The Methodist Commission on Chaplains in World War II
The Council of Bishops and the Need for Military Chaplains
The Methodist Church came into existence on May 10, 1939, incorporating the 8 million members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church. One year later, the reunited church held its first General of Conference in May 1940. The Methodist Church’s first Book of Discipline (1940) created the Council of Bishops as an official body of the church.
"There shall be a Council of Bishops composed of all the Bishops of all the Jurisdictional and Central Conferences, the latter with vote limited to matters relating to their respective Central Conferences. The Council shall meet at least once a year and plan for the general oversight and promotion of the temporal and spiritual interests of the entire Church and for carrying into effect the rules, regulations, and responsibilities prescribed and enjoined by the General Conference, and in accord with the provisions set forth in the Plan of Union."
1940 Discipline, Paragraph 325, Article 5
The Council first met in Chicago on July 26, 1940, and one of the first issues the Council had to address was a request from the Army to provide chaplains. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the president declared a national emergency and expanded the size of the Regular Army from 174,000 to 227,000. The institution of the draft in September 1940 more than doubled the size of the Regular Army again, raising it to 500,000, and expanding the National Guard from 200,000 to 270,000. The expansion continued rapidly as war drew nearer. At the end of 1940, there were 630,000 soldiers on active duty, and by June 1941 there were 1,400,000. By the end of World War II, there would be over 16 million men and women in the nation’s armed forces. As the Army grew and prepared for war, it also had to train. As the size of the Army and its training requirements expanded, so did its footprint. New military bases were established. Others expanded.
The Army established a quota for every religious group in the United States. It initially asked the Methodist Church to provide 399 chaplains. The government based the quotas on reported church membership as of 1936. As the largest Protestant denomination in the country, the Methodist quota of 11% was second only to the Catholic Church. The denomination’s statistician conservatively estimated that a million Methodist men between the ages of 18 and 34 could serve in uniform.
There were many reasons that it would be difficult to fill the quota. Not least among these was the pacifist teaching of the church. Following World War I, the Methodist churches in United States, along with most of the other churches that belonged to the Federal Council on Churches, had become increasingly anti-military in their public stances. Several controversies surrounded the chaplaincy. Should chaplains be employed by the government or the church? Should they wear military uniforms or clerical garb? Should they have military rank? Most significantly, some Methodists came to believe that providing chaplains to the military constituted the church’s blessing on war. By the 1930s, anti-chaplain sentiment was pronounced on seminary campuses.
The 1940 Book of Discipline prohibited agencies of the church from preparing for war or participating in it.
"We recognize the need of an army and navy for police purposes. We stand for the repudiation of war and for the discovery and development of all reasonable methods to attain peace, for the reduction of armaments by all nations, participation in international agencies for the peaceable settlement of controversies, and for the building of a cooperative spirit among the nations. We insist that the agencies of the Church shall not be used in the preparation for war, but in the promulgation of peace. We believe that war is utterly destructive and is our greatest collective social sin and a denial of the ideals of Christ. We stand upon this ground, that The Methodist Church as an institution cannot endorse war nor support or participate in it."
Book of Discipline, 1940, Paragraph 1712.15
Would the Council of Bishops’ provision of chaplains for the armed forces constitute an agency of the church preparing for war? Do chaplains “participate” in war? Could the bishops, in fact, provide clergy for the military services without violating the Book of Discipline?
The Methodist Emergency Committee
The bishops met again on December 3 in Philadelphia. At that meeting, they voted to create the War Emergency and Overseas Relief Committee to address the need for chaplains, as well as two other war-related requests it had received. The Board of Home Missions and Extension had received many requests for assistance from congregations located near existing or planned military bases. The congregation’s needed help ministering to the large numbers of military personnel now present in their communities. Additionally, the bishops wanted to help British Methodists who were already suffering greatly at the hands of the Nazis. The Luftwaffe began its bombing campaign in the United Kingdom on July 10, 1940.
