opportunities for practicing their religious beliefs
as civilians enjoy in their communities. Many
factors affect the extent to which this can be ac-
complished. Budget allocations, along with the
size, location, and nature of the naval activity are
some of these important factors. The following
sections will provide a general overview of the
Command Religious Program at shore
commands.
CHAPEL FACILITIES
Practically all shore installations have at least
one fully equipped chapel facility for use by the
various religious groups or categories represented
by command personnel. Services may be con-
ducted in the station theater, auditorium, or some
other convenient location when chapel facilities
are not available. Military chapels will be dis-
cussed in another section of this chapter.
DIVINE SERVICES
Larger shore installations provide a full
schedule of services on Sundays, Sabbaths, holy
days, and weekdays. This enables command per-
sonnel to attend the services of their choice. These
larger installations normally have a minimum of
two chaplains assigned. Chaplains conduct public
worship according to the manner and form of
their own particular faith group and may wear
the vestments of that liturgical tradition as
appropriate. Personnel are encouraged to attend
services in communities near the installation when
their particular faith group is not represented
aboard the command; or the commanding officer
may invite a civilian member of the clergy to
conduct services on the station to meet the needs
of these individuals.
RELIGIOUS RITES AND
PASTORAL CARE
Chaplains provide various religious ministries
to command personnel and their dependents in
addition to conducting regular worship services.
Some examples of several special ministries which
are provided by chaplains are:
Baptisms
Weddings
Communion services
Ministry to the sick
Ministry to the dying
Funeral services
The Religious Program Specialist provides
valuable support to command chaplains through
the scheduling of special services and by ensur-
ing that the facility is properly rigged for each
service.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Religious education programs for military per-
sonnel and their dependents have traditionally
been provided at commands whenever a sub-
stantial dependent population existed. Unity and
continuity in such religious education is made dif-
ficult by frequent transfers of military families.
The various and unique denominational re-
quirements also influence the religious education
programs that are provided for dependent
children of military personnel. For these reasons,
the Navy, Army, and Air Force Departments
make available religious education curricula and
materials which are designed especially for
military religious education programs. The cur-
riculum for dependent children at Navy and
Marine Corps shore activities is usually selected
from the following three resource guides:
Cooperative Protestant Religious Educa-
tion Curriculum
Catholic Curriculum and Resource Guide
Unified Jewish Religious Education
Curriculum
The materials described in these resource guides
are selected by members of the Armed Forces
Chaplains Board from various publishing houses.
The RP maybe tasked by the command chaplain
to obtain material from these three sources in
order to provide a standardized religious educa-
tion program for command personnel and their
dependents. In addition, RPs may be tasked to
recruit volunteers to teach the standardized cur-
riculum to dependent children. This responsibility y
will require the RP to instruct volunteers in
religious education methods and the use of
religious education material.
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