Council of Pastoral Care of the Ministry of Defense approved a Code of an Army Chaplain

Saturday, 08 June 2013, 12:07
The Code of an Army Priest (Chaplain) will regulate the principles of providing pastoral care for soldiers in the Armed Services of Ukraine by clergymen of various Churches and religious organizations.

The Code of an Army Priest (Chaplain) will regulate the principles of providing pastoral care for soldiers in the Armed Services of Ukraine by clergymen of various Churches and religious organizations.

The document was ratified by the Council on Issues of Pastoral Care of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine at its meeting on June 5, 2013, held in the Central Officers Building, reported the Institute of Religious Freedom.

Among other things, the army priest (chaplain) should be aware of the fact that he will work in a multi-confessional environment and therefore “voluntarily accept the responsibility to cooperate with the chaplains of other religious confessions in order to ensure pastoral care to the soldiers and members of their family under his care.”

The army chaplains should respect religious convictions and traditions of the soldiers of other confessions as well their right to be non-believers. They should also respect clergy of other confessions, their religious beliefs and practices.

Also the representatives of the confessions planned their activities for the second half of 2013. They discussed specifically proposals to hold joint activities and to develop a standard educational course to train army chaplains.

Separately the Council members considered the issues of including army chaplains into the ranks of the peace-keeping contingent of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to fulfill the international peace-keeping missions, especially in Liberia, Congo and Kosovo.

The Council meeting was also attended by authorized representatives of the Roman-Catholic Church in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church,    All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelist Christians – Baptists, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in Ukraine.

Joining in the discussion about the agenda were also the manager of the division dealing with civic, religious and volunteer  relations of the Department of Social and Humanitarian Policy of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksandr Shcherbinin, and the senior officer of the division Colonel Ruslan Kokhanchuk as well as the Acting Director of the Institute of Religious Freedom, Maksym Vasin.

Institute of Religious Freedom

 

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