopal priest, or any military chaplain, needs to do: "Our job is to provide and facilitate religious ministry."
As an illustration Carney talked about her service on the USS Suribachi, the ammunition-carrying ship in which she went to war in the Persian Gulf. "I was the only chaplain on board and we had several Jewish personnel. Before that ship sailed away for six months, it was my job as Navy chaplain to make sure that I had provisions for Passover, Seder kits, anything those sailors needed. When you're deployed you can't pick up the phone and place an order. When you're at sea, the captain does not want to hear that the ship has no palms for Palm Sunday. Whether the personnel are Muslims or Buddhists or Mormons or Roman Catholics, it's my job as chaplain to provide and facilitate for all those people. I have to make sure that everybody's freedom of religion is provided for. Whatever the person's faith is, it's my job as an Episcopal priest to provide and facilitate."
Carney, the daughter of a career Air Force officer, said she felt called to the priesthood when she was a child. After graduating from Southwestern Missouri State University, she entered Princeton Seminary, even though the Episcopal Church had not started ordaining women. Once the church approved legislation allowing women to be ordained during her third year at Princeton, she transferred to General Theological Seminary in New York. Ordained in 1980, she served in New Jersey and Connecticut parishes. After fulfilling the church's two-years-in-parishes requirement, she sought Navy chaplaincy and in 1983 the suffragan bishop for the Armed Forces endorsed her for active duty. She was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Station outside Chicago then later in Washington before duty aboard the Suribachi. She came to Annapolis in 1991 and will stay until '94.
Chaplain Carney is under two chains of command -- the Navy and the Episcopal Church's suffragan bishop of the Armed Forces, the Rt. Rev. Charles Keyser, as well as her diocesan bishop, the Rt. Rev. Melick Belshaw of New Jersey. "The bishop holds my endorsement paper," she said. "If I did anything not in keeping with the church's traditions, that paper could be withdrawn."
Keyser joined Chaplain Carney recently for an early morning service followed by a confirmation service in the Naval Academy's main chapel. "Susan Carney is typical of our chaplains serving the Armed Forces in an ecumenical, pluralistic environment," Keyser said later. "She celebrates Eucharist for Episcopalians and also conducts divine worship for the entire Protestant community. Her ministry includes emphases on good liturgics, evangelism, pastoral care and community leadership," Keyser added. "For her, issues such as racism, sexism and sexual orientation are everyday concrete concerns, rather than abstract concepts."
Carney hopes to stay in the Navy for 20 years, then return to civilian parish ministry or teaching. When it comes time to leave the Naval Academy, which she regards as "the pinnacle of chaplain assignments," she will continue the care-giving ministry that clearly has been a hallmark of her career.
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