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CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq (Army News Service, April 18, 2006) – As the sun rose over Baghdad on Easter morning, April 16, 250 Task Force Baghdad Soldiers gathered for a sunrise worship service on the shores of an artificial lake built during Saddam Hussein’s reign. “This is the day we look forward to all year,” said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) James White, Task Force Baghdad chaplain. “Yes, there’s a risk involved in coming out here to hold a service by the lake, but my message to those who have gathered here today is that we have freedom of worship. I’m just thankful...

    I HAVE GIVEN YOU AN EXAMPLE (John 13:14-15)"If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do." (John 13:14-15) "Surely, what I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not heaven. Neither is it beyond the sea. It is very near to you . . . in your mouth . . . in your heart." (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)Jesus commands...

    CELEBRATING THE SUCCESS OF OTHERS It is natural and understandable to feel pangs of envy when we see someone else get promoted while we may have not been; or to see someone else get a kudo and we were not recognized for our hard work.  It is human. Life is full of many disappointments large and small, and it is tough to accept that others may enjoy greater fortune when we are equally deserving.  How can we deal with such feelings of envy?  First, it is essential to recognize that envy is an emotion that can be good or bad.  ...

    Making Assumptions A story making the rounds this past week told of a policeman who was heading home after a long, hard day on patrol. He had dealt with a whole succession of difficult people, and a mountain of frustrating paperwork. All he wanted at this point was to kick back, unwind, enjoy some peace and quiet, and maybe watch a few innings of baseball on TV. But, as he neared home, he was startled by a vehicle that came careening around a sharp curve and narrowly missed his squad car. As the car passed within a...

The billboards out the window in this part of central Missouri advertise rock-bottom prices on adult videos and getaways to the Ozark Mountains. But at the truck stop just off Interstate 70, Chaplain Bob Holt is making another kind of promise to weary truckers: salvation. For eight years, Holt has led daily services from a converted trailer parked in a truck stop -- a place he sees as filled with temptation. And on Thursday, he and fellow missionaries at nearly 100 travel plaza chapels across the country will hold a morning fellowship meeting to celebrate their calling on the seventh...

    Attitude of Gratitude Good morning this rainy Sunday! This morning someone asked me, "How do you like the lousy weather, Chaplain?" I thought a moment about the fact that my uniform was wet, my car had trouble starting, and about all those poor people stuck in the wall of traffic that inevitably occurs when 58 gets drenched. Then later I thought, how would we exist without the rain? which makes all life on our planet possible. I remembered the old prayer in my prayer book, a blessing to God for the gift of wind and rain. There...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Mar. 15, 2006) -- Deployment can affect service members in a number of ways, including their emotional and spiritual well-being. When it comes to spiritual matters, service members here have only to turn to Lt. Cmdr. Ray Hunt, chaplain for the deployed element of the 1st Marine Logistics Group, for assistance. Hunt said he is determined to bring every service member home emotionally and spiritually sound. “I just want to take care of every Marine, sailor, soldier and airman (here). I want everyone to go home (safely),” said Hunt, a native of Clinton, Miss. For Hunt and...

Muslim Jail Chaplain Won't Lose Job After Fiery 'Zionists' Speech POSTED: 4:20 pm EST March 14, 2006 UPDATED: 4:44 pm EST March 14, 2006 Email This Story | Print This Story NEW YORK -- The city's top jail chaplain who gave a speech containing incendiary language like "Zionists of the media" and "terrorists" in the White House won't be fired from his job, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday. The Republican mayor used the opportunity to make a passionate defense of the First Amendment, saying that the "great dangers that we are facing are not people saying things, it is our...

    Chaplain Links U.S. Army Office of the Chief of Chaplains  Army Chaplain Center and School Army Chaplain Recruiting Pentagon Chaplain Fort Belvoir Chapels Fort Myer Memorial Chapel U.S. Air Force Air Force Chaplain Service Air Force Chaplain Service Recruiting Chaplain Assistance Apprentice Course Air Force Pastoral Care Links U.S. Marine Corps The Chaplain of The U.S. Marine Corps CREDO Main Page Marine Corps Family Team Building U.S. Coast Guard Coast Guard Headquarters Chaplain Coast Guard Prayers and Hymns Coast Guard Yard Chaplain's Home Page U.S. Navy Navy Chaplain Corps Navy Chaplain Recruiting Chaplain Care Naval Chaplains School...

The head chaplain for New York City jails has been suspended while the city investigates claims he made incendiary statements last year in Tucson, including a comment that the "greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House." The New York Post reported Thursday that Umar Abdul-Jalil made the remarks at a conference sponsored by the Muslim Students Association in Tucson. It said the Investigative Project, a Washington organization that tracks extremist Islamic groups, recorded the speech, in which he also allegedly said that Muslims jailed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were "tortured" in the Manhattan Correctional Center. Abdul-Jalil,...

