NORWAY — As secretary of West Paris’ Ring McKeen Legion Auxiliary Post 151, Linda Jack of Norway has a long track record of bringing together the community to honor and support Oxford Hills veterans. Now, she is bringing together four church communities to commemorate four chaplains who were lost in the northern Atlantic sea during World War II.

This Sunday representatives of South Paris’ First Congregational Church, Bolster’s Mills Methodist Church and Auburn’s Temple Shalom will gather at St. Catherine’s of Sienna Catholic Church to remember the service of the ‘Four Chaplains,’ pastors from four different faiths that lost their lives trying to save American soldiers from the sinking military transport ship S.S. Dorchester after it was torpedoed by a German submarine.

“Father Ed (Clifford of St. Catherine’s) told me about participating in a Four Chaplains ceremony a few years ago, and he asked me if that was something I could do,” Jack said. “We talked about it during COVID and we couldn’t do it then. But I mentioned it to him last fall again and he said he would like for me to do it.”

Jack tucked it away in her head for a few weeks, as she had after their first conversation. But around Christmas she had a dream where she was told she needed to act on it. By the time she woke up, the ceremony for the Four Chaplains was already set.

“It just came to me,” she said. “I told (my husband) Randy, we need to do this-this-this and this. I talked it all out with him. It was like God was talking to me, telling me to do this.”

The Four Chaplains were friends who all met at Army Chaplains School at Harvard University as the U.S. was drawn into the war following the  attack of Pearl Harbor. All first lieutenants, the group was assigned to travel together on the same ship to their military assignments in Europe aboard the SS Dorchester, a passenger liner that had been converted to a military transport ship.

The Dorchester set sail for Greenland on Jan. 23, 1942 carrying 902 military passengers. Within 150 miles of its port destination the ship was struck by a torpedo from German Submarine U-223. The four chaplains, George L. Fox, Alexander D. Goode, Clark V. Poling and John P. Washington worked as one unit to dispatch as many soldiers as they could onto lifeboats and safety.

When life jackets ran out they gave up their own to help others survive. The ship sank within a half hour of being hit and the four chaplains remained on board, praying for all the victims of the attack. There were only 230 survivors.

Fr. Clifford of St. Catherine’s reached out to leaders of the three local churches to participate in the ceremony to designate a member to represent each of the Four Chaplains

“I was honored to be asked to participate in the Four Chaplains ceremony,” said Tim Pike from Bolsters Mills Methodist Church. “Being a life long member of the church, I understand the meaning of what it meant for the Chaplains to do what they did to save the lives of their fellow service members. Having been in the service myself and also a member of the American Legion for 38 years, I feel a connection for what the Four Chaplains did. The ceremony is a tribute to them and everyone should hear their story.”

“In a world where we still must make life and death decisions, it is good to be reminded, as the Four Chaplains ceremony does, that the greatest thing we can do as human beings is to put the needs of others ahead of ourselves,” added Pastor Mike Carter of South Paris’ First Congregational Church. “Sacrifice to serve the needs of others, the greater good, is the highest and most noble act we can perform. We need more of that thinking and action in this society and world today.”

The ceremony will include special invited guests Laurie Sidelinger, board chairperson for Honor Flight Maine and Christy Gardner, retired Army MP and founder of Mission Working Dogs in Oxford. It starts at 2 p.m. Sunday at St. Catherine’s at 32 Paris Street in Norway.

In case of inclement weather, the ceremony will be rescheduled for Feb. 13.

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