The Royal Australian Navy’s first female Senior Chaplain Kate Lord is clear-eyed about the important role of the women who have gone before her.

“Women in the Church and Defence have always been in the minority, and it has taken us a long time to get into leadership roles,” Senior Chaplain Lord said.

“It was the faithfulness of the women who persevered until they were ordained in the Anglican Church, and were accepted into full service in the Royal Australian Navy, who paved the way for me to be here today.”

She was promoted to Senior Chaplain at a ceremony at the Defence Force Chaplaincy College, Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), on December 8.

The historic event capped seven years of solid growth for women in Navy chaplaincy, driven by the 'Five for Five' program in 2019 to allocate five chaplaincy billets specifically for women.

They filled quickly, more women followed, and soon Senior Chaplain Lord was no longer the only woman in the branch. 

Today, there are 15 women in full-time chaplaincy positions in a workgroup of 51, with women serving ashore at ADFA, HMA Ships Stirling, Coonawarra, Cairns, Moreton, Encounter, Cerberus and Kuttabul, and at sea in Canberra and Choules. 

Senior Chaplain Lord said Navy needed chaplaincy, and every workplace would benefit from the presence of a chaplain or maritime spiritual wellbeing officer.

“Navy people will walk into a chaplaincy office and bare their souls,” she said.

“We hear everything. We don’t report what people tell us, with a few exceptions around harm to self and others. We don’t keep file notes. We provide pastoral support when people feel they have nowhere else to go.

'This is the role that I was born for; what I particularly love is supporting people to live the life they envision'

“Protection is the word that comes to mind, not just of their information, but of their stories, their reputations and sometimes their careers.”

A divorced mum-of-two with an adult non-binary child and an adult son, Senior Chaplain Lord relishes her privileged role, which she feels was tailor-made for her.

An interest in oceanography saw her join Navy as a maritime warfare officer at the age of 17 after finishing school in Melbourne.

She started at ADFA in 1989, and remembered walking over the hill to Duntroon at the start of 1990 and introducing herself to Army Chaplain Geoff Harvey.

“I wanted to reconnect with my Christian faith and needed something to make me come to church,” Senior Chaplain Lord said.

“Chaplain Harvey said he could do with having a server during church services, so I did that every Sunday for my second and third years. He ended up conducting my wedding.”

Senior Chaplain Lord was one of three women posted to HMAS Swan in 1993 with a crew of 247 men and, while she loved being at sea, she did not feel the job was for her.

After seven years, she left Navy and returned to Melbourne to start a family. 

She took up part-time theological studies while raising her young children, and had volunteer and paid roles in youth ministry at local Anglican churches.

It was the dream of becoming a Navy chaplain that set the veteran on the path back to Navy.

She was ordained an Anglican priest at the end of 2015 and donned her Navy uniform again in January 2017 after realising the ADF was recruiting chaplains.

Her first postings were to Cerberus and RAN Recruit School, followed by sea time in HMA Ships Toowoomba and Adelaide. 

As a senior instructor at the Defence Force Chaplaincy College for the past two years, Senior Chaplain Lord has contributed to the training of more than 40 trainee chaplains and maritime spiritual wellbeing officers. 

In January, she will post to Kuttabul as Surface Force Chaplain, where she will support the 10 chaplains and maritime spiritual wellbeing officers posted to ships around the country, and provide chaplaincy support to Commander – Surface Force and his staff.

“My job is to listen,” she said. 

“This is the role that I was born for; what I particularly love is supporting people to live the life they envision.”