§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ivor Caplin) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Armed Forces attach importance to supporting the spiritual development of their personnel and to facilitating, where possible, religious observance. The service chaplaincy services have a long and distinguished record of caring for service personnel. However, existing chaplains are drawn exclusively from Christian denominations, and although they provide valuable moral, pastoral and welfare support to all service personnel, they are not able to provide spiritual support to those of faiths other than Christian.
I have therefore been considering, in close consultation with the faith community representatives on the Ministry of Defence's religious advisory panel, how best we might enhance our provision for the spiritual support of personnel and their families from faith communities other than Christian. This reflects the increasing diversity of service personnel, and our desire to provide an environment which welcomes and encourages people throughout society to join, and stay with, the Armed Forces.
These consultations have resulted in a decision to recruit civilian chaplains to the Armed Forces from the Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths, which are those, other than Christian, most represented within the Armed Forces. These chaplains will be MoD civil servants, but will be integrated into the existing service chaplaincy organisations.
Existing longstanding arrangements under which the Jewish community provides an honorary chaplain to the Armed Forces will continue for the time being, but it is expected that in due course a further civilian chaplain will be recruited to bring the arrangements in line with those for the other faiths.
Advertisements for these four posts will appear in the national press on Thursday 16 December, and in appropriate faith media at the closest convenient date. The relevant faith communities will participate fully in the selection process that will follow in the New Year.