Chaplain Center Groton

09/03/2026

Chapel on the Thames | Sunday, 6 September

PROTESTANT WORSHIP — 0930 Online this week. No in-person service at 0930. We'll be back in the chapel next Sunday.

CATHOLIC MASS — 1130 In person at the chapel as usual.

Monday is Labor Day. For most of the country, that means a long weekend and a grill. Around here, somebody is still standing the watch, still on the quarterdeck, still working while everyone else is off.

If that's you this weekend, thank you. Really.

Psalm 90 has a simple prayer at the end: "Establish the work of our hands." I like that. It's a reminder that God sees the ordinary stuff too—the long shifts, the jobs nobody notices, the things that just have to get done.

A lot of what keeps this place going happens quietly and behind the scenes. It may not get much recognition, but it matters. God sees it, and it counts.

If you need the link for Sunday morning, drop a comment or send us a message and we'll get it to you.

08/30/2026

Table and Fellowship: CRP Barbecue at the Chaplain Center

Before anyone touched a plate on Saturday, MA1 stood at the top of the steps outside the Chaplain Center and sang Amazing Grace. No organ, no sound system—just her voice carrying over the grass. Cammies, duty gear, eyes closed. Below her, two of our Catholic priests had their heads bowed.

One of the priests prayed over the food, the families, and the crews out on watch. A baby kicked her feet in a stroller in the shade the whole time.

Then the chicken came off the grill. MA2, MA3 and a member of our Protestant congregation ran the smoker all afternoon. Chapel members worked the line—retirees in gloves handing plates to Sailors young enough to be their grandkids. Catholic and Protestant, one crowd, feeding a lot of folks who'd never set foot in the chapel before.

Sailors came through in uniform on duty and others from the gym. So did the firefighters. For the ones who couldn't leave their post, we packed plates and brought the food straight to them.

Nobody standing watch ate last. We brought the table to them.

That's what spiritual readiness looks like. It's a Sailor who knows someone on this base will answer the phone at 0200. A spouse who knows where the Chaplain Center is and who to talk to. A kid who figured out he's allowed to run on the lawn.

Body, mind, family, spirit. You don't live any of it alone, and none of it holds up in a hard season if the relationships aren't already there.

Thanks to everyone who carved, hauled coolers, set up tables, packed duty plates, and stayed to break it down.

The doors are open. There's always room at the table.

Chapel on the Thames | Naval Submarine Base New London

08/27/2026

Sailors Don't Route Their Worst Day Up the Chain

Our Chiefs Mess spent two days this week in ASIST — Applied Su***de Intervention Skills Training — made possible by the CNRMA CREDO team.

ASIST isn't a briefing you sit through. It's two days of practice: learning to recognize when a shipmate is struggling, learning to ask the hard question directly instead of talking around it, and learning to stay with someone long enough to help connect them with safety and care.

Readiness is easy to picture when it's physical. We measure it twice a year, there's a score, and everyone knows where they stand. The rest of it doesn't come with a scoresheet. Mental readiness is staying steady when the score is good and something still isn't right. Emotional readiness is knowing when you're not and having the courage to say it. Spiritual readiness is knowing why it matters on the worst day of a deployment. None of those show up on a PRT card. All of them show up on the deckplate.

Sailors don't route their worst day up the chain. They bring it to their Chief, at the coffee pot, at the end of a shift, sideways and half-joking. What these Chiefs and Chief Selects did this week was make sure that when that moment comes, they know what to do with it.

Two days on the part we don't measure. That's a readiness decision, and it's the harder one to make.

Proud of this group. Proud of the CREDO team that made it happen. First and Finest.

Hooyah, Chiefs.

If you or a Sailor you know is struggling: 988, then press 1.

***dePrevention

08/10/2026

08/06/2026

On Tradition, Oath, and Spiritual Readiness

There is a reason the Navy still gathers its people in one room, asks an Officer to raise their right hand, and pauses for a moment of reflection before the day's work resumes.
This week, beneath the historic hulls at the Submarine Force Museum, an Officer was promoted to Rear Admiral.
Amid the artifacts of the Silent Service, heads bowed for the benediction—not out of mere habit, but because tradition reminds us that authority is a trust, rank is a stewardship, and no one rises alone.
The oath binds an Officer to something larger than self.
The ceremony reminds all present that command is conferred, not seized.
And the quiet moments led by our Chaplains acknowledge a heavy truth: those who lead Sailors carry a weight no promotion order can bear for them alone.
This is spiritual readiness.
It is the deliberate practice of a force that pauses to remember who it serves and why.
The Command Religious Program readies the Fleet not only in the yards, on the waterfront, and at sea, but in these moments where duty is spoken aloud.

