The Meeting of the members of

the Interfaith Committee of Canadian Military Chaplaincy

May 14 – 15 2024

His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian participated on May 14 and 15 in the meeting of the members of the Interfaith Committee of Canadian Military Chaplaincy (ICCMC) as a representative of the Canadian Conference of Orthodox Bishops (CCOB). The meeting took place at Borden in the province of Ontario. Representatives of several Christian denominations, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, humanist, etc. traditions took part in the meeting.

The meeting was motivated by the need to understand and redefine the committee's role in relation to the Office of the Chaplain General of the Canadian Army and to clarify the ICCMC's relationship with Canadian Army chaplains and their administrative representativeness.

The meeting was structured in three meetings. The history of ICCMC's formation and where it is today, the future possibilities to evolve and the steps to be taken to do so were discussed.

During the discussions, the committee's mission or mandate was more clearly defined: to provide pastoral assistance to military personnel through the professionally trained chaplains, to frame and guide the latter in matters of faith and religious ethos, and to support them spiritually, psychologically and humanly.

Also discussed was the role of the committee as a liaison and communication channel between the various religious traditions and the Ministry of Defense and the Office of the General Military Chaplain and as an advisory body in the field of religious issues affecting the Canadian military. It was underlined the need for the ICCMC to play a greater role in the religious guidance of military chaplains, to be a unitary link between military chaplains and the various specific religious traditions they belong to and represent, and to ensure that religious traditions and their specific ethos are respected within Canadian military structures.

In the discussions held, the need for better organization and internal communication between ICCMC members was mentioned, for more prompt communication and within reasonable time limits between the Office of the Chaplain General and the ICCMC and to ensure that the pastoral care of military personnel is vocationally prioritized for any other reason not related to the spiritual life and ethos particular to each religious, spiritual, or humanist tradition.

The need to promote the right of chaplains to have their personal and institutional time specially designated in which they can implement their religious practice and ethos to be in harmony with their own spiritual, religious, or philosophical tradition was emphasized throughout the meeting. It was recalled that there is a need to better highlight the connection between the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the founding document of Canadian cultural, human, and spiritual identity, and the mission of the ICCMC. Canadian society is one that is strongly pluralistic and diverse rather than syncretistic in character and needs to be well represented in the mission that the ICCMC represents and must fulfill. Canada is a country that has a component strongly focused on immigration, and this reality must be accurately reflected in the documents related to how to conceptualize, contextualize, and frame the way of functioning of military chaplains. The need to restore a natural relationship between the ICCMC and the Ministry of National Defense in the spirit of the duties and responsibilities of military chaplains and the religious, spiritual, and humanistic traditions to which they belong was also emphasized. The issue of conflicts due to hateful events and the revision of the ICCMC operating manual, the integration of indigenous spiritualities and practices into the broader context of other religious and spiritual traditions were discussed too.

Several subcommittees have been appointed to work on developing the understanding and implementation of the ICCMC mission. The new executives and a group mandated to represent ICCMC in dialogue with the Military Chaplain General and the Ministry of National Defense have been elected.

The meeting ended in an optimistic spirit and with the feeling that an important step forward has been made in the new dynamic of religious, social and cultural contemporary context. Those present expressed their desire to continue the work started for the next period.