Military Chaplaincy

• Air Force Chaplaincy
• Army Chaplaincy
• Navy Chaplaincy [select “Chaplain & Support” under “Select Interest Area”]
  • Focus on Service (introductory video on Navy chaplaincy with RADM Margaret Kibben (Ret.), former Chief of Chaplains)
• Veterans Administration Chaplaincy

Dr. J. Irene Harris, Counseling Psychologist and Clinical Investigator at Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts and affiliate faculty at the University of Minnesota Medical School, routinely conducts training sessions on the program Building Spiritual Strength. Dr. Harris has generously provided a number of free materials for sharing through the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, which we provide here. Note: if you are interested in implementing Building Spiritual Strength, please contact Dr. Harris (Jeanette.Harris2@va.gov) or Tim Usset (usse0006@umn.edu) for consultation.

Intervention Manual for “Building Spiritual Strength”

3-video series, “Building Spiritual Strength”

“Building Spiritual Strength” through Adobe Connect

“Building Spiritual Strength” baseline interview for intake personnel

“Building Spiritual Strength” Facilitator Education guide, prepared by Timothy Usset

“Building Spiritual Strength” participant manual

“Building Spiritual Strength” training for chaplain therapists

Harris et al. (2011), “The effectiveness of a trauma-focused spiritually integrated intervention for veterans exposed to trauma,” Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Harris et al. (2015), “Moral injury and psycho-spiritual development: considering the developmental context,” Spirituality in Clinical Practice.

Harris et al. (2018), “Spiritually integrated care for PTSD: a randomized controlled trial of ‘Building Spiritual Strength’,” Psychiatric Research.

Worthington (2013), “Moving forward: six steps to forgiving yourself and breaking free from the past,” as adapted by Brandon Griffin and Caroline Lavelock

“Military chaplains from four wars rest on Chaplains Hill in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery. Those buried here include the Army’s first chief of chaplains, Col. John T. Axton, a veteran of World War I; World War II’s chief of chaplains, Maj. Gen. William R. Arnold, who was the first chaplain to become a general; and Maj. Charles Joseph Watters, who served in Vietnam and posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his selfless actions on November 19, 1967.” Read more about this section of Arlington National Cemetery here.

• On February 3, 1943, an Army transport ship called the Dorchester, carrying American soldiers through the icy North Atlantic on their way to serve in World War II, was about 100 miles off the coast of Greenland in rough sea. More than 900 people were on board.
  Many of them were little more than boys — young soldiers and sailors who had never been so far from home. The journey had been arduous already, with the men crammed into claustrophobic, all-but-airless sleeping quarters below deck, constantly ill from the violent lurching of the ship.In the blackness of night, a German submarine fired torpedoes at the Dorchester.One of the torpedoes hit the middle of the ship. There was pandemonium on board. The Dorchester swiftly began to sink.The soldiers and sailors, many of them wakened from sleep by the attack, searched desperately in the dark for life jackets and lifeboats and a route to safety.With them on the ship were four military chaplains, from four disparate religions.They were Father John Washington, born in Newark, New Jersey, who was Catholic; the Rev. Clark Poling, born in Columbus, Ohio, who was ordained in the Reformed Church in America; Rabbi Alexander Goode, born in Brooklyn, New York, who was Jewish; and the Rev. George Fox, born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, who was Methodist.In the chaos onboard, according to multiple accounts by survivors of the attack, the four men tried to calm the soldiers and sailors and lead them to evacuation points. The chaplains were doing what chaplains do: providing comfort and guidance and hope.“I could hear men crying, pleading, praying,” a soldier named William B. Bednar would later recall. “I could also hear the chaplains preaching courage. Their voices were the only thing that kept me going.”With the Dorchester rapidly taking on water, there were not enough life jackets readily available for every man on the ship.

  So, when the life jackets ran out, the four chaplains removed their own, and handed them to soldiers who didn’t have them.

  -Bob Greene, “Real heroes: four died so others might live,” CNN.com, February 3, 2013. A memorial to the four chaplains, including a contemporary Navy chapel, can be visited here.

• From producer and director David Washburn:
  

  Loyalty: Stories profiles a diverse group of American Muslims who gave an oath to protect the United States and uphold its constitution. It looks at the challenges Muslims face as they defend a nation that does not always defend them. Through immensely personal stories, the series shows that “loyalty” cannot simply be reduced to one’s love of country, but takes many forms and is as complicated at the American Muslim experience itself. Follow the series here as it is released in full through 2020.

  The series is produced and directed by David Washburn. Contact him at loyaltystories(at)gmail.com.

  Check out the trailer to Loyalty: Stories and the rest of the episodes, as they release, here.

• 2014 report
• 2016 report: Executive Summary

• If you would like to recommend a publication be added to this list, please email info@chaplaincyinnovation.org.
  • 2019 special issue on military moral injury in Pastoral Psychology 68(1)
  • Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini, Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War (2013)
  • Larry Graham, Moral Injury: Restoring Wounded Souls (Abingdon, 2017)
  • Zachary Moon, Warriors between Worlds: Moral Injury and Identities in Crisis (Lexington Books, 2019)

https://history.army.mil/museums/TRADOC/army-chaplain-corps-museum/index.html

Chaplains serving veterans may wish to review the resources available at VeteransGuide.org.