Serving out on the edge

Chaplains have a sense of adventure and an ability to serve "out on the edge." In fact a willingness to serve outside the relative stability of a local congregation is a basic requirement to be able to serve faithfully and effectively over the long haul as a chaplain.

All chaplains are expected and strongly encouraged to retain their connectedness to their home diocese and also with a local church and the local diocese where they are geographically assigned.

Before any chaplain is endorsed by Bishop George Packard, our Church's Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincy, he/she is required to have had at least two years of service in parish-centered ministry. But a capacity to serve "outside the camp" of the local, settled-nature of congregational life is a must for any institutional chaplain whether it be in the military, in a hospital, in a prison, etc. (See my first column in this series.)

Chaplain Gerry Bebber and his wife Ilene are folk who don't blink when asked to serve in out of the ordinary places. Last year they were asked by the US Army Chaplain Corps assignment officer to once again to move to Alaska to serve -- this time at Fort Richardson, near Anchorage. Some years ago they served at a post near Fairbanks and fell in love with the "last frontier" state of Alaska. Recently they even purchased a small, rustic cabin three hours north of Anchorage in a pristine, scenic, sparsely populated area but near a main road. This is their spiritual and physical retreat cabin for now and maybe for their retirement years too.

Alaska is by far geographically the largest of any of the 50 U.S. states but with less than 700,000 inhabitants, it has in many ways remained a frontier wilderness of great beauty and quietness. Moose and other wildlife freely roam even near the few cities and towns.

I had an opportunity to visit Gerry and Ilene Bebber last month in their snow covered neighborhood and inside their very hospitable home. I made Sunday rounds with Gerry for chapel services and then on two weekdays which included witnessing him effectively lead the Monday morning chaplain staff meeting. His intentional warm, few-words-n0-nonsense yet laid back approach make him easy to relate with by those he serves in the post chapel communities, and during his garrison encounters with officers and enslisted personnel.

As a senior Lieutenant Colonel, one of Gerry's responsibilities is to supervise and mentor three junior chaplains and two enlisted chaplain assistants. He does it with steady grace and calmness. It is effident by the way the chapel team relates to him that he has earned their deep respect and trust.

Although he maintains contact, Gerry is far away from his home Diocese of Quincy, Illinois. But as an Army active duty (i.e. full time) chaplain he and Irene have almost always been geographically distanced from mid-America. Gerry's tours have not only included duties in the eastern, southern and Pacific northwest states, he also has spent time in the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq.

A willingness to live and serve "out on the edge" is one of the qualifications for serving in just about any chaplaincy context, but especially for the military chaplain. Gerry Bebber and his supportive and equally flexible dear wife Irene serve God and their Episcopal Church faithfully and well.