Rev. (Captain) Lyman M Smith, CHC, USN, Retired, has been named the new Director of Presbyterian Council on Chaplains and Military Personnel (PCCMP).
Rev. (Captain) Lyman M Smith, CHC, USN, Retired
An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Smith will begin his duties, half-time, on August 1, and then go full-time on September 1, when current PCCMP director Larry Greenslit retires.
Prior to his appointment at PCCMP, Smith was the Executive Director of the Military Chaplains Association of the United States of America from 2015 to 2017. He also pastored Grace Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Lanham, Maryland from 2013 to 2017.
Smith was a Navy chaplain for 23 years ministering to units of the Navy and Marine Corps both domestically, abroad, and at sea. He also served in the Navy Chief of Chaplains Office as the Director of Personnel, Director of Plans and Policy, and retired after his time as the Executive Assistant to the Chief of Chaplains.
Chaplain Smith has degrees in strategy and national security studies, divinity, religious education, public administration, and civil engineering. He has also taken doctoral level studies at the University of Florida in religion and politics with a focus on the influence of religious advocacy groups on DOD policy.
Smith is the author and/or co-author of several academic papers and a book chapter entitled “Exploring the Management of Religious Diversity within the U.S. Military.”
He lives with wife Karen in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The Smiths have four grown children and ten grandchildren.
PCCMP Board Chair Rev. Dr. Bill announced Smith’s hiring this week on the PCCMP Facebook page. You can view that here.
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