Covenant News

Covenant Chaplain Promoted to Rank of Major

ROSEMONT, IL (February 6, 2002) - Judy Hamrick, a member of Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago and a United States Army chaplain of nearly 10 years, was promoted to the rank of major in a ceremony Tuesday afternoon at the O'Hare Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Hamrick, a battalion chaplain of the 84th Engineer Combat Battalion since last June, was officially upgraded to major by Covenant chaplain Doug Wootten, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. She serves at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, providing pastoral care to nearly 900 soldiers and their families.

A graduate of Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York, Hamrick originally considered mission work as a viable ministry option. She believes the Army has proven to be a special mission work, with several stops in both the United States and Korea and different ministry priorities at every point.

"The Army is a culture all its own, with its own language," Hamrick said. "It's like a mission field and you have to know the culture to be a part of the culture. In my first assignment (Fort Sill, Oklahoma), I did tons and tons of counseling, especially family counseling.

"When I got to Korea," she continued, "there were almost no families - the issues were totally different and I led a lot of religious retreats. My next assignment (Fort Belvior, Virginia) was in a hospital, providing ministry to patients and ministry to hospital staff."

Being an officer in the Army will allow Hamrick more privileges, but Hamrick knows the rank means little without the trust of both staff and soldiers. She has enjoyed providing ministry to many in a critical stage of life.

"It's a young community," Hamrick said of the Army. "There are a lot of opportunities to help people still trying to figure out where they're headed in life."

Hamrick is one of approximately 1,100 chaplains in the United States Army. Besides her work at Schofield, she leads worship services at another installation base for a congregation of 45.

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