Title: The Priest, Ethicist and Navy Veteran: Meet Fr. David Pratt

This story is part of Georgetown Faces, a storytelling series that celebrates the beloved figures, unsung heroes and dedicated Hoyas who make our campus special.

Fr. David Pratt will tell you that being an Orthodox priest means everything to him, even if his path to the clergy was not a straight line.

Growing up in the Los Angeles area, Pratt noticed the small movements in his heart that nudged him closer to his faith. In first grade, Pratt witnessed his first funeral at his parochial school’s church. Even at his young age, the ritualistic experience made him think about faith and how he would one day participate in funerals for his own family members.

“It left a strong impact on me, very visceral. I can still hear it, see it. The smell, the candles. The sounds, both the good and bad sounds. There’s church music, but also there was a lot of wailing and grief,” Pratt said. “It caught my attention.”

Pratt’s faith remained a part of his life through his childhood. But after he graduated from college, he took a direct commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy.

Yet after three years as a sailor, Pratt felt a calling to enter the seminary and become an Orthodox priest. He wanted to become a scholar of ethics and philosophy after ordination but returned to the Navy as a chaplain.

“I was drawn toward a more academic life,” he said. “However, I was young then, and the idea of action and activity suddenly attracted me in a way that hadn’t before. I was surprised by that, so very quickly I found myself back in uniform.

In his 24 years in uniform, he served in Japan, Europe, North America, East Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. He also served on aircraft carriers and destroyer squadrons and was even attached to a special operations unit.

Pratt served as a Navy chaplain for 21 years. For 11 of those years, he ministered to the Marine Corps, in which the Navy provides chaplains, and was deployed to combat zones twice.

Today, Pratt serves as the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Endowed Orthodox Chaplain and the director for Orthodox Christian Life in Campus Ministry, ministering to the university’s Orthodox Christian community since 2018. He also teaches each semester in the Department of Philosophy and is an archpriest at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington, DC.

As a veteran, Pratt works closely with Georgetown’s Military and Veterans’ Resource Center and has worked to build relationships with the military-connected community across the university.

Get to know Pratt, how he found his faith and what being a Navy veteran means to him.

My faith as a child: I was raised in a believing household but not necessarily a very pious household. There were moments when piety was higher and other moments when it was lower. When you don’t go to church, for a kid that means more playtime. However, I recognized pretty early on, even in grade school, that there was something going on here in church.

A gentle nudge toward priesthood: The rest of childhood, it’s the usual story of being a teenager, being distracted by worldly things. But I still had a church life and church identity. I had the good fortune of being around a lot of clergy who always treated me well. They always stood out as people who were admirable and did concrete good.

One day, I was in high school, and I had to walk home. It was a long walk, and I began to seriously think about my future. What am I supposed to be in the future? Some people couch Christian life in terms of what I’m doing, but traditionally, Christian life is not about doing, it’s about becoming someone. We actually become Christ. At 17, I was having a bit of an experience with that, so it woke me up to the idea that there was something about the Church that was calling me.

How I became a military chaplain: I always liked ships and water. I’m from Los Angeles, so I was always able to access the Pacific Ocean, and going to the beach was always one of my favorite activities. One thing led to another, and I found myself getting commissioned. In that process, I was also coming in contact with chaplains in the military. I spent three years as a line officer, but during that time, I always thought to myself, I think I’d rather be the chaplain here than the junior ensign associated with this ship. That ultimately got me to the seminary.

My path to becoming an ethicist and scholar: I was able to get a release from certain Navy duties in order to finish my doctoral work. I got hired onto a faculty at a small Catholic college in Washington state. I was working as an ethicist with the philosophy faculty. It was just something I always wanted, a vocation from my past came back to life.

The living God has a way of building up things inside of us and then letting them stay on pause. Like fallow ground where nothing grows, and then suddenly it’s not fallow anymore. Crops are growing there, and what looked to be useless suddenly is right involved in your life. It becomes the thing in your life.

What being a veteran means to me: It means everything because it characterizes my life. On the other hand, I have an identity in the Church. My Church identity is the everything identity. My identity in Christ, that has always been my primary identity.

How I came to Georgetown: I was in a pure academic situation at a college in Washington state. All I did was professor-type things, and then I would go to church on Sunday. Two things hit me hard: First, I needed more church, more church in the sense of I needed ministry. I need to be caring, doing what I used to be doing. Number two, all my encounters with students when we would have discussions … were exciting. When they talk after class, you have these wonderful, spontaneous conversations. They’re fun, and I found I liked that.

One day I said to myself that if I didn’t have this part of the job, this would be so boring. And then I realized I had to leave. I thought that I’m going to apply for [the job at Georgetown.] I’m going back to ministry, but I’ll be close to the academy. And within the first year, I was invited to the faculty. So I got the best of both worlds.

How I serve as a chaplain at Georgetown: I take care of, in a direct sacramental way, all of the students and their families who identify as Eastern Orthodox. But I serve everybody. I care for everybody else in the broader context, and that’s what I learned to do in the Navy.

When I see Navy ROTC midshipmen on campus: The Navy ROTC is administratively at [George Washington University], but once in a while, they come here, and it’s awfully nice to see all the Navy midshipmen in their uniforms. I used to wear that uniform, and it’s nice to see it again. I used to be thin. I used to be in shape and could wear that uniform. It brings back all the good memories.

Where I find joy as a chaplain: I’m not too picky. If I can have honest conversations, honest encounters with people, then I’m satisfied. And when I say honest, what I mean by that is really searching, looking for the truth, searching through that, struggling to get there. That’s meaningful.