Military Chaplaincy: Christian and Jewish Perspectives

Guest Speakers:
• Revd Malcolm Weisman, Senior Jewish Chaplain to HM Forces
• Revd Nick Barry, Chaplain at NATO Headquarters, Northwood
A meeting held at St John’s United Reformed Church, Northwood, on 8 November 2005

Jewish Perspectives: Revd Malcolm Weisman

The Revd Malcolm Weisman commenced by outlining the role of chaplains in this and earlier centuries. Chaplains have always accompanied British forces into action from time immemorial; Naval chaplains in the time of Henry VIII, Army Chaplains during the Civil War in the 17th century.

The first Jewish Chaplain was appointed in 1892. His position is officially called Senior Jewish Chaplain to H. M. forces, and he joked that it is a grand and impressive title which means absolutely nothing, as he has nobody under him. He said that he felt very privileged to work among interface religions - and he paid tribute to the work of Ruth Weyl in International CCJ, and said that she has been an influence in much of what he does.

Commissioned chaplains served in the army in World War II and 15 or 20 of them served in the field in World War I. The Senior Jewish Chaplain continued to serve between the wars. 20 to 30 chaplains were commissioned during World War II in both the RAF and the army, and 2 actually died on active service.

In Hampshire there is the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre which started life as the RAF Chaplaincy Centre, and on the wall in the chapel are the names of all the chaplains of the army who died on active service in World War I and World War II, and the names of the two Jewish chaplains who died on active service are listed on that board.

After World War II
After World War II our numbers went down. We ended up with one solitary Jewish chaplain in the RAF to cover all the Air Force, and that person was Malcolm Weisman himself. There were two Jewish chaplains in the army; one posted to Germany and one in England. Until the end of conscription there were a number of fully flowering Synagogues on RAF bases. There were active Synagogues at Aldershot Garrison, and Catterick Garrison too. Those Synagogues had to close when conscription ended because the number of Jewish personnel went down. So Malcolm Weisman is the one solitary Jewish chaplain, commissioned into the RAF and simultaneously commissioned into the army. The only other persons who have been able to do that are members of the Royal Family!

Chaplaincy Today
What is happening now? His office is in fact in the Guards' Chapel in Birdcage Walk. We are living in an age when we have to accept the fact that we are in a multi-racial and multi-religious society. Some people will not be happy with this, but it is a fact of life. At CCJ we are here to find what we have in common. There is an awful lot in common between Christians and Jews. And there is a lot in common between Christians, Jews, Muslims and other faiths too, and we have to learn to respect the differences. Malcolm Weisman accepts and hopes that this country is going to remain predominantly a Christian influence country. This is the reason why his forebears and many others came to this country, because there is a very important fundamental belief in freedom which is based on the Judaeo-Christian ethic, and other people who come to this country recognise that.

Now as far as the Jewish religion is concerned there are no problems. Defence Council Instructions and Queen's Regulations give Jews the right to observe Festivals, Sabbath, dietary laws, and any other rules and regulations, subject of the exigencies of the Service. Common sense has to be exercised.

Other Faiths
The development of other faith chaplaincies is being encouraged and there are some interesting appointees – Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh. They are three men and one lady who are being based at the Guards' Chapel to cover the 3 Services from there as civilian chaplains. These are very important developments because it makes sure that the minorities coming into the Armed Forces are given to understand that within the common sense exigencies of the Services, they are entitled to have any of the facilities that any member of any other religious group is entitled to have.

Providing A Moral Foundation
The Forces do feel very strongly that a moral basis for service life is fundamental. This is why there is now a wonderful Chaplaincy Centre which is devoted exclusively to run courses and religious instruction for members of the Armed Forces and their families. In spite of the defence cuts, the one section of the Armed Forces which was able to increase its budget is the Chaplains' department. This is interesting because there is a great emphasis on ensuring that our Forces act on a moral basis. On the whole (there are a few bad examples) our Forces tend to act honourably in conflict situations, and this moral basis is a tribute to Judaeo-Christian ethics.

Malcolm Weisman concluded by saying that part of his function now is to help the new chaplains integrate into Service life.

Christian Perspectives: Revd Nick Barry

The Revd Nick Barry said that when he was asked to talk to us about military chaplaincy, with the caveat that this was the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, he began to think of chaplaincy since the end of the Second World War. When historians look back on this period he thinks they will divide the time into two distinct periods; the period up to 1989 and the period after 1989. On the 9 November 1989, ie: 16 years ago, the Berlin Wall was breached, and the beginning of the end of communism in Europe came to pass. So there were 44 years following World War II that led to that point, and then 16 years after that brings us to the present day. So when we look at what happened in those 44 years we see very clearly that during that time there was the “balance of power”. There was the enormous military might of the two superpowers, one on either side, looking at each other. Battalions lined up ready to fight on the German border.

