Who should the chaplain report to?

March 30, 2011 on the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate was published conversation with Boris Lukichev, head of the department for work with believers military personnel from the April issue of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Answering a question from Evgeny Murzin about the specifics of the work of a military priest and the possibility of its formalization, B. Lukichev said:

“ Form is not an end in itself. We do not and will not put before the priest the task of spending a certain amount soul-saving conversations, confess and forgive the sins of so many penitent sinners and serve, for example, five liturgies per month. To a greater extent than forms of work that the priest uses, we are interested in results, return from his activities ."

He proposes to divide all the activities of the military clergy into two components: " liturgical activities that are regulated by the hierarchy and intra-church establishments, of course, taking into account the conditions of service, combat training plans, combat readiness and current tasks "and" participation priest in educational, educational and other social work, which must be hardwired into the army schedule .”

In order to carry out educational work, the priest " should plan his activities together with the commander and his assistant for work with personnel , "in also because " command knows what spiritual and psychological problems exist in the army in a collective where there is something wrong with military discipline, [where] acute relations have arisen between military personnel, there is a need maintain peace in the families of military personnel, etc. ”

Forms of work of chaplains must be drawn up monthly plan approved by the commander.

Sources

• Priests join the army // Official website of the Moscow Patriarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. 2011. March 30.