For six years, Father Matthew Garrison has been ministering to members at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock at the pulpit. In August, his ministry will take flight — sometimes 6,000 feet in the air.
“A lot of sharing is done just going running with guys or doing P.T. (physical training) together or sitting in the cockpit of a C-130 as we’re flying over the mountains and the lakes. That’s when the most opportunities happen for ministry,” Father Garrison, 38, said of his National Guard unit. “That’s when we typically get in the deepest conversations about what’s going on in someone’s life because we have more one-on-one time.”
From August to the end of November, Father Garrison will serve as a military chaplain at the Little Rock Air Force Base for the roughly 1,200 people in his unit, the Arkansas Air National Guard 189th Airlift Wing.
He joins a Protestant chaplain already ministering at the base.
“The experience I’ve had with the local folks in the Guard unit, it’s just kind of a different pace, a different type of ministry. In parish life sometimes you can get caught up in some petty things like the color of the flowers or the grass didn’t get mowed this week, whatever it may be,” Father Garrison said. “Most of the people I deal with in the military are dealing with multiple deployments, relationship difficulties because of that, maybe financial difficulties because of that.”
Father Garrison was ordained in 2004 and spent his childhood growing up in a home of service-minded people. His father, uncles and grandfather all served in the military. In 2009, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor approved his request to join the 189th Airlift Wing. He trains one weekend a month.
“I’ve got two sisters, the younger of the two sisters has nine kids and the six oldest have all gone into the military. They all went into the Army and Marines, but that’s OK, I still love them,” Father Garrison said with a smile. “That just kind of solidified my desire to serve in the military, to be able to support them in some way.”
While serving in various parishes through the years, including in Lake Village, Jonesboro and Paragould, his desire to become a military chaplain grew.
“I really started thinking about the possibility of serving as a chaplain in the military,” Father Garrison said, adding that he’s looked up to other diocesan priests like Father Andy Smith, who served in the same National Guard unit before he arrived.
Although Father Garrison hasn’t been deployed overseas or sent to take part in any recovery efforts in the state because of his commitment to the Cathedral, he has used his priestly vocation to minister to those in his unit during tough times.
“In our Guard unit since I’ve been here we’ve unfortunately had to deal with a murder-suicide within the unit, so the stress levels are high. Also last year as a result of the tornados that went through the Vilonia area, we lost one of our members who was protecting his family and he died in the wake of all that,” Father Garrison said. “It’s mainly been just a process of spending time with the men and women who were close to those people … We’d sit around telling stories about their life and the impact they’ve had on all of us. Then, how do we keep going from here, what do we learn from their lives, their experience, their service and how do we carry that on?”
Being in the military “fraternity” has helped the men and women open up to him to work through the sadness, he said.
“To sit around the campfire and drink a beer with the guys and just listen — I was somebody they could pour their frustrations out upon or whatever without any judgment,” Father Garrison said. “Then if they asked for any advice or ways to handle it, we kind of worked through it together.”
Father Garrison said though the Guard unit is like a family, he hasn’t ever been there full time.
“Building those relationships that will last for years and years to come no matter where I may be assigned in the diocese,” will be a high point for Father Garrison, adding that he’ll likely serve in the military for about 14 or 15 years.
Father Garrison said he’s ready to minister to those who struggle.
“Unfortunately, the suicide rates (in the military) keep going up so it’s really laid heavy on the chaplains to talk to folks about resiliency and relying on their brothers and sisters” in the unit, he said. “Relying on others to make sure everything is going in the right direction, that the stress of the job and that the lifestyle isn’t getting the best of them.”
Father Garrison will leave the Cathedral June 17, six years to the day he came and will move to St. Jude Church in Jacksonville, where Father Smith is the pastor, to be close to LRAFB.
“I have absolutely loved being at the Cathedral. It’s been a great opportunity, a great learning experience,” he said. “I will certainly miss and I love the people here, but I also look forward to other adventures.”
