From the Revd Andrew McMullon
Sir, - As a, now retired, RAF Chaplain of 23 years' service, I
was pleased to see your reporting of the new covenant between the
Church of England and the Armed Forces (News,
20 February). I was also pleased to see a reminder from the
Fellowship of Reconciliation (Letters,
6 March) about the importance of "active non-violence in
challenging the root causes of conflict".
Unfortunately, it would appear that the Fellowship is no friend
of military chaplaincy, though some of its reservations are clearly
based on little knowledge or experience of the work of chaplains in
the Armed Forces. May I reassure the Fellowship that, in none of my
service, which included Northern Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan
(three times), was I ever expected by my "military chain of
command" to endorse, bless, or validate any particular campaign. My
calling as a military "padre" was not to love war, but to love, and
serve, those whom the country chose to send to war.
Of course, a pacifist organisation might claim that in doing so
as a chaplain within the ranks I was supporting the cause, though I
don't see how the same charge would escape civilian chaplains, who
would, in any case, be at a great disadvantage from not sharing the
uniform, life, dangers, and deprivations of military service in a
markedly incarnational ministry. Service personnel value their
chaplains precisely because they are "in but not of" their service,
appreciating their traditions, and reminding them always of their
highest, and not at all disingenuous, calling to "make and defend
peace as a force for good in the world".
The Church of England is an Established Church that both
supports and challenges the State. It is not a pacifist
organisation, and, despite the traditions of non-violence going
back to Jesus himself, it largely represents that other legitimate
Judaeo-Christian tradition on the use of armed force, that of the
just war, as now represented in the Law of Armed Conflict and the
Geneva Conventions.
Service personnel cannot pick and choose the conflicts they are
sent into, and neither can chaplains, but chaplains' presence
offers them valued and appreciated ministry in times and places of
greatest need, and reminds them of the highest standards in getting
the use of armed force as right as possible.
Andrew McMullon
20 Winfield Road, Sedbergh
Cumbria LA10 5A