The War Emergency and Overseas Relief Committee met in Chicago on December 30-31, 1940. The committee’s first action was to change its name to the Methodist Emergency Committee, eliminating the word “war” from its title. The committee made several recommendations.
First, the committee asked the bishops to conduct a detailed survey of the church’s 600 district superintendents, to be completed by March 1, 1941, to determine the scope of the needs near the burgeoning military installations. The survey forced the superintendents to pay on-site visits to communities where government installations were located, alerting the church to the fact that the war was not just an “over there” problem. It was creating needs in this country, as well.
Second, the committee recommended that the bishops create a one-time appeal to raise $1 million to meet emergency needs associated with the war. This was an auspicious goal, given that the country had been in a severe depression for the last decade. The committee chose March 2, 1941, the first Sunday in Lent, to be a “Day of Compassion,” with the suggestion that families might fast and donate the cost of a traditional Sunday dinner. From that appeal, $250,000 was to be used for “work among Methodist boys in the military and naval service, to supplement the program of our churches near camps, to participate in interdenominational centers that may be established, and to undergird Methodist army and navy chaplains in necessary provisions for their fullest ministry." The campaign came close to its goal, raising $959,320.32 from the churches.
The Origin of the Methodist Commission on Chaplains
Shortly after the committee adjourned on December 31, 1940, the Council of Bishops called themselves into session to act on the Emergency Committee’s recommendations. One of the temporary committees appointed by the council would be known as the Commission on Chaplains.
Initially, the work of the commission was organically intertwined with the work of the committee on camp activities. It soon became evident that these two separate efforts required separate organizational entities. On October 10, 1942, at its meeting in Washington, the Methodist Emergency unanimously adopted the following motion:
"That the present Joint Commissions be separated into two distinct bodies: the Methodist Committee on Camp Activities and the Methodist Commission on Chaplains."
The commission would be responsible for recruiting, assessing, endorsing, equipping, guiding, and supporting chaplains on a denominational level. No similar office existed in any of the denominations that merged in 1939 to become the Methodist Church. For most of Methodist history, service as a chaplain was solely a matter of individual clergy initiative and episcopal acquiescence.
Bishop Adna Wright Leonard served as the first chairman of the commission. Bishop William W. Peele was named vice-chairman. Other members included bishops James C. Baker, Bruce R. Baxter, and G. Bromley Oxnam; pastors Arlo R. Brown, Horace E. Cromer, John R. Edwards, Fred G. Holloway, James S. Montgomery, and John Paul Tyler; and laymen John C. Boggs, Fred C. Croxton, and Daniel C. Roper. The ability to meet frequently in Washington D.C. was one of the criteria for membership.
Leonard’s appointment as chairman was due in part to the location of his office in Washington, DC where he could coordinate with the Army and the Navy. Bishop Leonard already served as the chair of the General Commission on Chaplains for the Army and the Navy, the Protestant endorsing body created by the Federal Council of Churches during World War I. By 1941, the General Commission had ceased to be a committee of the Federal Council and had become a separate organization. With his location near the War Department and his experience in the General Commission, Leonard was the natural choice to lead the Methodist chaplaincy program. He was an extremely forceful leader, unashamedly patriotic, and believed deeply in the ministry of chaplains. Concerning the chaplaincy, he was generally recognized to be the most knowledgeable churchman in America. He also served on the Committee on Camp Activities that supported Methodist churches located near military installations.
When the chaplain commission assembled for the first time on March 7, 1941, it realized that it was breaking new ground. The commission was charged with rapidly organizing a form of ministry with which the church was largely unfamiliar, and on a scale that the church had never seen before. The concept of "extension ministry" was largely unknown. Service as a missionary provided the closest analog, despite the significant differences between chaplaincy and missionary work. Indeed, the 1940 Book of Discipline categorized chaplaincy under the heading of “Missionary” in its discussion of ministerial orders. The commission took pains to emphasize the continuity of chaplaincy with the whole ordained ministry of the church. Chaplains were not "leaving the ministry".
