SANDF Soldiers to be Remembered

SABC news:

The memorial service for the 13 SA National Defence Force soldiers, who died in a gun battle with Seleka rebels in the Central African Republic nine days ago, will be held at the Swartkop Air Force Base in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula handed over the bodies of the deceased soldiers to their respective families last week Thursday. SANDF spokesperson Xolani Mabanga says funeral arrangements will also be announced on Tuesday.

“I would like to emphasise that there is a senior official that has been appointed in SANDF that will be in charge of each and every family, for the preparation of the funeral and all the administration,” says Mabanga.

It is ill-advised or ill-informed of the DA to call a joint sitting

Meanwhile, the African National Congress’ chief whip’s office says calling for a joint sitting of Parliament to force the withdrawal of troops from the Central African Republic, will not yield any results, this after the Democratic Alliance urged President Jacob Zuma to convene an urgent joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament to discuss the matter.

However, the ANC’s chief whip’s spokesperson Moloto Motapo says only Parliament’s joint committee on Defence can make such a recommendation to either the National Assembly or the National Council of Provinces.

 

God Is Not an Englishman

The Rev. Jonathan Woodhouse, Chaplain-General to the Forces

Conger:

God is not an Englishman, the Chaplain General of the British Army said last month in an interview printed in the November 2012 issue of Defence Focus, but that does not mean war or military service is unjust.

In a wide ranging interview the Rev. Jonathan Woodhouse, the Chaplain-General to the Forces was asked if God was on “our side”.

Chaplain Woodhouse responded: “I don’t think that God is on anyone’s side. It’s up to us to be on God’s side and seek out the way he wants us to live. In certain circumstances soldiers are allowed to use lethal force as a last resort but there are very clear rules of engagement. We minister to people who may be called on to use lethal force and that brings a creative tension. War is always the last resort.”

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

 

Chaplains Support Sandy Relief Operations

US Department of Defense:

National Guard chaplains are providing support as part of Hurricane Sandy relief and recovery operations.

“The chaplains are providing religious services and prayer for recovery teams,” said Air Force Chaplain Brig. Gen. Alphonse Stephenson, director of the National Guard joint chaplaincy at the National Guard Bureau and Air National Guard assistant to the Air Force chief of chaplains. “They’re providing on-the-spot counseling and encouragement to not only military personnel but to everyone who is affected.”

Many of the chaplains who have responded are from the New Jersey and New York areas, which provides for a greater connection to the communities affected by the storm, Stephenson said.

“They’re from the community and they put on the uniform and report to where they are supposed to be and then they go right back out into the community again,” he said.

And while chaplains in the affected areas are primarily there to support military members, they have ministered to non-military members as well, Stephenson said. One way they have done this is by engaging with members of the local clergy.

When it comes to providing support, “a chaplain just doesn’t say no,” Stephenson said. “There is no such thing.”

For Stephenson, a New Jersey native, the storm affected him personally and he found himself providing support to his 89-year-old father in the days after the storm.

“He lives on the Jersey Shore and his lights were out,” Stephenson said. “Thank God his house was standing and everything else was fine, but his power went out.”

After eight days without power, Stephenson said his father was beginning to feel frustrated and somewhat overwhelmed.

“I said to him, ‘You were in World War II in seven invasions and right now you’re sitting in Brick Township, N.J., with a house where the power is out. How tough is that?’” Stephenson said. “And he said, ‘Ya know, you’re right.’”

“And I think that’s what the chaplain has to do — put it in perspective,” Stephenson added.

Putting things in perspective is one way that chaplains work to provide hope and encouragement for those they support, Stephenson said.

“The presence of the chaplain is to bring hope,” he said. “That’s our best product, our most important product. I think the cross or tablets or whatever religious insignia is on the uniform of the chaplain, it’s a symbol of a trusted agent.”

And from the chaplain’s perspective, Stephenson said, that mission of providing hope is the same whether it’s responding to a Hurricane Sandy-type event or as part of the overseas or warfighting mission.

“It’s approached with the same vigor,” he said.

And in a disaster situation such as Sandy, chaplains provide an essential element, Stephenson said.