    Healed and Whole One day I dug a little hole And put my hurt inside I thought that I could just forget I'd put it there to hide. But that little hurt began to grow I covered it every day I couldn't leave it and go on It seemed the price I had to pay. My joy was gone, my heart was sad Pain was all I knew. My wounded soul enveloped me Loving seemed too hard to do. One day, while standing by my hole I cried to God above And said, "If You are really...

    Moving Beyond Cape Bojador The early Portuguese explorers believed that the oceans were impassable below Cape Bojador, a point on the West African coast. When sailors set aside their fears and moved past Cape Bojador, they found that their fears were groundless that their limitations were imaginary. We all have our own Cape Bojador. We fear things that we need not fear. We draw boundaries around areas of our lives and decide that we can't go past them. Since we believe these false paradigms, we will stay within their artificial boundaries and lose whatever experiences we might...

-----Editor's note: As reported in the Washington Times, the U.S. Air Force last Wednesday "released revised guidelines on religious observance that say chaplains need not recite prayers incompatible with their beliefs... The move won tepid praise from evangelicals, who see the move as progress but not close to a guarantee that they can pray 'in Jesus' name.'" This action follows in the wake of strong critical reaction to guidelines issued by the Pentagon last summer, as described in this article from our February issue.---- THE ATHEIST FOXHOLE by Angelo CodevillaArguably the worst, most gratuitous, most ominous act inflicted on America...

First Muslim Chaplain At Brown University 02-20-2006 7:37 AM (Providence, RI) -- A Muslim chaplain has joined the staff of the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life at Brown University. Rumee Ahmed is one of a handful of Muslim chaplains on university and college campuses across the country. The chaplain of the University, Reverend Janet Cooper Nelson, says hiring a Muslim chaplain brings "greater wholeness" to religious life at Brown. Copyright 2006 Metro Networks Communications Inc., A Westwood One Company

    How Big is ONE? As a man walked a desolate beach one cold, gray morning he began to see another figure, far in the distance. Slowly the two approached each other, and he could make out a local native who kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he hurled things into the ocean. As the distance between them continued to narrow, the man could see that the native was picking up starfish that had been washed upon the beach and, one at a time, was throwing them back...

Russia one step closer to army chaplains Big News Network.com Wednesday 15th February, 2006 (UPI) Military prosecutors in Russia have submitted to the Defense Ministry and parliament a bill to introduce chaplains into Russia's military. Maj. Gen. Valery Kondratov, an aide to the chief military prosecutor, told reporters Tuesday that the presence of chaplains was needed to combat hazing, strengthen military discipline and boost army morale. There should be a federal law regulating the relations between religious associations, the state and the armed forces. The time has come, said Kondratov, RIA Novosti reported. Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, a Russian Orthodox official...

KIRKUK, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 14, 2006) – Married Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division gathered at the Bastogne Chapel on Forward Operating Base Warrior on Valentines Day to rededicate their love for their spouses back home. “The ceremony was informal,” said Capt. Jerry Sherbourne, the 426th Brigade Support Battalion chaplain, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. “But it was an opportunity for us who are deployed and separated and far away to show we meant our vows and we still do.” More than 30 BSB Soldiers found time between missions to remember their spouses and rededicate their marriage vows in...

An evangelical chaplain serving in Iraq has been forbidden to preach at chapel services after his comments about military intolerance toward certain Christian expressions got him into hot water with the Army. Capt. Jonathan Stertzbach, a field artillery chaplain with the Army's 10th Mountain Division in Iraq, was silenced soon after his comments appeared in a Jan. 23 article in The Washington Times. The chaplain criticized one of his supervisors, Lt. Col. Phillip Wright of Fort Drum in New York, by name and gave details about how chaplains of all faiths were being pressured to offer up only nonsectarian prayers....

Knights in Iraq and Afghanistan faced challenges to their Catholicism, but a new program funded by the Order is helping U.S. troops stay close to the Church. A soldier rests his head on his Bible during a Sunday service in Tikrit, Iraq. Of the hundreds of patrols U.S. Marine Capt. Michael Ogden engaged in during his two tours of duty in Iraq, one in November 2004 is noteworthy if only because Ogden considers it “pretty minor.”   A soldier rests his head on his Bible during a Sunday service in Tikrit, Iraq. The patrol, in the violent western province of...

The Air Force, under pressure from evangelical Christian groups and members of Congress, softened its guidelines on religious expression yesterday to emphasize that superior officers may discuss their faith with subordinates and that chaplains will not be required to offer nonsectarian prayers. "This does affirm every airman's right, even the commanders' right, to free exercise of religion, and that means sharing your faith," said Maj. Gen. Charles C. Baldwin, the Air Force's chief of chaplains.