The commission accepted that applicants were ordained elders and full members their annual conferences. They were in good standing as clergy, their character having been voted as “blameless” at the last session of the annual conference. The commission would not revisit matters that were the purview of the annual conference or intrude on the annual conference’s prerogatives. Rather, the commission attempted to determine whether an applicant would be a good representative of the Methodist Church as a chaplain in the armed forces.
The commission did not take a position on the theological divide between so-called fundamentalists and modernists that characterized so much of Protestant life in the previous decades. Applicants could approach their ministry from either side of the controversy, but that should not become the primary focus of their ministry to the armed forces. The commission was looking for chaplains who could provide ministry to all the men of chaplain’s unit.
The commission insisted that chaplains should not bear arms, a stance it believed to be consistent with the Geneva Convention’s protections of non-combatants and the church’s own requirement that the church itself should not participate in armed combat.
Finally, the commission asserted that it would serve as the primary point of contact between the church and the chaplain and the government on all matters related to military service. Although, Methodist chaplains had served in previous wars, the church had largely ignored them, and they ignored the church. For all practical purposes, the connection had been severed with the chaplain’s physical departure from the conference. Considering the indifference and hostility that some bishops and district superintendents now had toward military chaplaincy, the commission wanted to ensure that chaplains had a supportive point of contact in the church whenever a question arose. The commission had vastly more expertise than conference leaders in all things related to the chaplaincy and the government and could provide better advice. The commission assured prospective chaplains that it would take a supportive and continuing interest in their ministry for the duration of their military service.
Organizing for Work
The commission began its work with no staff or office space. For several months, Bishop Leonard worked out of his episcopal office in Washington with the assistance of his secretary. The commission’s work consumed most of his time, keeping him at his desk until midnight or later.
There were few other options. The expanding war effort consumed not only all the available office space in Washington, but office necessities like furniture and typewriters. Since the commission came into existence because of the war, everyone expected it to disband once the war was over. The commission never incorporated during its lifetime, making it difficult to enter legal obligations like leases or contracts.
Funding the Work
The 1941 Day of Compassion offering provided $230,324.67 to support camp activities and chaplain work.In the spring of 1942, the Council of Bishops authorized a second special offering for war emergency causes. The bishops asked the church to take an offering at each Communion Service and donate at least two-thirds of it to a general church fund known as the Fellowship of Suffering and Service. The offering would be distributed 50% to the Committee on Overseas Relief, 25% to the Committee on Camp Activities, and 25% to the Commission on Chaplains. In its first two years, the communion day offering made $186,780.54 available to the Commission on Chaplains. The offering, which evolved into World Communion Sunday, continued to provide funding for Methodist and United Methodist chaplain work until 1980.
The Council of Bishops announced a third special offering in July1942. Known as the Week of Dedication, the offering was received on March 7, 1943. This offering supported several missional and educational causes, with 10% being designated for the Commission on Chaplains. That offering provided an additional $45,505.59 for chaplain work.
Finally, the 1944 General Conference authorized an ambitious campaign to raise $25,000,000 for church causes. The church-wide effort known as the Crusade for Christ took place scheduled from December 31, 1944 to January 31, 1946. If successful, the campaign would provide $435,000 to the Methodist Commission on Chaplains.
Recruiting and Reception by the Church
The commission focused its recruiting efforts on seminaries and annual conferences but determined to make its appeal solely on the need for Christian ministry. The commission produced five thousand copies of “The Chaplaincy from the Standpoint of the Government and the Church” for distribution, characterizing its work as a religious rather than patriotic crusade.
When Bishop Leonard asked to address the students at the denomination’s seminaries, he was rebuffed. Seminaries would generally allow a representative of the commission to visit the school, sit in an empty classroom, and meet with students who were interested. A notice on a bulletin board was as far as the schools were willing to go. A visiting bishop might be allowed to preach in chapel, but the school warned him not to speak about chaplaincy. Nevertheless, student interest was stronger than schools’ welcome. Commission representatives stayed busy during their visits and sometimes had to extend their stays.
