Lt. Chaplain Wilson Opens Up About Being a Black Female Military Chaplain
Lt. Chaplain Autumn Wilson working with people during the pandemic. Photo provided by Wilson.
NEW YORK — As Lt. Chaplain Autumn Wilson stood in chaplain training, she noticed her male counterparts negatively commenting about another woman in their cohort. The woman did not push back verbally but still persisted in her training — representing a quiet courage and strength that inspired Wilson to stay in the program.
“If she could handle it, if she got through it, I knew I could,” Wilson said.
Wilson is one of the few female chaplains in the U.S. Armed Forces that belong to the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)—a historically Black denomination with 2.5 to 3.5 million members. Though the church has majority female members, there are far fewer female ministers. Wilson is also the only woman working as a chaplain at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Women make up only about 5% of all chaplains in the armed forces, a 3% increase over the past decade.
As Wilson navigated her way through the process of training and becoming a chaplain, she faced plenty of hardships. Working on a base in Japan and countries that depend heavily on Islamic values, Wilson experienced what it was like to be ignored for being a Black woman in a high-level position.
“I would have to reach out to my male colleagues to remind them that we’re allies,” Wilson said. “In a majority Muslim country, because you are a female, you cannot be the Action Officer. I communicated that if they can’t deal with me setting up and organizing these events, then we won’t do it.”
Wilson, who grew up in Eufaula, Ala., struggled with the effects of her mother’s substance addiction throughout her childhood. She grew up with her grandparents in a house heavily devoted to the values of the AME church. As she grew older into her teens, though, she began to feel a distance between her and her faith. She found herself questioning the strict teachings and longed for answers of her own.
This curiosity prompted her to attend seminary. Learning that she didn’t feel directly passionate about the prospect of preaching, she found a love for counseling and ministry in other ways — by being a chaplain.
The AME church is not known for its inclusion of women clergy. According to the 2017 General Board Recommendation, 76 percent of “#1 churches” within the Presiding Elder Districts have male clergy.
“We hardly have any females that are first church pastors,” Wilson said, referring to the premiere churches. “We’re more educated. They should be in positions of power, but it doesn’t always happen because of some peoples’ points of view.”
Wilson has even received criticism from her own family.
Photo provided by Chaplain Wilson.
“Initially my grandfather was not supportive of women pastors,” Wilson said. “It was certainly harder. I had mentors that were supportive of me but I was the one who had to handle it.”
Today, more females are entering the armed forces. According to Service Women’s Action Network in 2019, there are about 757,000 female veterans, 20 percent of all veterans. Of those women, 20% were Black.
“It’s better now because if you look at the demographics of people in the military, women are making up a great percentage of the armed forces,” Wilson said.
Before her current chaplaincy role, Wilson served as Battalion Chaplain at the United States Naval Academy from 2015 to 2018. In 2013, she was Command Chaplain aboard the USS Shiloh in Yokosuka, Japan.
Chaplains often work with people who don’t match their demographics, including their own faith. Wilson works with a wide range of sailors in need of guidance in spiritual, mental and emotional health.
“I am Black and I am female and I am Christian,” Wilson said. “I serve a lot of people that don’t look like me. I am not just a representation of what I stand for but also for people that don’t look like me.”
Cultivating spiritual health during a pandemic
Wilson didn’t originally plan to be a pastor. She originally wanted to do work as a counselor, so working as a chaplain allowed her to combine both her love for God and her love for people. Now, she likes to spend her time walking with clients and meeting them where they are — whether that be in their individual rooms or in the field working.
“Most of my time is spent out of my office, my people are there for a mission. I have to go into their workspaces and be where they are,” Wilson said.
Because of COVID-19, though, Wilson’s roles have shifted to be partially virtual. This has been particularly difficult considering she is most at home in her position when she gets to leave her office and go out to where the military personnel are doing their jobs.
“I can’t sit at my desk and wait for them to come to my office,” Wilson said. “I go to them and I spend my day with them so they can know that even though this sucks, I’m right here with them.”
While many in the armed forces are experiencing the effects of COVID-19 at work, they are also face-to-face with spiritual and mental challenges brought on by the civil unrest from the past several months, and in particular, the killing of George Floyd and others like him. Wilson has been a source of emotional and educational support for White and Black sailors looking to further understand and process the unrest and racial reconciliation.
“With the current civil unrest that everyone is experiencing, I thought I would see an increase in Black sailors,” Wilson said, regarding an increase in clients coming to see her over the course of 2020. “It has been mainly other ethnicities because they feel uncomfortable to see the Black sailors struggle.”
Though Wilson has been forced to hold some sessions virtually, she is slowly easing back into seeing clients in her office at a safe distance wearing masks.
“I am not a phone person,” Wilson said. “COVID has really stopped me in my tracks.”
Wilson’s primary goal is to bring each member of the armed forces that she, directly and indirectly, works with closer to a sense of inner peace with their spiritual and mental health.
“We take care of the whole person,” Wilson said.
Mattie Townson is an editorial intern for Religion Unplugged and a journalism student at The King's College in New York City. She is the Managing Editor for her school’s newsmagazine, The Empire State Tribune Magazine.