The Lord has some strange ways of calling on people, says the Rev. Phillip R. Glick.

"This time, the call is coming from God through Uncle Sam," Glick said yesterday, a few minutes before his final service as rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Chesterfield County.

Glick is being deployed to Iraq next year with the 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team of the North Carolina National Guard. It will be his second overseas tour as a military chaplain.

He has resigned from St. David's, and he will leave Sunday for training at Fort Fisher, N.C.

At an earlier service yesterday at St. David's, Glick thanked more than 80 worshippers for helping him strengthen his faith since he became church rector in 2001.

"You helped make it happen," said Glick, known as Father Phil. "It's been your gift to me."

Glick said St. David's is not a "stained-glass chapel" but a "come-as-you-are church" with down-to-earth people.

"I have loved the spirit of the people of St. David's," he said.

Glick joked that he had sent his wife, Barbara Glick, to a service at St. David's before he became rector and afterward asked her if its members were flaky.

"Honey, they're not too flaky -- for you," Glick said his wife replied, drawing laughter.

Several members expressed sadness yesterday about Glick's departure.

Joshua Anderson, a senior at Virginia Military Institute, recalled how his parents were out of the country last year when his grandfather was dying.

When Anderson left school and went to the hospital, the Glicks met him there so he wouldn't be alone. Anderson, with watery eyes, said he will miss having such a good friend as his pastor.

"He's been very special," said Ginger Hinson, another church member.

Glick became a military chaplain in 1989 and before that served in the Army as an enlisted man.

In 2003, he left St. David's for about a year and a half and was deployed to Afghanistan by the North Carolina National Guard.

He said he chose to resign from the church this time because it would be unfair to its members and to himself for him to leave and come back again.

Glick said he could be gone for as long as 15 months, too long for the church to wait for its rector.

In Iraq, Glick said, he will supervise and mentor six other chaplains. He believes that is where he is needed for now.

"It's a special need," he said of being a military chaplain. "Not everyone's looking to go into the trenches . . . to be with soldiers and to minister to them."

He said he doesn't know what he will do after his return from the Middle East.

"I've had fun here," Glick said. "Goodness gracious."
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.