Similarly, Bishop Leonard asked his fellow bishops for the privilege of addressing sessions of their annual conferences. While the bishops agreed to have a representative of the commission speak, conference program committees resisted the effort by scheduling the commission’s remarks at times in the schedule when few members were expected to be present. Additionally, the commission was warned not to speak in such a way as to support the war effort. Some pastors quietly expressed interest in the chaplaincy, but also confided that they expected resistance from their district superintendents and churches.
District superintendents frequently discouraged pastors from applying for endorsement and then made things difficult for pastors when they did. Prospective chaplains were warned that they would reenter the itinerancy at the bottom of the salary ladder when they returned from the war. Superintendents unrealistically expected the start of military service to coincide with the meeting of the annual conference or moved pastors into a prospective chaplain’s charge even before the chaplain entered active duty. Chaplain service was disparaged as “leaving the ministry.”
Unsurprisingly, the effort initially produced fewer applications than required. When the Council of Bishops next met at Sea Island, Georgia, December 1-5, 1941, the Methodists were still 238 chaplains short. Bishop Leonard reported that most other denominations had met or exceeded their quotas. If the Methodist Church did not fill its allocated slots, those slots would be given to other denominations. Leonard told his fellow bishops,
From the statistics it will be seen that The Methodist Church is failing to supply. spiritual advisors and moral guardians for men from Methodist homes. Camp after camp can be cited in which the number of Methodist chaplains on duty is far disproportionate to the number of young men who have come from our congregations. Methodist ministers, and those charged with the appointment, can scarcely escape the accusation that they are responsible for the failure to provide adequately for the young men who have been nourished in The Methodist Church and who are now the nation's defenders.
The United States entered the war two days after the Council of Bishops adjourned, making the need for chaplains even more urgent. The Christian Advocate published this appeal in its first issue after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The state of war makes it more urgent that Methodists furnish more chaplains. Our church trails other denominations in meeting its quota. Two hundred twenty-six Methodist chaplains are needed immediately in the army reserve corps. There are also vacancies in the naval reserve. Applicants must be members of an annual conference and have a degree from a recognized college and theological seminary. Applicants who seek commissions in this noncombatant service should confer at once with the Methodist Commission on Chaplains, 100 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington. DC.
The next issue contained a letter from a Methodist serving in the armed forces.
I have been in the army nearly six months now and have never come across a Methodist chaplain. I have always been a loyal Methodist, as have many soldiers in the army, but we feel lost without the understanding leadership of a Methodist chaplain. Yes, we have Protestant chaplains of other denominations, but the largest of all Protestant churches seems to have few chaplains among its many youth who are trying to preserve a nation in which that church may continue to live. I am urging you to continue to call for more Methodist chaplains; we feel a very definite need of men who will preach the gospel as we have had it taught to us.
Another letter circulated with a similar sentiment.
I wonder how many of the men at home realize that unless they are willing to make the sacrifice that is asked, The Methodist Church is doomed in the mind of the present soldier. If any preacher ls too grand or too frightened to risk his life in the army, these same men that are being sent into the army will be fed up with them after they get out. No preacher will be able to get them back into the church. We are losing men from the church of tomorrow every day.
With American entry into the war, the commission began to receive a warmer reception at the church’s seminaries and annual conferences. By the time General Conference convened in Kansas City in 1944, attitudes toward the chaplaincy had changed significantly. After an extended debate, the Conference adopted language in support of the war effort. Bishop Arthur J. Moore praised the work of chaplains in his Episcopal Address. The commission encouraged chaplains to attend General Conference and hosted a luncheon on May 2 in their honor. Methodist chaplain George F. Rixey, Deputy Chief of Chaplains for the Army, addressed the Conference and Methodist chaplain William R. Thomas, Navy Chief of Chaplains, was also present. The names of chaplains in attendance were announced from the podium, and delegates gave them a standing ovation.
Nevertheless, the Methodist Church remained below its quotas until near the war’s end and recruiting continued to be a primary focus of the commission.
