The Reverend Christopher Shimmen is a Royal Navy Chaplain who currently serves the Royal Marine Commando community as a Padre. Chris served in the Royal Marines as a soldier from 1996 to 2011. Operationally, he has served extensively in the Balkans and across the Middle East as both a soldier and chaplain. In 2011, he answered a compelling call to ministry, transitioning his focus from front-line military operations to the intricate dimensions of the soldiers’ hearts and minds, and broadly, the moral component of operational capability of a fighting force. Ordained in 2014, Chris would serve a large city church in Notting Hill, Kensington, London. With a particular passion for men’s ministry, today he sits on the national leadership team for his denominations men’s ministry. In 2019, eight years after leaving the Royal Marines, Chris’s enduring passion and respect for the Armed Forces and its personnel, motivated him to rejoin the Royal Navy as a Chaplain. Chris hopes that his experiences and insights from both sides of the wire, as both a soldier and a chaplain, can provide a unique perspective to engage pastorally at a deeper level with the soldiers and sailors under his spiritual care, as well as in offering moral and spiritual support and insights at the Command level. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the finest football team in the UK, Tottenham Hotspur! Chris is happily married, with two children.