“I think the chaplain’s presence is absolutely necessary in these situations,” he said.

And being there, he added, is part of the chaplain’s mission.

“We are spiritual strength, wherever needed, whenever required,” Stephenson said.

 

I Had I Busy Evening…

Two die and two airlifted after structural collapse.

ER 24:

Two men have sustained fatal injures while another two suffered critical injuries after a wall collapsed onto them at a residence on Adam Tas road in Somerset West.

The three construction workers and their manager were at the wall that was being constructed behind the pool at the private residence, when suddenly the wall collapsed onto them. The manager was crushed beneath the weight of the rubble, while one of the construction workers was pushed into the pool and he may have been drowned as he was pinned down by the weight of the bricks on top of him. The two men died at the scene and nothing more could be done to save their lives.

The other two men had also been crushed by the falling rubble and the Department of Health Provincial Government Emergency Medical Services Structrual Collapse Unit were immediately called to the scene to coordinate the rescue of the two men. The Structural Collapse Team set to work to free the man, meticulously removing the rubble from the area so as to not impact on the patient’s injuries but to free the two men as quickly as they could.

Approximately two hours later the patients were ready for transport and AER24 was called in. A private ambulance service brought the patients to a nearby field where ER5 had landed in wait. The first patient was loaded into the air ambulance and transported through to Mediclinic Vergelegen. After a comprehensive but quick handover of the patient, they booked airborne back to the scene to collect the second patient. Shortly after that the patient was safely on the way to Mediclinic Cape Gate.

Both patients, despite having suffered extensive injuries in the accident, remain in hospital in stable conditions.

Protestant and Non-Liturgical Clergy Discriminated Against?

As Chaplains in the US Navy:

A federal appeals court has reinstated a long-running lawsuit by a group of current and former military chaplains who claimed the U.S. Navy discriminated against them and so-called non-liturgical Protestant clergy members, including Baptists and Evangelicals.

The chaplains, who filed their original case in 1999, claimed clergy of their religious orders were recommended for promotion by naval selection boards at a significantly lower level than Catholic or liturgical Protestants, meaning their services follow a more standardized ritual.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday revived their lawsuit and ordered that additional hearings be conducted to determine if they were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims. A lower court denied the chaplain’s motion for an injunction against the existing naval process, citing a lack of standing and a likelihood that the case wouldn’t succeed.

“To be sure, plaintiffs here never allege that the challenged policies directly authorize discrimination against or require disparate treatment of non-liturgical Protestants. Instead, they assert that these policies facilitate or exacerbate discrimination by chaplains serving on selection boards,” Judge David S. Tatel wrote. “We take the Navy’s point that the asserted causal link between the policies and the alleged discrimination is more attenuated here than in a case where the challenged policies directly authorize the allegedly illegal conduct.”

He went on,

That said, we conclude that plaintiffs’ allegation that the challenged policies will likely result in discrimination is sufficiently non-speculative to support standing. For one thing, chaplains inclined to vote on the basis of their religious preferences may be more likely to do so under the cover of secret ballots. Moreover, it goes without saying that the small size of selection boards gives potentially biased chaplains more influence over the outcome of the proceedings.

Arthur Schulcz Sr., a lawyer representing 65 chaplains and two endorsing agencies, said the existing procedures allow one member of a selection board to vote in secret and veto a promotion. That’s particularly troublesome when the chief of chaplains or his deputy are allowed to serve on those board, Mr. Schulcz said.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure you have a level playing field,” Mr. Schulcz said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which argued on behalf of the Navy, declined to comment.

I’ve often felt some similarities between the liturgy, and regimental aspects within the military, at least as it is in so-called ‘High-Churches’, those who place a strong emphasis on formality, ritual and the correct execution of movements. I could see why Clergy who are not ‘sloppy’ (for lack of a better word) would function better in the military.

That said and the above news noted, it’s interesting to factor in that the current Chief of Chaplains of the United States Navy is Rear Admiral Mark L. Tidd, a Presbyterian. And then there is also this piece from the Navy Chaplain Corps Reform website (the people who brought the above lawsuit):

You will notice than since 1980 there have been three Roman Catholics and four Lutherans in this position.