Mutually Assured Destruction?
We knew where we were as a nation, and in the West, we knew what it was all about. We had the aptly named principle of MAD - mutually assured destruction, which of course to some degree contributed to keeping the balance of power and peace in the world. There were conflicts all over the place, always have been and always will be. But there was no major world conflict. Everybody knew where they stood. After 1989 all that went out of the window. Suddenly everything was up for grabs. No more were there two superpowers, now there is only one. No more was there this known adversary. No more was the inbuilt security that we had all come to take for granted. Suddenly it was looking rather different. So what does all this have to say to chaplaincy?

Up to 1989 chaplaincy was fairly well-defined and fairly straightforward. The definition of the chaplain in Queens Regulations is that he is to provide for the moral, spiritual and pastoral well-being of service men and women and their dependants. That definition obtained then, and also now. But it was very different then. In those days nothing much was happening. The chaplains had a set role. They looked after their men and women, and they looked after their families. They were prepared to go to war with them if needs must, but they tended not to do that because we didn't go to war terribly often. And so they were with their units whether they were Army, Navy, or Air Force chaplains. It was a fairly static type of work.

Impact of Defence Cuts
Come 1989 everything started to change. In the years since then we have been through endless rounds of defence cuts. When Nick Barry joined the Air Force at the same time as the coming down of the Berlin Wall, there were around 90,000 to 100,000 people in the Air Force alone. Next year we will have 41,000. That sort of reduction has happened to the Army and Navy as well. But you only have to look around the world to see how many places we are involved in. The world is now more unstable than perhaps it has ever been during the last 60 years. We now live in a constant state of wondering where it is going to be next.

Only a few days ago Iran has started to raise its head, and who knows where that may lead us? All the time Britain is being called upon to do more things. So although the definition of chaplaincy in Queen’s regulations is unchanged and always will be, chaplaincy looks markedly different from anything that went before. This is because we are no longer lined up along a given border, no longer looking at a known adversary. There was a plan practised so often that we knew exactly what we must do when the whistle blows. Now we have a new concept - expeditionary warfare. That means we go and do it somewhere else. Now we have a thing called the Defence Vision. It talks about protecting UK interests, and defending the rights and interests of others around the world. It is based on the principle of being a good citizen. It means that the expeditionary vision of warfare with which we have been concerned for the last 15 of 16 years will continue apace. It is not going to change.

What this means in terms of chaplaincy is that whereas we used to look after Service men and women and their dependants, staying on our own bases and regiments or battalions, ships, or whatever, now the chaplains go away. That has a huge impact on how chaplains do their business. They still have the duty to care for dependants, but often are not there to do it. So the chaplain’s focus has become very firmly on the Service men and women. A development, as far as Christian chaplains are concerned, is that church communities are now evaporating. There used to be chapels on every military unit, but not any more. The combination of the shrinking force size and the fact that the government sold off all our houses in the mid-nineties, means families are tending to buy their own houses and settle. People going off on operations all the time means that church life has diminished out of all recognition. This mirrors our society. Church life is not noted for growing at this stage of our history. Society is not so interested in the practice of organised orthodox religion.

Questions About Chaplaincy
So the difficult question is "Should we be maintaining worship on our units?" A very difficult question. With each passing month and year more military chapels are closing. The case now is for short and long detachments all over the world all the time. For the chaplain there is no choice in the matter. This is having a tremendous effect on family life, there is a lot of family breakdown, and that isn't going to change either. Another change is that chaplains are now called upon to be teachers. There used to be things called “Padre's hours”. They were informal, relaxed, unstructured and probably futile. We now have courses externally validated by Birmingham University. We are now equipped with lecture theatres and PowerPoint presentations. The interesting thing about it is that it has proved quite popular.

We are not telling Service personnel what they should believe or think, we are giving them the opportunity to explore what they might believe or think. This has now become a core role within chaplaincy, an important new role which has developed in the last few years. Another thing which has become flavour of the month is called "the moral component of fighting power". It relates to the concept of the moral and ethical rightness of the task in which he or she is involved. This is something which over the last three years has exercised many minds. Now everyone from the highest rank to the lowest in the Services is asking, "Is what we are involved in correct? Where is our government leading us? Have we got the will to fight?" The moral component is in the middle of this.

Multi-Faith Chaplaincy
Another change is the development of multi-faith chaplaincy. The aspiration ultimately is for us to have commissioned chaplains of faiths other than Christianity. We are still a way away from that but we will get there. The government is committed to the principles of equality and diversity and therefore so is the Ministry of Defence. We appreciate the multi-cultural society in which we live, and the multi-religious society in which we live, and regardless of what any individual might think about that doesn't matter. What matters is that we need to respect and reflect the faiths of all the people in our Services. It is a very exciting and challenging development. The Dutch are ahead of us and have a number of humanistic counsellors included in their forces. They haven’t just accepted world faiths, they have accepted other people too. As 52 percent of people in the Dutch forces say they have no belief in God whatsoever, the government has appointed humanists alongside multi-faith chaplains.

We only have Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism. The six major world faiths, and we haven’t gone any further, and there is no aspiration to do that yet, but the operative word is "yet". Who knows where it will lead us? But it is a very exciting and interesting time to be a chaplain in the military.

- Bernard Tiley