Application and Interview
Candidates began their journey to chaplaincy with a letter to the commission expressing interest and requesting an application. When the commission received an application, it wrote to the applicant's bishop and district superintendent asking for their input. The commission also asked the bishop if he would appoint an endorsed applicant who was accepted into military service.
The commission invited qualified applicants to Washington for an interview, which took place in the chapel of the Methodist Building on Maryland Avenue. The commission agreed to meet whenever there were 25 applications applicants ready to be interviewed.
Interview days began with a brief devotion by a member of the commission. The chairman followed with an orientation to the day’s proceeding. Other members of the commission offered additional remarks and applicants had the opportunity to ask questions.
When the group meeting was complete, applicants rearranged the chairs in the chapel into three circles. Simultaneous interviews took place in each group, with each interview panel consisting of at least one bishop, two elders and two lay members. In addition to being asked about their concept of ministry, applicants were queried about practical matters. What arrangements have you made for your family? Some applicants naively believe they could take their family with them wherever they went. How much life insurance do you have? Interviewers pressed the matter home with applicants. “No one should consider applying for the chaplaincy without taking into account that such duty might require the supreme sacrifice of life itself.”
Interviews took place in the morning and afternoon, with lunch provided in the Methodist Building for all participants. Commissioners took all aspects of their engagements with applicants into consideration, from the first letter of inquiry to lunch time conversations. The commission met after lunch to deliberate about applicants from the morning sessions, and at the end of the day to consider applicants from the afternoon sessions.
The commission notified applicants privately of its decision before they departed. Those denied endorsement were permitted to withdraw their applications. This face-saving measure allowed applicants to return home and say they had listened to the presentation and decided that God was calling them in a different direction.
At its meeting in May 1943, the commission authorized interviews to take place in other parts of the country, wherever a significant number of applicants and commission members could gather. This measure reduced both travel time and expenses, and ultimately accelerated the pace of interviews.
At its December 1943 meeting, the commission reported having received 670 formal applications for ecclesiastical endorsement since its last meeting. This figure did not include several hundred inquiries which never developed into applications. Of the 670 applications, 96 were not granted an interview because of educational deficiencies, physical disqualifications, or other problems that would keep them out of the chaplaincy. In total, 386 were endorsed and serving in the for the Army, 161 in the Navy, 135 were still pending either acceptance by the government or ordination by the church, and 27 were denied endorsement.
Taking Charge of Methodist Endorsement
When the Methodist Commission approved an application for endorsement, the application was forwarded to the General Commission on Chaplains for submission to the government. Since its foundation in 1917, the Federal Council of Church's General Committee on Chaplains had been the official channel for all Protestant endorsements. Prior to World War II, the General Committee changed its name to the General Commission and no longer existed an agency of the Federal Council. With its independent status, it could then represent churches which, for one reason or another, were not members of the Council of Churches. Now, with so many applications to process from so many denominations, the General Commission proved to be a bottleneck in the process.
In July 1943, the Methodist Commission assumed responsibility for submitting endorsements directly to the Army and the Navy. As one of the largest churches with the most endorsements, this step accomplished two important goals. It freed up the General Commission to process applications from other churches and sped up the accession of Methodists into miliary service. The Methodist Church continued to support the work of the General Commission financially, but it took charge of its own endorsements.
Supporting Chaplains
To maintain its connection with chaplains in the field, the commission required a Monthly Report with the chaplain’s general location, a brief narrative, statistical information about worship services, professions of faith, baptisms, communions, and a space for comments, questions, and requests. The Executive Secretary read the reports, answered the questions and, when possible, granted the requests. In one year, Methodist chaplains reported baptizing nearly 5,000 and receiving nearly 10,000 professions of faith. The commission sent the names of baptized and professing service members to their local churches or to Methodist churches near their homes. The names of several hundred young men reporting a call to ministry were also referred to the commission on Ministerial Training and their district superintendents.
Monthly communications went both ways. The commission published a Monthly Bulletin which it sent to every chaplain. The Bulletin contained letters from commission members, information about church activities, news about life at home, details about available resources, and a section for chaplains to exchange ideas with each other. The Bulletin contained dates for each annual conference and encouraged chaplains to attend either their own or one near their duty station.
