The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Dressed in her green U.S. Army uniform, Chaplain Dawn Dimick opened her remarks at the 2023 Chaplain Training Seminar by asking all the female chaplains and applicants in the Conference Center Theater to stand.
More than 40 women, many dressed in uniforms, stood in response.
“If I had asked that question 10, 15 or 20 years ago, instead of 30 to 40 there would have been three or four,” she said.
Dimick then presented research on the history of Latter-day Saint women chaplaincy in timing with this year’s 50th anniversary of women serving as chaplains in the United States Armed Forces.
Dimick said the history of female chaplains reminded her of Elder David A. Bednar’s general conference message Saturday, Sept. 30, of untold stories of sacrifice and service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“These women performed ministry before centralized endorsement and they often didn’t know of one another,” she said. “And they did what they did, not because of a desire for recognition, but to follow the call God had placed on their life. This presentation today is all about recognizing their service, the decades of ministerial effort and work that laid the foundation for all the Church-endorsed female chaplains that stood today.”
Dimick was followed by President Camille N. Johnson, the Church’s Relief Society general president, who drew parallels between chaplaincy and the ministry of the Relief Society.
“These women, all members of the Relief Society, were doing what the sisters of the Relief Society have always done,” President Johnson said.
The two women were among several featured speakers at the 2023 Chaplain Training Seminar on Oct. 2-3 for Church-endorsed chaplains and their spouses, held each October following general conference.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
