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Were All Forces Chaplains C of E?

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Were All Forces Chaplains C of E?

Old 26th Dec 2009, 08:39
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Were All Forces Chaplains C of E?

The question were all Forces Chaplains C of E came up in conversation over Xmas. We believe the official religion of the realm is C of E.
I did not take a great deal of notice when I was involved but I vaguely remember that at Yatesbury there was more than one church building and various religions were invited to leave the parade square when prayers were read out.
Can anybody help?
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Old 26th Dec 2009, 08:44
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I cannot remember if there were churches for other denominations, but I can remember the parade order before prayers "Fall out the Roman Catholics, Jews, and Non Christians".

This was the signal for many to march to the rear of the square and have a smoke while C of E prayers were said.
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Old 26th Dec 2009, 08:54
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In my early days, C of E, RC and OD - Other denominations. The latter, by the time I rejoined in 1980, had become CSFC - Church of Scotland and Free Churches. And as to the order for falling out, who else remembers the CWO at Cranwell, (the ginger-haired one before Johnny Garbett, and whose name escapes me) in about 1964 giving the order on parade "Roman Catholics and other Non-Christians, Fall Out!". Titters in the crowd.
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Old 26th Dec 2009, 18:33
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In 19 years service, I met C of E, RC, Church of Scotland, and Methodist padres - not local priests/ministers who did a bit here and there for the local station, but uniform wearing with relative rank, PQ & RE - (as it was then) trained full-timers. Most of them were bl**dy good fun, too!
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Old 26th Dec 2009, 18:58
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Are you talking about Army Scripture Readers (ASR)'s or Chaplains? Many people get mixed up about who and what their roles are.
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Old 26th Dec 2009, 21:28
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I was talking "Chaplains"
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Old 26th Dec 2009, 22:35
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Forces chaplains certainly included RC priests among their number, although you would only find them at the larger formations. In the 1960s one RC padre at Cranwell was a popular member of the officers' mess, great fun, and a leading light in the station flying club.

And the senior Royal Navy RC chaplain of a few years ago, now retired from the Service, is the very popular priest in our parish in Surrey. Get to Mass early if you want a seat!
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Old 26th Dec 2009, 23:10
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We had both C fo E and RC chaplains at Locking when I was in training in the early eighties.
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Old 27th Dec 2009, 02:56
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We had all sorts when i was in training, including burmese. It was common place on Sunday Parade to hear "fall out Roman catholics and all others"
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Old 27th Dec 2009, 08:07
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Synthetic wrote:
We had both C fo E and RC chaplains at Locking when I was in training in the early eighties.
Hey we've got a sprog in the camp. Ex 96th myself at Locking.
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Old 27th Dec 2009, 10:45
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Be careful what you say all you rooks!!

When I joined at Halton in 1947, in ignorance, I had put CofE on my docs and it did not take long to realise that come Sunday morning Church Parades, the fall out RCs, ODs and Jews meant that that lot did not have to march down to church and back again, they made their own way. I applied to become an OD (Baptist) and after much huffing and fuffing it was granted and Sunday morning became a gentle stroll down the hill and back again. The only drawback was that I missed the games of Brag etc. in the back row of the pews at the CofE church! There were Padres of all the various religions there to keep our young minds pure and of course and there were weekly visits by the bible reading bunch which one tried to dodge. I remember that one came on an autocycle and he could never work out how the perfectly serviceable machine that he arrived on would not start when he tried to leave-----but then we were going to become F2e's and had to practice somewhere.
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Old 27th Dec 2009, 11:00
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Further Info

The attached gives an overview of the UK and Wikipedia a world wide view
BBC - Religions - Christianity: Army chaplains
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Old 28th Dec 2009, 16:03
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C of E Chaplains

If my memory serves me correctly, back in 1955 at RAF Weeton, in addition to the C of E Chaplain, there was a Jewish Chaplain, if that is the word. I seem to recall his name was F/O Syna.
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Old 28th Dec 2009, 16:51
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From my memories of 18 years of service in the RAF, most of the chaplains were C of E. I would guess that this simply represented the largest "congregation".

However, I do remember meeting the senior C of S chaplain who appeared on the flightdeck of my Belfast one day wearing a dog collar and also a set of RAF wings. When I suggested that he had therefore covered both qualifications for the entry into heaven, he told me that he had been a York captain during the Berlin Airlift before he had decided to log his flying time from the pulpit!

