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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Chaplains Return To The Russian Army |
| 2010-09-30 |
| Recently Russian announced that, after an absence of nearly a century, chaplains were being reintroduced into the armed forces. This came after four years of negotiations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which would have to provide priests to be military chaplains. While the Orthodox church agreed, in the 1990s, to provide religious services to military personnel and their families, this did not include chaplains. That's because, despite the shortage of priests, it was possible to use lay people to provide some priestly functions (like counseling and organizing charitable activities). Chaplains, on the other hand, are typically assigned to military units, like other specialists (doctors and staff officers). There were not enough priests for that, because the communists had limited the number of men who could become priests during the Soviet period (1921-91). But the church worked out a compromise with the military, and chaplains will be phased in as priests become available. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #1 Let's compare results: WW I with priests: WW II without same. Mebbe they are not Jew - baiters anymore? Mebbbe? |
| Posted by: borgboy 2010-09-30 16:12 |