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Lack of Forces Chaplains 'Big Issue'

Wednesday May 22 2024

Air Vice Marshal Tim Jones addresses the General Assembly. Picture by Andrew O'Brien

The General Assembly was this morning warned that the shortage of Church of Scotland ministers serving as military chaplains was ‘now a big issue’.

The convener of the committee on Chaplains to HM Forces, the Rev Scott Brown, said: “Our numbers are at historic lows. In the regular force, we have two chaplains in the RAF, three in the Royal Navy and 13 in the Army, and with that last number we expect a number of retirements in the next few years. We have gaps in our reserve forces too.

“The issue, and we want to be clear with the Church, is that the Church of Scotland could more or less disappear from the chaplaincies of the three Services. That would, in our view, be a disaster. We pray to God to increase vocations to this particular ministry, and would ask the whole church to pray with us and for us.”

As is traditional on ‘Chaplains’ Day’, many military chaplains were in the hall. The Rev Geoff Berry, who is coming to the end of his service as an Army chaplain, said that the chaplains of other churches appreciated ‘just how rich the support we receive from the Church of Scotland has been’ and urged the next generation to ‘take up the torch and shine the light of Christ for the wonderful young people we serve’.

The Assembly was also addressed by Air Vice Marshal Tim Jones, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff in the RAF, who spoke of his upbringing in the Boys’ Brigade at St John’s Church, Inverkeithing, without which he said ‘I would not have gone on to do what I have done in my career’.

He said that chaplains played a ‘vital role’ in the work of the services: “Let me assure you friends, that it would simply not be possible to navigate Service life without the ability to talk, to confide, to reflect, to laugh, to cry, or to remember. And that’s what our Service chaplains help us to do.

“And so in sharing in the experiences of those they serve alongside, our service chaplains occupy a unique place in the fabric of these, our important national institutions, on whom our reliance amidst the storms of life seems greater now than at any time for many decades.”

Two former Moderators of the General Assembly paid tribute to the work of the chaplaincy team. The Very Rev Dr Russell Barr said that he had been told by new recruits about his chaplain ‘We don’t know what he does, but he’s always there’.

And the Very Rev Sally Foster-Fulton said of her visit to the RAF: ‘it’s not my natural habitat, but all my preconceived notions were destroyed’, and made a plea for the Church to tap into the expertise of the chaplaincy team: “I have never met such a cohesive team.”

Prison chaplain the Rev Jill Clancy said she was ‘encouraged’ that the military chaplains were recognised by the Assembly, but asked that other chaplaincies be acknowledged at the Assembly in a similar way.

During the report of the Safeguarding committee, the Assembly passed a motion from the Rev Lynn Brady inviting the committee to ‘consider its processes as relate to people who have been found not guilty in criminal proceedings but who are subject to Safeguarding procedures’. Mrs Brady said that the Church, as well as being mindful of victims, had to have ‘a care for people who are falsely accused’.

The Assembly also passed a new support for survivors of historic abuse policy. In his speech, Safeguarding convener Adam Dillon said that the policy had been drawn up with the help of survivors of abuse, supported by a team of researchers from the University of Strathclyde to prevent re-traumatisation. He said: “We need to have both the courage and the humility in equal measure to acknowledge that men, women and children have suffered from abuse within our own ecclesiastical walls of safety. And men, women and children have been survivors of abuse and they have come to us and sometimes have been met with indifference or worse still, silence…

“Abuse thrives on silence. This year marks the culmination of many years of work in drawing together a policy for survivors of non recent abuse, and with the General Assembly’s approval, our commitment to ensure that survivors voices are heard, and that we can start to become a trauma informed organisation so that no one will ever be met with indifference or silence, again.”

Presenting the report of the Iona Community Board, convener the Rev Anikó Schütz Bradwell said that without the Community she would not be a Church of Scotland minister today. She added: “In a world where it is easy to worry, to despair, to surrender, it is good to have beacons of light, of hope, of courage, of community. The Iona Community offers such a beacon.”

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