c. 2003 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) U.S. Army Chaplain Mark E. Thompson says many of the rules he’s developed as a Christian minister with the troops in Iraq are pretty straightforward.

“Every day is Sunday.”

“Adapt and make do.”

“God, not religion, becomes the focus.”

Thompson, a brigade combat team chaplain with the 101st Airborne Division, is one of many chaplains who is facing the challenges of catch-as-catch-can religion in wartime.

Guarded by chaplain assistants, unarmed chaplains have jumped out of airplanes and trekked across the desert with military units, providing counsel, prayer and opportunities for worship. Hundreds of teams of chaplains and assistants are currently serving in the Balkans, Asia and the Middle East.

“You offer services, prayer, Scripture reading, Communion, whenever and wherever you can,” Thompson told Religion News Service in an interview conducted via e-mail.

“We do not know if tomorrow will come. I do not mean that in a negative sense, but that is the reality we live with.”

Chaplains are preparing for the traditional holidays of Easter and Passover in a most nontraditional atmosphere.

Thompson, a United Methodist, said he gathered palms in Iraq for Palm Sunday observances.

Chaplain (Major) Harry Reed, who is currently teaching a class on performing religious services at the Army’s Chaplain Center and School in Fort Jackson, S.C., said days like Palm Sunday require flexibility.

“If possible for those who observe Palm Sunday, they would have some type of branches,” said the Pentecostal chaplain. “It may not be the long branches that we would have here in a garrison, but it may be something real small to just remind them of this special day.”

Easter observances may be held on the Saturday before or the Monday after the traditional time of worship.

“There are times, if the mission allows, to have a sunrise service,” said Reed.

But there also are times when worship services simply cannot happen.

Asked about Iraq’s sandstorms, Thompson said: “The sandstorms you do not deal with. You close up and wait for them to pass. They are nasty.”

Reed can cite the specific Army regulation _ 600-20 _ that explains there are times when a religious service will be canceled.

“If there’s a building to get out of a sandstorm, surely we would perform a religious service, but based on the mission, sometimes we might have to go a week or maybe two weeks before we have it,” he said.

Sometimes, worship is curtailed instead of canceled.

In late March, Thompson recalled learning at the start of a service that his unit was “jumping,” or moving. “The service then became just Communion,” he said.

Chaplain (Major) Timothy Mallard, another minister with the 101st Airborne, said Communion has come at emotional times, such as just before battle.

“Several of my soldiers were weeping as they took the Eucharist, and I felt compelled as their spiritual leader to maintain my composure,” the Southern Baptist said in a statement released by the Army Chaplain Corps. “I closed knowing these soldiers were now prepared for battle.”

Worship can happen just about anywhere. Army chaplains baptized eight members of the 3rd Infantry Division in a baptismal pool built from plastic and sandbags in the Kuwaiti desert. Thompson has led services in the middle of the desert, at a guard post and at the bedside of a wounded soldier. His altar has sometimes been built from boxes.

Chaplains make adjustments to meet the various faith requirements among their troops.

There may not be a rabbi in a particular unit, but the chaplain will try to provide kosher food and identify a representative who can conduct services for Jewish soldiers.

“We try to teach them to prepare themselves and always have that on hand because they never know when a conflict may arise and the unit is deployed,” Reed said.

Supplies include chaplain’s kits that feature bottles for carrying oil or holy water, and containers that carry Communion wafers and a chaplain’s stole.

Reed says he teaches the concept of “perform or provide.”

A Protestant chaplain, for instance, would ensure that Catholic soldiers who desire Communion will be provided with what they need. A soldier designated as an “extraordinary minister of the Eucharist” by a Catholic priest performs the rite with previously consecrated hosts, or wafers.

Recently a Jewish chaplain in Kuwait corresponded with an Orthodox expert on kosher foods. Via e-mail, Chaplain (Capt.) David Goldstrom, with the Army’s III Corps 4th Infantry Division, inquired about whether certain foods were deemed kosher by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. The expert advised him that Snapple juices, produced in the United States but with Arabic labels, were not kosher, but Kellogg’s cereals from Germany were.

“The greatest difficulty in bringing some Yiddishkeit (Jewish observance) to our troops is how spread out they are,” the chaplain wrote of his plans, according to the Orthodox Union. “Bringing them together for Pesach (Passover) would be wonderful, but I don’t think it will happen. Too many things are going on in the war.”

Goldstrom said “solo Seder kits” _ featuring chicken soup with matzo balls, grape juice, and gefilte fish, will be distributed to members of the military who will not be able to participate in a more formal Seder.

Other e-mail exchanges between chaplains serving in the war and their stateside denominational leaders have captured the more tragic liturgical roles of chaplains.

“I buried 4 Iraqis killed in the war brought to me by the Brits I was with in Umm Qasr,” wrote Navy Chaplain (Cmdr.) Jeffrey Seiler, an Episcopalian, according to Episcopal News Service. “I said Muslim prayers and Christian prayers over them after arranging the bodies so they would face … toward Mecca.”

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Thompson said some interfaith relations in the field have proven to be a highlight for him, while the human difficulties that cross faith lines provide the greatest challenge.

“One of the best things about this job is working together with other faith groups and denominations to meet the common mission of providing for the spiritual needs of our soldiers and the civilians with us,” he wrote. “One of the hardest things is telling a soldier he can’t go home right now to help a wife who is struggling or a child who is sick. It breaks your heart.”

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