7 Blessing in Iraq By Sgt. 1st Class John Cordero A


DDER, Iraq – It was February 2005 when a battalion chaplain decided to accompany his soldiers on a foot


patrol near the Green Zone in Iraq. Suddenly, gunfire erupted from all sides.


“I remember my assistant yelling at me, ‘Chaplain, get down!’ And I remember thinking, ‘Hey, we’re the good guys, why are you shooting at us?’”


Blessing said he went outside the wire, or left base, on about 200 patrols, and was involved in every imaginable combat experience from roadside bombs to sniper shootings to dealing with both a hostile and a warmly receptive Iraqi population. Nevertheless, he found the time to meet his soldiers’ spiritual and emotional needs in the field, as well as holding regularly scheduled worship services. And, in return, his men would watch over him.


“There was a lot of concern with death, dying and injury,” he said in reference to providing one-on-one counseling with his soldiers. “I was either present when they were killed, or met them at the emergency room, or at the morgue. I would talk to soldiers if they were wounded or if deceased, commit their bodies to God.”


Now when Blessing meets with his soldiers, he deals with such issues as family, marriage counseling, suicide prevention and interpersonal relationships in the work environment.


He said he was quite surprised with the intensity and offensive combat of 2005 as compared to the garrison environment of occasionally being attacked, or receivers of indirect fire. Yet he said he has no regrets about becoming an Army chaplain.


Blessing, an ordained Episcopal priest and rector of St. Andrew’s, La Mesa, received permission from his bishops to join the Army Reserve in January, 1993.


He attended five drills before going off to the nine-week chaplain’s basic training, and remembers how challenging it was to learn to work with the 100 other clergymen from “all different backgrounds” in his basic training unit to function as an Army team.


“That was the most ecumenical experience in my life,” Blessing remembers, noting that chaplains did not receive training to


CONVENTION Continued from Page 3


during the afternoon business session on Saturday.


“This remains an extraordinary age of mission,” the bishop said. “God’s mission has a church. We should be undeterred by borders and boundaries, but seek them out as the place for us to do our church craft and to look for that border place…dare to be fearless followers of Jesus; we dare to be a Eucharistic people of hope.” The full address is available at edsd.org > Bishop’s Welcome. For more information about the strategic plan, see article on page 5.


Elections The elections required a fourth ballot


this year, as voters selected our diocesan deputies to General Convention 2012. The clergy deputies are: the Rev. Canon Allisyn Thomas, the Rev. Andrew Green, the Rev. Michael Russell and the Rev. Paul Carmona with the Rev. Suzanne Watson and the Rev. Bill Zettinger serving as first and second alternates, respectively. The lay deputies are: Pauline Getz, Suzanne Foucault, Jacqueline Bray and Louis Glosson with Dick Goodlake and Carroll Levien serving as first and second alternates respectively.


Videos, photos, audio clips, text, workshop powerpoints and more details about the resolutions and elections can be found on edsd.org/Convention. X


The Rev. Bob Blessing flies over Baghdad in a military helicopter. Chaplain Blessing plans to return to St. Andrew’s, La Mesa, his home congregation, on Easter Sunday.


kill enemy combatants. “We didn’t shoot (weapons); we didn’t engage in combat training.”


In late 2004, the California Guard assigned Blessing to fill a chaplain vacancy for a unit deploying to Iraq.


“It was a very difficult mobilization,” he said, noting that he had an eight- day notice to mobilize with that unit.


“We lost many soldiers and many more were wounded, but the band of brothers (we established) in the 184th was tight.”


His duties have included briefing the Air Force each Monday morning on the status of religious activities in the base, working with different leaders from other bases to coordinate chaplain coverage, and better acquainting himself with fellow chaplains from other faiths.


“That was the most ecumenical experience in my life.”


Blessing’s second deployment did not bother him. During the unit’s first pre- mobilization training, Blessing often found himself among the troops in rainy weather offering encouragement to complete all required tasks, and making himself available to deal with any soldier crisis. As the unit continued its mobilization training, Blessing adjusted himself to learning the tasks of an installation chaplain.


“I returned to the land of hot winds, dust and T-walls,” he said. “It was like the last four years never existed once I was back in Baghdad.”


“I attend as many services as I can to support the other chaplains and the people who come to worship,” he said, noting that he works with them to coordinate 13 Catholic, Protestant and Jewish services each Sunday.


And, he and his fellow chaplains are always available for crisis intervention.


“I look forward to returning home to my family and my church in La Mesa, California, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, and rejoining our community of faith, called to worship our Lord Jesus Christ together,” he said.


And, by the grace of God, by Easter Sunday he will have done just that. X


Convention Quotes


“The Holy Spirit was upon us at this year’s convention,” said Bishop Mathes. “We affirmed our vocation to participation in God’s mission by crossing the boundaries that separate us from others.”


“I think the spirit at Convention this year was wonderful,” said the Rev. Wilfredo Crespo, Secretary of Convention. “It was great to have Diana Butler Bass with us and we accomplished everything we set out to do.”


“I was impressed by the transparency of the budget and the bishop’s ability to infuse humor into some rather dry material,” said Cassie Lewis, first-time delegate from St. Paul’s Cathedral.


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