06/25/2026

Some injuries never appear on a medical chart.

This week we brought a moral injury brief to the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory — and the room leaned all the way in.

Moral injury is distinct from PTSD. Where PTSD is a fear-based injury to the body's threat system, moral injury is a wound to conscience — what opens when what someone did, witnessed, or couldn't prevent collides with what they hold to be right. The research is catching up to what warriors have known for millennia: it lives in meaning, identity, and trust, and it doesn't heal the same way fear does.

That's where the disciplines meet. Psychology, medicine, and research carry the science. The chaplain holds the ground where guilt, meaning, and the moral self are tended — and naming the wound is where repair begins. This is collaborative work, and it's some of the most important readiness work we do.

A sincere thank you to NSMRL leadership for opening the door, and to the crew for meeting a hard subject with honesty and heart.

Caring for the whole person — not just the mission-ready one — is the work.

06/22/2026

CREDO Summer Resilience Series Comes to SUBASE New London — July 14–16! 🌊

SUBASE family — Sailors, civilians, and all who call this base home — the Chaplains' Center is teaming up with the CNRMA CREDO team for three mornings of building resilience, strengths, and stronger teams. You're invited!

All sessions run 0900–1200 at the Chaplain's Center, BLDG 84.

🛡️ Tuesday, July 14 — ARSENAL™
Stress Management & Resilience Workshop

Looking for strategies to manage stress? Look no further. Learn the 7 Best Practices — Awareness, Rest, Support, Exercise, Nutrition, Attitude, and Learning — to boost your resiliency.

💬 Wednesday, July 15 — safeTALK
Su***de Alertness for Everyone

A few hours that could make all the difference. Learn how not to miss, dismiss, or avoid talk of su***de, how to help someone having thoughts of su***de, and how to confidently connect them to care. Priority seating for E5 and below — all hands welcome as space allows.

🔎 Thursday, July 16 — Four Lenses
Temperament & Team Communication
Workshop.

Understand yourself and your teammates through four lenses. Reduce burnout, strengthen communication, build stronger teams, and grow your self-awareness as a leader.

Open to EVERYONE on base — every command, civilian, and family member welcome. Come for one session or all three.

📋 To register, email [email protected]. Full details are in the attached flyer — spots are limited, so reserve yours early!

Come grow with us. We're better when we do this together. ⚓

06/03/2026

🌊 A Sacred Morning at the SUBASE Sailors' Chapel ⚓

Some mornings stay with you. Today was one of them.

We were honored to welcome the NAVSEA Force Chaplain, Captain Daniel L. Mode, who stood alongside our Command Chaplain, Commander Daniel J. Fullerton, to celebrate Tuesday Mass with our chapel family. Two senior leaders, one altar, one congregation—Sailors and families gathered as one body, lifting our hearts together.

Beneath the surface, a submarine runs on readiness. Every system checked, every drill rehearsed, every watch stood. Yet there is a readiness no inspection can measure—the readiness of the soul.

Spiritual Readiness is the anchor that holds when the storm comes. It is the deep well a Sailor draws from on a long patrol, in the quiet hours, and under the weight we sometimes carry alone. We tend our boats. We sharpen our craft. We must also tend the spirit—because a warrior grounded in something greater does not break easily.

That is what this morning made visible. When the chaplaincy gathers across ranks and commands to share the sacred, every Sailor hears the same message: your spirit matters here. You are not alone in the fight.

To all who worshiped with us today—thank you.

Go nourished. Go renewed. Go ready.

⚓🙏

05/23/2026

⚓ SUNDAY WORSHIP — MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND ⚓ Sailor's Chapel, SUBBASE New London | Sunday, 24 May

🔹 Protestant Worship | ONLINE | 0930
🔹 Catholic Mass | IN-PERSON | 1130

This weekend, the country pauses — between cookouts and gatherings, parades and pool openings. The ordinary life so many will enjoy is part of what those who died were defending. But Memorial Day also asks us to hold its cost.

We remember those who never came home — the Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, and Guardians who laid down their lives for the sake of others.

We hold their families close in our hearts as well. Every name etched on a memorial wall belongs to a son or daughter, a spouse, a parent, a shipmate, a friend. The cost of freedom is carried not only by those who fall, but by those who continue living with their absence.

Here at SUBBASE Groton, we feel this in a particular way. The submarine force has its own language for it — Eternal Patrol. The boats and crews who did not return are not forgotten; they are still on station, still part of us.

To the fallen: we remember.
To their loved ones: we are grateful.
To all who serve: we stand the watch alongside you.

May God grant peace to the fallen, comfort to those who mourn, and strength to those who carry the mission forward.