No easy road for military chaplin
HALIFAX, NS - In the midst of the war in Croatia, Stephen Merriman baptized a young Canadian officer, using a military helmet to hold the water.
It's just one example of the improvisation and flexibility that a chaplain with the Canadian Armed Forces must have, especially when serving a diverse mix of faiths and backgrounds.
Merriman says he identifies with the Apostle Paul, as he had to learn how to "become everything to everybody," while serving as a military chaplain. "You're pretty much everything to the soldiers and sailors," he says. "You're the social worker, you're the priest, you're the padre, you're the pastor, you do counseling, you do services.
"It's not the nice comfortable confines of a denomination," he adds. "We're asked to minister to [many] faiths, and to people who are from 'no religion expressed'."
Ordained as a minister in the Free Methodist Church in Canada, Merriman pastored local parishes for eight years before deciding in 1988, at the age of 33, to apply as a chaplain for the Armed Forces.
"It was a calling where I knew I could do well," the father of three says. "I always look for an ecumenical approach to ministry and the military is certainly that, if nothing else."
However, at the time, the chaplaincy accepted pastors from only five denominations– United Church, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian and Lutheran–and Merriman was rejected time and again.
However, he didn't give up. Times were changing in the military and after many letters and petitions, Merriman was finally accepted to the chaplaincy in the spring of 1991. He was stationed with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Battalion in Esquimalt, B.C. and that fall enrolled in Basic Officer Training.
"It is certainly hands-on ministry," says Merriman. "We take the presence of ministry into the workday world of soldiers, sailors and air persons."
As an operational chaplain, Merriman's duties took him all over the world, including terms in Croatia and Bosnia. There his own faith was tested as he witnessed the horror of war in the Balkans. "It was definitely a level of hatred that I had never experienced before going there," he said of the destruction in Croatia. "I won't say it emptied my faith, but for a little while I questioned it."
But, he adds, he also saw a side of the military not often told in the stories that filtered back to Canada and the U.S. The general population doesn't see "things like soldiers building school grounds for children and cutting hundreds of thousands of cords of wood for older people or soldiers raising money to buy potato seeds."
As a chaplain, Merriman does not carry a weapon and does not condone violence. However, violence is a part of the military and part of the chaplain's job is to minister to those who may be forced to use it.
"I'm here to bring the presence of Christ to individuals who…might be put into the situation where they would have to administer supervised violence in the fulfilling of their duty," he says.
Now stationed in Halifax with the Canadian navy, Merriman was recently promoted to Lieutenant Commander (equivalent to the Army's rank of major), an administrative role that includes caring for operational chaplains.
"I'd rather be operational," Merriman admits, "but I know my days are not like that anymore." Still, he looks to the future with optimism. "I love the ministry within the military context," he says. "I think I've found my ministry in life."
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