Chaplains at Large – Ministry Beyond the Parish
Ministry in the Military
Meeting an army chaplain as a youth worker was life-changing for Chris Purdie; he was impressed by the prospect of a ministry role that supported young people and provided physical training and outdoor pursuits. Chris grew up as a member of Wadestown Presbyterian Church in Wellington and was eventually involved in youth leadership. Attending a Clinical Pastoral Education course in 1990 in Christchurch was foundational for his ministry. After the course he became a youth worker, then spent a year overseas with the Council for World Mission.
He married Silvia Crane, former National Methodist Youth Co-ordinator, and eventually the couple moved to Dunedin with three small boys in tow, where they undertook ministry training. Chris was ordained into Army Chaplaincy at Linton in 2007. He spent nine years based there, and then seven years at Burnham Camp in Canterbury. During that time Chris was deployed in Afghanistan and East Timor, engaged in disaster response in Vanuatu post Cyclone Pam, and in Christchurch post earthquakes.
As an Army Chaplain, currently based at Trentham, Chris is a Specialist Officer within the NZ Defence Force, responsible for spiritual and pastoral care within the health and wellbeing team. Chris says that Military Chaplaincy is fully integrated into the wider organisation. “I wear military uniform but I also sit outside the system to some extent. I can relate to people right across the organisation. I hold the rank of Major but I don’t have power to give orders.”
Chris works in a multi-disciplinary team, with a particular focus on spiritual and mental health within a holistic context. “Our role is pastoral care, not clinical. We have a long-term relationship with units and individuals through all the transitions in people's lives, not just a one-off crisis intervention. Chaplaincy is a ministry of presence. I spend much of my day ‘loitering with intent’, visiting units, doing physical training and drinking coffee,” Chris says.
A Day in the Life of a Military Chaplain
Chris concedes that a big part of chaplaincy is putting yourself in places where people are. Some days are structured but a lot of the time the core chaplaincy work is about just being available. Any single day can revolve around physical, emotional, ceremonial, pastoral and social activities.
“Much of our work could be described as mental health prevention; we encourage healthy team functioning, spot potential problems early and inject goodwill, encouragement and trust. Chaplains also have important ceremonial roles within the military from large public events such as Anzac Day services to private baptisms. We carry out other tasks with mental health benefits such as blessing objects associated with a death, blessing a home or a pounamu carving. These ceremonial functions serve to honour transitions and provide structure for communal grief.”
A chaplain’s contribution is often not immediately obvious but the value of their presence can bring advantages across many aspects of an operation in unexpected ways. “We hang out and chat to people. That is especially important in disaster relief,” Chris says. “The work of chaplaincy may seem intangible but when we do things well, the operation has a greater effectiveness and military personnel are able to focus and sustain their efforts in a potentially traumatic environment.”
Always Ready to Deploy
The NZDF is tasked with making a major contribution to New Zealand’s wellbeing and resilience. This includes providing local support to communities from disaster relief to support for hui of national significance. An important component of this is a standing order known as Operation Awhina - a readiness to deploy for a range of disasters, current or anticipated, within New Zealand. Once activated, Operation Awhina diverts military people from other tasks, and resources the emergency with equipment and personnel. The chaplain is integral to the success of the military intervention.
Chris explains, “My role as a chaplain in Op Awhina is two-fold. First, to support and debrief military personnel and second, to provide pastoral care for disaster affected communities. These often happen simultaneously. I can release the truckie to do what he is tasked to do while I am present to the distressed person, explaining what is going on and listening to their concerns. It can be very difficult for soldiers to do the practical and the relational work at the same time. In the down-times while we wait for stuff to happen, I chat to people. When the soldiers come off the job, I am around to help them process their day.”
Chaplains play a vital role in ensuring ‘that military personnel have improved individual and team resilience, performance and adaptability’ - a key goal in the NZDF’s Strategic Plan. “Dealing with traumatic experiences is a core component of sustaining performance and adaptability in a disaster situation,” Chris says.
The chaplain is often uniquely placed to gather significant information about distinctive aspects of the local community that may impact on their willingness and ability to support or be engaged in recovery or relief operations. Chris gives an example. “In 2014 I was deployed to the Shepherd Islands in Vanuatu with disaster relief after Cyclone Pam. We were based at a school which I discovered was a Seventh Day Adventist school. The community was mainly Adventist. This had a very practical implication. The operation leadership assumed that Sunday would be the quiet day, which was true for most of Vanuatu, but I was able to inform them that Saturday would be worship day in this particular region. So the military operation had our rest day on Saturday, out of respect for their Sabbath. That helped our personnel also.”
Priorities include ‘showing up and building connection’. “We assess, on the spot, in unobtrusive ways. We notice things: people's demeanour, how they relate to one another. We build up a detailed picture of the dynamics of a community. We initiate conversations. Strengthening community resilience involves identifying the key people in a community and supporting them to function well. It is central to the ongoing disaster recovery of a community for the key leaders to feel that they have still got capacity. “
Chaplains Have an Office But Not an Office Job
“If I'm in my office, I'm probably doing administration. Our job is beyond the walls of our office. I make a point of getting to particular events in the life of an Army base: morning teas, functions, exercises in the gym. I am around soldiers and officers while they are doing their work and I participate to some degree in what they are doing. This is particularly fruitful when units are away from home base. Exercises take us out into the wilderness, tenting, walking, being in the field. Being out and about together we start to see how all the parts come together. At base we train for active service and combined work. Being in the field makes sense of a lot of the other things that happen in military life,” Chris says.
Spiritual concerns sometimes bring people to Chris. Exorcism and blessing objects was a steep learning curve initially. “That was not part of my ministry training. Chaplains are often called on to bless things, in particular pounamu before they are gifted and anything associated with death.”
Chris shares a memorable incident that happened soon after he started at Linton. “A soldier had died in a car accident and a few months later his family returned for his kit bag. I got a phone call: "Padre, can you come down and bless this kit?" Sure. I can do that. But I had no idea what I was doing. I phoned a friend and talked to one of the other chaplains who told me what to do. I was a bit sceptical about it. I walked into the disposals warehouse which was mostly empty except for a single army pack and two Māori women waiting for me. It was clear that these women were not going anywhere near the pack until I had dealt with it. They needed me to make it right. At that point I understood that regardless of what I believed there was a real issue here; these women could not do their job until I had facilitated what they felt was necessary. I put my stole on, said a prayer, and splashed water over the bag. They said: "Are you all done? Right, OK, thank you," and they picked up the pack and started to sort the contents.
“Moments like that make it very clear that I am under the cloak of the tradition of military chaplains going back over a century. The military is an organisation which honours tradition and chaplains have been in the New Zealand Army for 115 years. In that situation I am the new face doing the same role.”
