Navy Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois

The Unitarian Universalist Military Ministry Great Lakes (UUMMGL) conducts weekly worship services for Navy recruits at Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Command’s Memorial Chapel in Great Lakes, IL (about 40 miles north of downtown Chicago and 60 miles south of downtown Milwaukee). The ministry serves more than 700 recruits annually, with weekly attendance ranging ~5-25. The recruits are all young adults, 18-35 years old. The ministry also distributes to all who want one a copy of Bless All Who Serve: Sources of Hope, Courage and Faith for Military Personnel and Their Families.

Establishing a program at the base chapel

Department of Defense Instruction 1300.17(4a) states, “The DoD places a high value on the rights of members of the Military Services to observe the tenets of their respective religions or to observe no religion at all. It protects the civil liberties of its personnel and the public to the greatest extent possible, consistent with its military requirements, in accordance with DoD Instruction (DoDI) 1000.29 (Reference (c)).

Execution of this instruction varies from command to command. The UU Military Ministry Great Lakes depends on an established infrastructure at the base chapel and ongoing support from an assigned volunteer coordinator, the senior chaplain and the base commander.

The chapel at the Recruit Training Command has Protestant, Catholic and Jewish chaplains on staff. More than a dozen smaller denominations are served by a network of volunteer lay leaders. Faith traditions range from Baha’i to Christian Science to Eastern Orthodox Christian to Unitarian Universalist. Each faith group is allowed up to five lay leaders, one of whom serves as their Point-Of-Contact with the chaplain’s office. There are more than 70 lay leaders who conduct the traditional worship services of their faith.

The program is managed by one of the officers in the chaplain’s office. Responsibilities include determining the schedule of services and allocating rooms (UU services are from 9:00 – 10:00 each Sunday morning in Chapel D), ensuring that each lay leader has been certified by their denomination (in our case, a contact at the UUA), had the proper security clearance, and hold an annually renewed photo ID and pass for their vehicle. At a mandatory annual training session the chaplain spells out the do’s and don’t of the lay leader’s interface with the recruits: no food other than sacramental, no touching, no sharing of personal information, and a reminder that lay leaders do not have the confidentiality privileges of chaplains.

Becoming a Volunteer Lay Leader

An applicant must be a Unitarian Universalist who is a member in good standing of his/her congregation and is recommended by the minister. Applicants are requested to have documented young adult UU worship leader credentials, for example the UUA Renaissance Worship module or other training that will be provided. They must receive UUA endorsement to conduct young adult worship. Applicants must also complete the chaplain’s annual worship leader training.  For security purposes, they must pass a computerized National Agency Check of Social Security and Drivers License numbers in order to be issued a photo ID and vehicle pass. These are renewed annually. Only persons with these credentials are allowed on base – no visitors.

The volunteer Lay Worship Leader includes the following responsibilities:

• ability to relate to young adults training for military service,
• lead worship 10 times a year, about once every 5 weeks
• attend lay worship leader meetings/trainings about once a year,
• coordinate their worship schedule with other UU lay leaders using an online signup sheet

The work load is about 2-4 hours worship preparation and 1 hour to lead worship.  Since it is a different group of recruits each week, most lay leaders create a portfolio of services that can be repeated on short notice with minimal fresh preparation.

UUMMGL is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages women, persons of color, young adults, and persons with disabilities to apply.

Contact Information

At this time (November, 2023) there is an opening for one lay leader.  If you would like to learn more about it and how to become a UU lay leader at the Navy’s Great Lakes Recruit Training Command, email  Roger Baron, UUMMGL Board Chair, at rbbaron@comcast.net with cc: to info@uummgl.org or mail a letter to Unitarian Universalist Military Ministry Great Lakes, c/o North Shore Unitarian Church, 2100 Half Day Road, Deerfield, IL 60015. Please provide your name, phone number, email and a brief bio of your experience as a Unitarian Universalist.