What started as a conversation between three diocesan clergy members about ways to support
US Army Photo: Staff Sgt. Jerry Saslav
military service members and their families led to a March 8 visit with Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE to the Massachusetts National Guard's Joint Force Headquarters in Milford.
The visit gave the group a chance learn more about National Guard programs for service members and to discuss a range of topics: issues faced by military families during deployment; what the military is doing to promote diversity and to prevent sexual assualt and suicide; and the need for more military chaplains. "We need chaplains from mainline denominations," the Rev. (Lt. Col.) Paul Minor, Co-Rector of All Saints' Church in Belmont and full-time support chaplain for the Massachusetts National Guard, said. He organized the visit with the Rev. David Sullivan, a deacon and Vietnam veteran who coordinates military outreach in the diocese, and the Very Rev. Jep Streit, Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.
"The thing that I've learned and is heartening to me is how much the Guard cares about its people," Shaw said. Pictured (from left) are Col. Francis Magurn, the Rev. David Sullivan, the Very Rev. Jep Streit, Bishop Shaw, Brig. Gen. Gary Keefe, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Paul Minor, and Chaplain (Capt.) Jeremy Pickens.