A SENIOR army officer, Brigadier Jaish Mahan, told the General Synod about his experiences serving within the forces as a Christian. Speaking on the opening afternoon in York, he urged members to proceed to support the military, as international threats to the UK loomed.
The Brigadier is Deputy Commander of the first UK Division, which has 30,000 soldiers across the country. Over the past 12 months, the division had been NATO’s “high readiness” unit, prepared to intervene in any global crisis as required. This had energised and focused his soldiers, he said, given the present state of world affairs.
Brigadier Mahan sketched out common ground between the military and the Church, referring to shut historical ties between the military and Christian faith. The motto of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, was “serve to guide”, he said, which drew on the instance of Christ.
He acknowledged that some Christians were uncomfortable with a commingling of the military and the Church, but said that he and others had felt “called” to hitch the military to uphold peace and order in a “broken world”. He also hailed the work of army chaplains in supporting believers at every rank, and welcomed plans to be debated later on the Synod to expand this vocation.
Brigadier Mahan recalled leading a unit in Afghanistan, where many British soldiers died inside a number of weeks. “I used to be not expecting to face on the ramp of an RAF aircraft as a part of an honour guard as Union Jack-draped coffins were flown home,” he said. The chaplains in Afghanistan had been invaluable on this moment, he said. Shortly before deployment, York Minster had held a service for his soldiers, which had strengthened and encouraged him.
Though the world was “more connected than ever”, conflicts erupted often, Brigadier Mahan said, referring to wars in Europe and the Middle East. “The risk of a possible attack on a NATO country has been highlighted time and again, and this might trigger an Article 5 response requiring us as a rustic to go to war.”
Information suggested that Russia had produced more munitions up to now 12 months than the remaining of NATO combined. Brigadier Mahan had visited NATO allies closer to Russia, who were deploying strategies of “total defence, with a whole national commitment to defending the homeland”, he said.
While the UK often considered itself to be geographically secure, critical national infrastructure could still be targeted, he suggested. If UK troops were committed to a war, “this may not be like Afghanistan,” Brigadier Mahan warned. The fast-changing nature of warfare demonstrated in Ukraine would require the military to update its approach.
The Church’s historical leadership in times of crisis had been “pivotal”, he said. During wars, the Church had been a “fundamental bulwark for our society”, supporting those deployed and families at home, in addition to wider societal preparedness for national defence.
Concluding his address, Brigadier Mahan urged the Synod to proceed to wish for the boys and girls who put themselves in harm’s approach to protect the nation, and to think about how the Church could prepare itself to spring into motion, should a war occur. Both the military and the Church were core pillars of society, “sometimes ignored, but at all times there in times of need”.
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