Again Remembering the ‘Four Chaplains’
An image of the Four Chaplains from a U.S. Pentagon stained glass window.
Photo via Wikipedia.
Chaplains are akin to being “first responders in the spiritual world” and stand with people in times of trial, trouble and trauma, says Rev. Ron Klimp, director of the Christian Reformed Church’s Chaplaincy and Care Ministry.
Klimp says the critical role of chaplains was reinforced for him on Sunday, Feb. 3, when congregations and veterans’ groups across the United States honored the “Four Chaplains of World War II.”
Even though the CRC celebrates the ministry of its chaplains in November and congregations weren’t formally asked to commemorate the four chaplains this past Sunday, Klimp says remembering their story is important.
The chaplains were aboard the USAT Dorchester when a German U-boat torpedo sank the ship off the coast of Greenland early in the morning of Feb. 3, 1943.
As the ship went down, it became clear that there were not enough life jackets for all of the crew and troops aboard the Dorchester. So the four chaplains gave their life jackets to others.
Left behind, they prayed according to their own religious traditions before they drowned as water engulfed the sinking ship.
The four were a Methodist chaplain, the Rev. George Fox, Rabbi Alexander Goode, Father John Washington, and Reformed Church in America (RCA) minister Clark Poling.
The RCA recently posted a story on its RCA News Feed about the chaplains, reminding members ahead of time to consider observing Four Chaplains Sunday.
Some RCA congregations do commemorate Four Chaplains Sunday, says Ellen Ratmeyer, director of chaplains for the RCA and an ordained elder in the denomination.
For instance, she says, RCA chaplain Ken Kolenbrander serves at the VA Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz. and helps out during the winter at one of the RCA churches there. Every Feb. 3, Kolenbrander represents chaplain Clark Poling in a commemoration service of the Four Chaplains.
Whenever the chaplains are remembered in any denomination, the focus is on selfless sacrifice and interfaith unity.
“I think these four chaplains create a powerful image of what chaplains are and do,” says Klimp.
The CRC currently has 128 endorsed chaplains, many of whom serve in hospitals, long-term care facilities, in mental health and disability-ministry settings, and in other places, often ministering to people facing personal struggles.
Of the CRC’s endorsed chaplains, 24 are in the military, either in the active-duty military, the reserves, or the National Guard. Chaplains serve the troops wherever they are, including in combat.
“They (chaplains) show up in arenas of current or potential crisis and minister across faith groups to the ‘God-shaped vacuum’ that all humans experience (especially in times of crisis)... This is why I like to refer to them as the ‘first responders’ of the spiritual world,” says Klimp.