I also got to know an RC padre in Nicosia in 1964 or thereabouts. Unusually, he was a Benedictine monk who came from Ireland. He had a PPL and was also a qualified jumping bean (paratrooper). I think he also played rugby for Ireland at some point. Despite the fact that I came from the opposition (C of S), he and I became great friends and also got into a modicum of trouble from time to time.

As a result of one of our expeditions, he was sent to El Adem for 6 weeks as a penance by, as he described it, "I/C GOD; NEAF".

From which I deduced that "I/C GOD; NEAF" was RC and was also a Gp Capt.
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Old 29th Dec 2009, 09:04
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The Reverend Robin Roe

The Irish Padre who was a rugby international may have been the above, a very special man. After deep research (looked it up on Wikipedia) it shows the following
Robin Roe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
He went on perhaps the greatest Lions rugby tour ever to South Africa in 1955 with Morgan, Butterfield, Davies, O'Reilly etc. This was when the two countries were really close, they had fought on our side in WWII, supported us financially and even had a member of the War Cabinet. Apartheid was not a matter for guests and we were still a great nation in those pre-Suez days. It was a magic tour.
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Old 29th Dec 2009, 09:53
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Sorry, not Robin Roe I'm afraid.
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Old 29th Dec 2009, 11:38
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shack, that type of apprentoid nouse was still around when I was at RAFC in 1968.

Following the demise of TSR2 and F-111K, a number of 'Supertechs' were being re-roled as Flt Cdts. Thinking they could spot a skive opportunity, they declared they were 'agnostic'.

"Ahh, that's a pity, you'll have to march to church with the CofE and stand outside during the service, chaps." announced the Flt Sgt.

Not to be outdone, they then said that they hadn't had much of a religious upbringing, so needed to have a serious discussion about religion. Yes, really!

Then announced that they all wanted to become Roman Catholics. The left-footer sky pilot was ecstatic and seemingly on the verge of writing to the Pope until, being wise to the ways of man, he thought "Hmmm.......all ex-apprentices. There's probably more to this!"

It seems that they'd found out that the RCs gathered in the Junior Mess foyer at 0930, wandered along to Mass, then were done and dusted by about 1030. CSFC formed up at 1000 and marched to their god-shop, but were out again by 1100. Whereas the CofE had a parade and inspection at 1030, then marched to the Church (often spotting the RCs on their way back to the Junior Mess); if we were out by 1200 we were lucky!

So the RC padre told them that the entry into Roman Catholicism would involve rather more than ticking a box on the relevant form. Their bluff called, our happy ex-apprentices admitted to their actual religion and that was the end of it. At least the RC padre saw the funny side of it though.
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Old 29th Dec 2009, 13:44
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There was a padre on my all-arms parachute course. He was very Holy, always making the soft answer that turneth away wrath, never getting into an argument, got knocked down in seconds in the "milling", always helping others, volunteering to carry their kit in Wales, etc etc etc.

He kept it up during the parachuting phase at Abingdon, until the night jump.

Someone behind him in the stick, heavier and descending faster, got his boots right into the middle of the Padre's canopy which then partially collapsed.

As the Padre disappeared rapidly earthwards the sky was rent with dreadful profanities from the Holy lips. "Praise the Lord", we all thought, "he's human after all. If he survives he'll be a better person". He did, and he was.

To get back to the point of the thread, he was, of course, a Roman Catholic. An Anglican would not have known the words used by the RC Padre.
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Old 29th Dec 2009, 17:01
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Jenkins:

That's my man. I last saw him in a pub near Sutton Bank. He was teaching at Ampleforth College at the time. I used to go up to Sutton Bank with my RAFGSA gliding club and used to give him a call. Then he disappeared.

The story was that he had got himself married and had become a solicitor!

I've just done a bit of googling and have discovered that he sadly died on 10/07/08.

So, I don't suppose it would hurt to say goodbye to Fr. Leander Duffy. You were a great chap and I will never forget one outing, in particular, on the pillion of the BMW!
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Old 31st Dec 2009, 21:49
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Alisoncc - not a sprog, but a DE (now no-one likes me)

DST32 to be specific.

As a Cornish agnostic, I used to get sent off to CSFC.
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