Chaplain Center Groton

09/30/2026

**Mission: You**

This week, the SUBASE New London Religious Ministry Team and command leadership joined Navy Exchange New London as it received the 2025 Bingham Award, NEXCOM's highest honor, recognizing outstanding operations, customer service, and community support among Navy Exchanges worldwide. Our RMT had the honor of offering the prayer.

Behind the stage hung two words: **Mission: You.**

It's more than a slogan. The NEX mission is simple: *We serve those who serve.* "You" is the Sailor coming off a long underway, the spouse holding the household together during deployment, the retiree, the Gold Star family, the civilian teammate. Every one of them is the mission.

In our prayer, we asked that we stay mindful that *behind every number, every transaction, and every successful operation is a person who deserves dignity, respect, and care.*

That is readiness. A submarine cannot go to sea without a crew, and a crew cannot sustain itself without a community behind it. At SUBASE New London, no one serves alone.

To the NEX New London team: thank you for making "Mission: You" more than words. May the excellence we recognized inspire all of us to pursue it *not for recognition, but because those we serve deserve our very best.*

Congratulations, and well done.

— SUBASE New London Religious Ministry Team

09/27/2026

Catholic Mass Canceled Today

Today's Catholic Mass at Chapel on the Thames is canceled. The Protestant service will be held as scheduled at 0930. All are welcome!

We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to celebrating Mass together next Sunday. For pastoral care, please contact the Chaplain Center. ⚓🙏

09/26/2026

Every toll of the bell carries a name.

At Gold Star Family Field this week, Sailors of Naval Submarine Base New London stood in dress whites beside Gold Star families, neighbors, and command leadership for Bells Across America. We gathered to honor the men and women who died while serving on active duty—and the mothers, fathers, spouses, children, siblings, and friends who carry that loss every day.

Deputy Command Chaplain LT Tia Jamir reminded us that whether a loss came in combat, in training, or in circumstances not visible to the eye, every sacrifice is honored equally. Every name is held sacred. Every family remains part of ours.

September is Su***de Prevention Month—a reminder that even the strongest among us can carry battles no one else sees. Spiritual readiness is not about being unbreakable. It is about being connected: to purpose, to one another, and to a hope that holds when our own strength runs out.

For when a young Sailor stands but a few paces from a grieving mother, they learn something no drill can teach: this Navy does not forget its own, and no one here need bear their burden alone.

Before the bell was rung, Chaplain Jamir prayed that its chime would reach “above the clouds and into the quiet depths beneath the waves,” and would “bring healing to wounded spirits among us.”

To our Gold Star families: your loved one's name is still spoken here. You are family, today and always.

To our shipmates: reach out. Check on the quiet ones. The Chaplain Center door is open, and what you share stays confidential. If you or someone you love is in crisis, call 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

This Sunday, September 27, is Gold Star Mother's and Family's Day. Please hold these families in your thoughts and prayers.

“Bring us all, at last, into the calm seas of Your eternal rest.”

09/18/2026

⚓ SUNDAY WORSHIP UPDATE — Chapel on the Thames ⚓
Sunday, 20 SEP 2026

Shipmates, families, and friends:

Protestant Worship — 0930, ONLINE. Join us from wherever you are: underway, on watch, or at the kitchen table.

Catholic Mass — 1130, IN PERSON at the chapel. Doors open, all are welcome.

Need the Protestant link? Drop a comment below and we'll send it your way.

To our Jewish Sailors and families: Yom Kippur begins at sundown this Sunday, 20 SEP. Our prayers are with you as you enter the Day of Atonement. G'mar chatimah tovah — may you be sealed for good.

And a word for everyone: September is Su***de Prevention Month. The common ground between a Day of Atonement, a Sunday service, and a hard conversation at 0200 is the same — nobody was built to carry it alone. Chaplains offer 100% confidential care: no record, no chain of command notification. Come by the Chaplain Office to set up a time to talk with a chaplain — you don't have to say why. If it's urgent, the Military Crisis Line is 988, press 1.

Whether you're in the pew, on a screen, or observing the fast — you belong to this congregation. See you Sunday.

Chapel on the Thames | Naval Submarine Base New London

09/11/2026

🍎🍯Shanah Tovah, SUBASE New London!🍯🍎

To our service members, civilian personnel and military families observing the Jewish High Holidays your Submarine Base Religious Ministry Team (RMT) is here to support you and ensure you have a meaningful season.

If you are looking for local Reform, Conservative, or orthodox options, our team can provide information on synagogues and Chabad centers in the Groton and New London areas.

🗓️ Upcoming Holiday Dates(5787):

• Rosh Hashanah: Sunset, Fri, Sept 11- Nightfall, Sun, Sept 13

• Yom Kippur: Sunset, Sun, Sept 20- Nightfall, Mon, Sept 21

• Sukkot: Sunset, Fri, Sept 25- Nightfall, Fri, Oct 2

Need holiday schedules, points of contact, or administrative support? Reach out to the Chaplain Center or contact the Command Chaplain's office today.

Wishing all who observed a sweet, peaceful, and healthy New Year!

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.