wfn.org | First convocation offers support, challenges for chaplains

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 5, 2001    News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71B{372}

By Duane A. Ewers*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Military chaplains received spiritual food from
United Methodist leaders and challenges for carrying out their ministries
during a recent convocation.

"The church is proud of what you are doing," Bishop Robert Fannin told the
chaplains. "You are just where you need to be as 'channels of God's love.'"
Fannin leads the denomination's Birmingham (Ala.) Area.

More than 50 Army, Navy and Air Force chaplains attended the Aug. 23-26
convocation, sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and
Ministry in Nashville. The chaplains, all endorsed by the board's Section on
Chaplains and Related Ministries, gathered at Scarritt-Bennett Center to
explore the topics of "Nurturing the United Methodist Connection," "Total
Force Ministry" (active duty and reserve clergy working as a team) and
"Challenges to Military Ministry." The meeting was the section's first
convocation for military chaplains.

Survey data gathered before the convocation identified a number of issues
later addressed at the event. Concerns identified in the survey included "a
cry in the hearts of many of the chaplains for some kind of spiritual food,"
said the Rev. Greg Hill, Army chaplain and chairman of the design team.

"In your plan you may feel alone; in God's plan you are not," said Patricia
Barrett, staff executive of the section. "There are thousands of us whom God
has called to witness to that God in the hearts and minds of people and the
systems where you serve."

A common theme in "Total Force Ministry" was that of mutual accountability
between chaplains and annual conference leadership. The role of the reserve
chaplain has expanded, and local congregations sometimes have difficulty
understanding their pastors' absences from church during reserve duty. 

"We need to put the onus of responsibility on the reserve chaplain both to
interpret and to plan for being gone from the local congregation," said the
Rev. Matt Woodbery, an Army chaplain.

The Rev. Jo Ann Mann, also an Army chaplain, countered: "And leadership has
the responsibility to help us carry out the ministry to which we have been
called." Several people affirmed that chaplains are responsible for helping
their bishops understand their ministry as reserve chaplains.

"Challenges of Military Ministry" covered a wide range of practical issues
related to doing ministry with theological integrity in a secular
institution. The issues discussed included defining "Protestant" worship,
accommodating varieties of religious experience and serving as ethical
advisers to those in command. 

Their background, training and perspective make United Methodists especially
effective as military chaplains, convocation speakers said. "United
Methodist chaplains are called on to minister to persons with a wide range
of religious perspectives and backgrounds," said the Rev. Everett Schrum, an
Air Force chaplain. "They have the responsibility to minister out of their
own experience with integrity and to guide others to find a way and a place
to exercise their faith practice."

"Nurturing the Connection" addressed such issues as transition into and out
of chaplaincy, annual conference relations, and annual reports to and
relationships with the Section of Chaplains and Related Ministries. United
Methodist polity calls clergy to healthy and meaningful relationships with
peers in ministry. Military chaplains are entitled to counsel, support and
affirmation from church conferences, annual conferences and the Section of
Chaplains and Related Ministries. 

The participants assessed the connection on a scale of one to 10, with the
ratings ranging from a low of 2.5 to a high of 10. Higher ratings tended to
come from those who have regular communication from their bishops and are
included as full participants in their annual conference.

The Rev. Tammie Crews, an Army chaplain, summarized the feelings of many
chaplains when she said, "We are an extension of the church's ministry in
places where the local church cannot be."

That is certainly the case in times of disaster. The Rev. Thomas Hazelwood,
a representative of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR),
discussed the mutual ministries that the relief agency has with chaplains.
UMCOR workers and military chaplains often find themselves in the same place
when catastrophe strikes.

# # #

*Ewers is the director of the Office of Interpretation for the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org