You will also notice that there was not one Chief of Chaplains from an evangelical denomination until 2006. The early history of the Chaplain Corps was dominated by mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics.

In 1995, Chaplain Larry Ellis did a study of fifteen keys leadership billets in the Chaplain Corps. He looked at the denominations of those who filled those billets from 1980 to 1995. He found that 54% of those billets had been filled by liturgical Protestants, 34% by Roman Catholics and only 12% by nonliturgical Protestants.

That word. Reform.

 

Let Old Lesson Offer Wisdom

Next month I begin work as a part-time hospital chaplain for the Sacramento, Calif., VA Medical Center. While I’ve been out of hospital ministry for nearly five years, I think I’ll be OK if I remember the lesson I learned 20 years ago on my first day of hospital chaplain training.

The training was called Clinical Pastoral Education and was supervised by Chaplain Timothy Little at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Our program enrolled four students including myself: Vickie, a Catholic layperson; Dave, a new Presbyterian seminary graduate; Frank, a Catholic priest.

Our supervisor began our first workday with various administrative details, but was interrupted by the ringing classroom phone.

“Uh huh, yes. Right away,” he told the unknown caller. He hung up and turned his attention to us.

“A baby is dying in our Neonatal ICU,” he said. “The parents need a chaplain to baptize him. Which one of you wants to go?”

The priest examined his cuticles and said he wasn’t permitted to bless or baptize the dead.

Dave hastily recused himself saying he wasn’t ordained.

Then, as all eyes focused on the only ordained person in our class — me. I held up my hands. “I’m Southern Baptist and we don’t baptize babies.”

Dr. Little insisted that I go because the only thing that mattered was what the family believed. I resisted, saying that my denomination prohibits the baptism of babies.

Just as the heat started, Vickie stood. “I’ll go,” she said. “Just tell me what to do.”

Years later, I’ve processed the incident enough to know that our student responses paralleled those given in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan.

In my paraphrase of the parable, I see a church fellow who was beaten by robbers and left alongside the road for dead. Two “ordained” men discovered the poor soul, but they wouldn’t help because the delay would make them late for the services.

Along came a third person, an “unordained” sap from a minority church. Nevertheless, he stopped to bandage the man and arrange payment for medical care.

The parable reminds me of my initial response that day in class, but unfortunately I was not the Good Samaritan. I was among the “ordained” who walked around the wounded to arrive at the orthodox answer.

Vickie, the “unordained,” was the “Good Samaritan” in our story. An hour after she left the road to help the wounded, she returned to us in tears.

At first, all she could manage to tell us was, “He was so tiny.” She repeated it several times. She told us all how this baby, who was no bigger than her hand, breathed his last breath under the blessing of her hand.

We looked at her incredulously. How had she mustered the strength to do such a thing? That’s when she said something I’ll never forget.

“It was such an honor,” she said, slowly intoning that last word. The family, she explained, had invited her to share an intimate moment in their lives.

Dave, Frank and I stood humbled and ashamed.

Dave and Frank previously said, “I can’t.”

I insisted, “I won’t.”

Yet Vickie concluded, “With God’s help, I must.”

The baptism happened more than 22 years ago. Today there are still situations when I want to say “I won’t” or “I can’t,” but Vickie’s classroom witness that day helps me strive toward the goal of saying, “With God’s help, I must.” It’s a goal I hope to keep in mind next month when I strive to help the veterans I find stranded along life’s road.

Source

From the IDF

HT

 

Thanksgiving Service Today

Chaplain Conducting Mass in Northern Iraq

HT

 

Another Police Officer Killed

In Hout Bay, Cape Town:

A police officer had been shot dead and another injured in Hout Bay, Western Cape police said on Saturday.

“A 26-year-old female constable died on the scene while her 27-year-old colleague was seriously injured in the incident,” provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Arno Lamoer said.

The constables, aged 26 and 27, were on duty in Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay on Friday night when they were shot. – Sapa

A 26 year-old female…

RIP

The Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille has condemned the attack on the two officers.