The Diocesan Dialogue
Current Issue
April 2008
A Chaplain in the war zone
"Yea, though I should walk through the valley of
the shadow of death..." —the 23rd Psalm
"God is everywhere, even in Iraq."
 Fr. Carl Wright stands in the pulpit of St. Mark's and delivers
a sermon about Baptism. As he sometimes does in his scripture based
sermons, he pauses, looks out over the congregation, and slips in a
story about his beloved mother. "She loves the Bible because
she says she finds so much of the Prayer Book in it." He has
the eyes and ears of St. Mark's that morning as he has a number
of times while assisting at the Cathedral. He processes out in a group
of clergy clad in Cathedral copes while singing every word of the six-verse
processional hymn. The music graduate played most of them as a one-time
church organist.
A little over a year and a half ago, Chaplain Wright
accepted the prayers from a small group of 8:00 congregants gathered
in the basement of the Cathedral during the time the early service
was conducted downstairs due to construction.
He was dressed in his
military fatigues and was about to leave for the Middle Eastern war
zone. The Hill Air Force Base Chaplain, the Episcopal priest, the soldier
with the rank of Major earned from almost 30 years of duty, was off
to war once again.
In his two tours in the Iraq area, Fr. Carl—as
he is known to the troops—has written essays in his private journal.
He now shares them with the Dialogue along with the poignant pictures
of some of the young men and women who came to find, restore, or share
faith in the face of war. He holds them high as heroes. He has seen
the worst of war. He has seen the faces of some of those names we pray
for each Sunday. Fr. Carl makes sure he will never forget those who
died as he held their hands. He has written their names in his Bible.
Your
editor has selected two of his many journal entries. They represent
war from a chaplain's point of view and not necessarily from
a politician or a war correspondent's point of view, which is
our normal way of learning about war. They also deal with the greatest
sacrifice a soldier can face—his or her life.
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