One of the most immediate needs was for field communion sets. The Army and Navy provided a field organ, a chest of hymnals, and a tent for the field. Beyond that, ecclesiastical requirements were a denominational responsibility. At the start of the war, the only portable communion sets available were those for use in visiting the sick and homebound. They cost $8.75, and an appeal in The Christian Advocate raised enough funds to provide 500 sets for chaplains. It was soon evident that chaplains also needed communion sets that could accommodate a larger group in a fixed or field chapel setting. The commission selected materials that cost $55 per set and estimated that 1000 sets would be required by the middle of 1943. By the end of the war, the commission helped supply its chaplains with communion elements, religious records and films, books, pamphlets, certificates, stationery, and church school supplies.
The agencies of the church helped tremendously. The Board of Education provided sample copies of educational materials for church schools on post. The Board of Lay Activities, Methodist Publishing House also worked with the commission to provide material for chaplains. The American Bible Society provided bibles.
Commission members and staff also traveled to visit chaplains and military leaders. Bishop Leonard was the first Protestant civilian cleric to visit chaplains and troops in England and Ireland in April, 1943. He was killed on May 3, 1943 when the B-24 carrying him to Iceland crashed into the side of a mountain. Bishop William Walter Peele succeeded him as Chairman of the Commission on Chaplains, with Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam taking Bishop Peele’s place as Vice-Chairman.
The End of the War
As a result of the commission's tireless work, the Methodist Church would have 1200 chaplains on active duty in the Army by the end of the war, exceeding its final quota of 935. The Methodist Church would provide 21% of the 5620 Protestant chaplains in the Army, and 15% of all Army chaplains. A total of 1747 Methodist chaplains would serve across all military services, including those in the Navy and maritime services.
In particular, it was Bishop Leonard's passion and energy that drove the commission forward until his death, and his memory which kept that drive alive for the remainder of the war.
In addition to Bishop Leonard, 10 Methodist chaplains were killed in action, and another 11 died incident to service. Among those killed in action was George Fox, one of the four immortal chaplains who perished on the Dorchester. Methodist chaplains received the following military awards for their service.
| Award | Number |
| Distinguished Service Cross | 2 |
| Distinguished Service Medal | 1 |
| Silver Star | 15 |
| Legion of Merit | 20 with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster |
| Soldier's Medal | 5 |
| Bronze Star | 129 with 16 Oak Leaf Clusters |
| Commendation Ribbon | 35 with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters |
| Purple Heart | 43 with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters |
| Foreign Decoration | 2 |
Sources
The primary source for this article is an unpublished and incomplete paper with related notes by John McLaughlin, the first General Secretary of the Methodist Commission on Chaplains, elected in 1956, and Fred Heather, Associate General Secretary in the 1950s and 1960s. The current version of the manuscript dates to 1999. According to a letter from McLaughlin, Heather was the primary author of the material covered in this essay. All these source documents are now housed with the United Methodist General Commission on Archives and History at Drew University in Madison, NJ.
Additional sources include:
Volume 3 of the official history of the Army Chaplaincy, Up from Handymen, The United States Army Chaplaincy 1865-1920, by Earl F. Stover [Office of the Chief of Chaplains, Washington, DC, 1977]
Chaplains of the United States Army. by Roy Honeywell [Office of the Chief of Chaplains, Washington, DC, 1958]
The Service of Chaplains to Army Air Units, 1917-1946, by Daniel B. Jorgensen [Office, Chief of Air Force Chaplains, 1961]
Chaplains of the Methodist Church in World War II [Methodist Publishing House, 1948]
Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Church 1940 [Methodist Publishing House, 1940]
Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Church 1944 [Methodist Publishing House, 1944]
Journal of the 1944 General Conference of the Methodist Church [Methodist Publishing House, 1944]
Find-A-Grave
METHODIST LAY LEADER D. STEWART PATTERSON DIES AT 94, Washington Post, October 27, 1991
