Fellowship Hall

By Suzie Chiodo

Soldiers, veterans and mourners look on as the military honour guard raises its rifles and fires into the still morning sky. Outside the Church of the Ascension in downtown Hamilton, the flag-draped coffin of Major Raymond Ruckpaul– Canada’s 70th casualty in Afghanistan– is followed by his wife, children and parents.

Thousands of kilometres and several months away in Afghanistan itself, an armoured convoy stops. While their final destination is being mortar bombed, the soldiers in the convoy have to wait, sitting ducks in an area where suicide bombers strike freely. As the minutes pass and the tensions mount, they look to the person they call their ‘good luck charm’ - the military chaplain.

Rev. Canon Kristine Swire

At their most public, they conduct high-profile funerals and support the families of fallen soldiers. Behind closed doors and on long, dusty, dangerous roads in zones of combat around the world, they provide a listening ear to people who face life and death situations every day.

“I’m a familiar face and a friend,” says Captain Kristine Swire, padre to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. As the Reverend Canon for the Church of the Ascension, she conducted Major Ruckpaul’s funeral and supported his family, from the repatriation of his body to the months following his death.

“I oversee their welfare and chat with them if they’re preparing to go overseas. I participate in as much of the life of the unit as I can.”

In addition to the usual worship services, dedications and prayers, this includes pre-deployment interviews with servicemen and women, helping them with family or other issues before they leave for tours of duty (usually in Afghanistan). On their return, padres listen to their stories and watch for signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Connection to families

When soldiers are on duty overseas, chaplains provide a vital connection to spirituality and family. Captain Harry Crawford, the ‘magic charm’ on that perilous Afghan road and now padre at the Military Family Resource Centre in Halifax, was the bearer of news from home when soldiers couldn’t contact their families for weeks on end.

“I had to bring news about a sickness or death in the family when soldiers already had grief issues to deal with,” says Captain Crawford, who has traveled to remote desert areas to conduct memorial services for soldiers who couldn’t get to their loved one’s funeral.

“In Afghanistan, people get first hand knowledge of their own mortality. They question the purpose of life and they’re always thinking of their family back home.”

Worse than imagined

Connecting soldiers and family members becomes especially important when that soldier is wounded. Captain Robert Fead of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, which is based at the Armouries on James Street North, accompanied a family to Germany where their loved one was being treated for shrapnel injuries to the neck and spine. While they waited to see if he would ever walk again, Captain Fead acted as a liaison between them and the medical team.

The support continued back in Canada, where Captain Fead and other Canadian Forces and community workers helped the soldier re-adjust to civilian life.

“When people return, we check with their families, seeing how they’re settling back in, how work is going,” he says. “A lot of young guys have to deal with the reality that combat is a lot worse than they imagined.”

In those kinds of situations, military chaplains act as a crucial morale monitor. They go through the same training as every other officer (with the important exception of weapons training – military chaplains are not allowed to bear arms under any circumstances). They spend time talking to, counseling and socializing with fellow soldiers. But they also have the ear of the Commanding Officer (CO).  

“Buying the beer”

“One of the values of padres is that they float between all the ranks,” says Captain Swire, who ‘buys the beer’ when she hangs out with the other officers. “I have the ability to go to the CO and say, ‘so-and-so really needs a three day pass’, and the CO has confidence in my judgment.”

Captain Crawford agrees. “The military system is very black and white, with an emphasis on following orders,” he says. “But sometimes soldiers have difficulties. We’re the area of grace in a rigid system.”

Moral compass

In an environment that emphasizes physical and mental strength and unquestioning obedience to orders, military chaplains add an important spiritual and moral component. Major Bastien LeClerc, padre with the 1-ASG (Area Support Group) headquarters in Edmonton, says not bearing arms is central to the chaplain’s role as the voice of morality.

“As military chaplains, we are there to make sure things are done according to moral guidelines,” he says. “There are ethics in the military and those need to be respected.”  

Even with this focus on ethics, however, many Christians object to the idea of mixing faith with combat. Pointing to the pacifist elements of Jesus’ teachings, they ask how someone who represents religious belief can wear a military uniform. Captain Fead counters this by pointing out that chaplains aren’t there to promote the war effort one way or the other.

“It doesn’t matter how we feel about the war, whether it’s just or not,” he says. “The soldiers and their families are what matters – that supersedes everything.”

Personal opinion should not prevent a military chaplain from meeting the troops’ needs, says Captain Crawford.

“It doesn’t matter if I agree with the war or not,” he says. “The soldiers who go into these situations are children of God and they deserve to be cared for. It would be selfish for me to say that because I disagree, I’m not going to care.”

Padre Rob Fead

Unique ministry

While it’s certainly possible, as it is with any religious or faith-based profession, to be a military chaplain and miss the grace of the gospel completely, the post of padre offers a unique opportunity to minister Jesus’ love to people affected by the evil of war.

“There’s always a fine line between bringing the grace of Christ into brokenness, and tacitly supporting that brokenness,” says Syd Hielema, Chaplain and Associate Professor of Religion and Theology at Redeemer University. “I wouldn’t want to be a military chaplain because of my theological convictions about war. But I think it’s appropriate for chaplains to be in that situation.”

And they continue to be in that situation, day after stressful (and often heartbreaking) day, buoyed up by personal gratitude and admiration towards the men and women they serve.

“I had five uncles who served in World War Two. I grew up realizing I was free and someone else fought to win that for me – so my gratitude continues,” says Captain Swire. “I owe these people my freedom – that’s one of the reasons I went into the ministry,” agrees her colleague the Reverend Laura Marie Piotrocwicz, a naval reserve chaplain who serves at the Church of the Ascension and with Hamilton’s HMCS Haida.

“The soldiers minister to me, in a sense,” says Captain Crawford. “They’re in the field for 21 days straight, going to the bathroom in a bag, drinking 95 degree water, eating powdered food. But if one of their buddies is hurt, they’ll spend their one day off visiting them in the hospital. People look to me as the chaplain, but I’m not good – these guys are.”