AP

Why the Presbyterian Church of Australia has opened military chaplaincy to qualified ruling elders.

The context for the modern military chaplain differs from most congregational ministries and contains certain uncommon complexities. A Presbyterian chaplain is at once a pastor, a commissioned officer, and a representative of the church serving inside a secular institution. That threefold identity is unique and demanding. The chaplain must care for people of every faith and none, protect the religious liberty of others, and remain faithful to the gospel and to the standards of our church. The work is shaped by law, by military regulation, by pluralism, and by a nation that is less religiously homogeneous than it once was.

To describe military chaplains another way, they are a government-employed professionals who are also a commissioned officers and hold an endorsement by a religious organisation. In the Australian Defence Force, chaplains are recruited, trained, and posted according to Defence requirements, yet they remain under the spiritual oversight of the church. They work among people whose beliefs range across the Christian traditions, other world religions, and no religion at all. They must facilitate the free exercise of religion for all, including those whose convictions they do not share. That is not the ordinary experience of the pastor whose congregation shares a common confession.

The word “chaplain” itself carries a story of mercy given in a military setting. It comes from the Latin cappellanus, the keeper of a cloak. In the fourth century Martin of Tours, then a young soldier in Gaul, met a shivering beggar. Having nothing else to give, he cut his military cloak in two and shared it. That night he dreamed of Christ wearing the half-cloak. Martin later left the army, was baptised, and became Bishop of Tours. The remaining half of the cloak became a treasured relic. Frankish kings carried it into battle as a sign of God’s presence. The priest appointed to guard the cappa (cloak) was the cappellanus. The small oratory that housed the relic was the capella, the little cloak, from which we get “chapel.” The chaplain was therefore, from the beginning, a churchman serving inside another institution—the army of a king. The duality remains.

Chaplaincy in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has a long official history, but the environment in which chaplains work has grown more complex. Western societies have become more fragmented and more secular. Courts and public debate have placed limits on how religion may be expressed in government institutions. Chaplains serve under overlapping constitutional, statutory, and service regulations while remaining accountable to their church. There is no complete agreement, even within Defence, on what the office should look like. The result is a ministry that requires both theological conviction and institutional wisdom.

What is agreed is that the majority of the ADF still values their ministry. A 2021 survey of ADF personnel found that 67.8 per cent regarded chaplaincy as very important or important. Only a small minority thought it unimportant. The same research suggested that low formal religiosity does not prevent personnel from using chaplains.

Today, the ADF itself is expanding and modernising. That growth requires more uniformed personnel. At the same time, chaplaincy branches struggle to fill existing billets, even as they are asked to grow in number.

The 2026 General Assembly of Australia considered the needs. Understanding the work, role and importance of the chaplains, they considered how the Presbyterian Church could widen the pool of candidates offered to the ADF. The minimum requirements would remain. A theological degree or equivalent, pastoral experience, and endorsement by the Church. The Assembly heard that the ADF no longer needed to limit Chaplaincy to Pastors ordained to Word and Sacrament. For Defence, if the sending faith group will certify a person as suited to represent that tradition, and they meet Defence requirements, they will consider them for either full-time and part-time service.

The Assembly responded. They resolved that ordained Ruling Elders, as well as ministers of the Word and Sacrament, may be nominated for ADF chaplaincy. They recognised that elders already subscribe to the Church’s supreme and subordinate standards. Additionally, many meet the educational and pastoral thresholds. The General Assembly has recently authorised elders to administer the sacraments in certain circumstances, although the ADF no longer expects every chaplain to provide sacramental ministry.

Safeguards were put in place by the Assembly. Ruling Elders must remain under the jurisdiction and in good standing with their Session.

Widening the aperture to include qualified elders is therefore both a response to an acute need in Defence as well as a gospel opportunity for the Church. From now on, a Presbyterian ruling elder who is theologically formed, pastorally experienced, and remains accountable to Session can bring a gospel presence onto ships, into barracks and onto air bases, without ceasing to be under the care of the local church.

Chaplaincy began as an act of costly sharing in a military world. It continues today as the Church sends its own people to live and work among those who belong to the profession of arms.

The need for military chaplains remains, and the complexity of chaplaincy is unchanged. However, what has changed in the PCA is that Ruling Elders, as well as Teaching Elders, may now answer the call to serve Christ in Australia’s expanding and modern Defence Force. 

More information about opportunities to work as an ADF chaplain (permanent or part-time) can be obtained from the author (martin.depyle@gmail.com)

– Martin de Pyle

Martin is Pastor of the West Footscray Presbyterian Church in Melbourne, Convener of General Assembly of Australia Defence Force Chaplains Committee, and the Presbyterian Representative on the Religious Advisory Committee to the Services.