Active-duty military service members have new pathway to become chaplains

Acting Secretary of the U.S. Navy Hung Cao announced the Chaplain In-Service Procurement Program on Oct. 30, describing it as a new pathway for active-duty Navy and Marine Corps personnel to become Navy chaplains.

The first initiative to come from the Department of War’s recently established Office of Religious Affairs, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called the program that office’s “first win.”

Under the funded option of the new program , the service covers tuition for a qualifying graduate theological degree at an accredited U.S. institution while service members remain on active duty.

After graduation, they will transition temporarily to inactive status through the Career Intermission Program to gain a minimum of two (and not more than three) years of full-time religious leadership experience as a religious ministry professional with their endorsing organization, after which they may then be commissioned as active-duty Navy Chaplain Corps officers.

Previously, active-duty Sailors or Marines who felt called to the chaplaincy usually had to leave military service, losing pay and benefits, to complete seminary and professional ministry experience as civilians, at their own…