On Saturday, as many were watching the boys’s doubles players battle it out on Centre Court at Wimbledon, the General Synod of the Church of England sat all the way down to discuss a Measure (or law) to regularise the ministry of Church of England’s Chaplains to the Armed Forces.
As the Ven John Chaffey, the Archdeacon of Oxford and former Chaplain-in-Chief and head of the Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch, said, “This is in a single sense only a tidying up of a small area of ecclesiastical law but in a wider and more vital way it’s enabling and supportive of the essential work carried out by chaplain to his majesty’s forces.”
At the moment chaplains ought to be licensed by the bishop of each diocese that they serve in, which because the Rev James Menzies told Synod could be very difficult for him.
“As a Reservist Chaplain, my area of ministry extends across many alternative counties starting from Shropshire within the north, Gloucestershire all the way down to the south and Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon and so forth,” he said – an area that might cover no less than 10 different dioceses.
The solution that was recommend is that every one chaplains are to be licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve throughout the Church of England in addition to when on deployment abroad.
Something of which the Ven Luke Miller, whose son is serving within the Western Approaches, approved of.
“When on duty,” he said, “they should have the opportunity to go safely and immediately where their ministry takes them. They need proper checks and accreditation, but they do not need unnecessary bureaucracy. They don’t need complexity in that moment. They don’t need that to get in the best way of their work and ministry of what’s for our nation and for the world a highly dangerous and stressful time.”
The Rev Martin Davy, himself a chaplain to the fireplace service, agreed, “Our chaplains go where people go. They preach, they pray, they pastor in barracks and on bases and in conflict zones and on ships. And we’re recognizing on this measure their calling doesn’t sit neatly inside diocesan maps. It follows the boys and ladies of our armed forces wherever they go.”
So, while over at Wimbledon Cash and Glasspool needed to fight off the serves and volleys of their opponents before they may lift the trophy, on the Synod in York this was a motion that nobody contested.
Instead, a stream of chaplains, in addition to those that had served, or still served, within the Armed Forces or were from military families or communities, helped Synod to know how vital a job each chaplains and native churches play within the lives of so many.
Michaela Suckling, a lay member of Synod spoke of how she felt when her father went to serve within the Falkland Islands.
“Thankfully, my father was not deployed to a war zone. Had he been, I’d have taken great comfort knowing he had the chance to make his confession, receive the anointing of the sick or viaticum for his last journey if needed, and knowing that he was ministered to and prayed for by someone he knew and trusted. Please allow our chaplain the honour of sending our men and ladies into battle fully prepared in body, mind, and spirit with little question of the forgiveness of their sins,” she said.
Yet, it was not only her father that needed support. Michaela challenged Synod members to recollect the families too. “What are you able to offer frightened children trying so hard to be good and never to upset Mum while coping with their very own emotions? What are you able to offer spouses, partners, or parents of those left behind? Maybe space to speak or a break from the children, or something practical like taking them shopping. I still remember those awful bus trips on a Saturday morning, spreading the shopping bags between us because my Mum didn’t drive.”
Looking more widely, she asked, “Churches, are you ready to answer disclosures of domestic abuse when that person feels secure enough to achieve this when their partner is away?”
Collaboration between chaplains and native churches goes beyond the sensible, with stories of churches baptising service men and ladies at short notice and discipling them for so long as they resident in the realm.
The uncertainty for all involved of rapid deployment and lengthy periods away from home was brought home by John Wilson, himself a veteran, who told Synod a couple of colleague who “went off to work one morning, ready to take a seat there and see in the event that they were deployed and his wife and family didn’t see him for six months. That wasn’t planned – so there needs to be flexibility.”
In the tip the talk was best summarised by the Rev Paul Cartwright’s comment that, “This is not about bypassing Episcopal oversight. It’s about enabling ministry in extraordinary settings.”
With that in mind, it was perhaps unsurprising that General Synod was for once unanimous of their support of each the motion and the Measure.
 On Saturday, as many were watching the boys’s doubles players battle it out on Centre Court at Wimbledon, the General Synod...){kind=link}