Armed forces need 344 military chaplains

27.10.2015, 14:10
Armed forces need 344 military chaplains - фото 1
These military pastors will be assigned to 67 garrisons instead of units, as planned earlier. Instead, the National Guard along with its service opted to assignone priest to a military unit. Thus, they need only 47 military chaplains.

капелани_2.jpgThe overall demand of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in military chaplainsreached the number of 344, reported Colonel RuslanKohanchuk, Senior Officer for relations with civic religious organizations and patronage of the Department of Social and Humanitarian Policy of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The report was delivered at the round table “Topical issues of the chaplain military service in Ukraine. Foreign experience and domestic achievements” which took place in in kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy.

“344 military priests is a challenge for churches today. They are not ready to provide so many professional chaplains, we are being trained now. Therefore, first we still have to develop and test a future modelservice, and then enshrine it in the new law,” the colonel said.

These military pastors will be assigned to 67 garrisons instead of units, as planned earlier. Instead, the National Guard along with its service opted to assignone priest to a military unit. Thus, they need only 47 military chaplains.

At the level of implementation of the unified chaplainservice,the stage of development and signing of contracts with religious organizations, which will guide chaplains for training and further service is currently underway. The issues of social provision of military priests, combatant status, psychological and military training, uniform system of selection and subsequent rehabilitation of ministers who return from the ATO zone. The organizers of the roundtable on the side of the Synodal Department for Military Clergy of the UOC MP together with the public initiative "Amber Road" hope to work together on legislative initiatives that will help to resolve the issue and move it from the spot.