The Methodist Commission on Chaplains after World War II
Rapid Demobilization
The war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945, and war in the Pacific on September 2, 1945. With end of the war, hundreds of Methodist chaplains were quickly released from active duty, often without advance notice. Methodist chaplains released from active duty in the middle of the conference year found themselves without employment. The church had adapted itself to their absence, and there was not an open pulpit waiting for all of them. The church owed these chaplains a measure of support during their transition back to congregational ministry.
Prior to the end of the conflict, the Methodist Commission on Chaplains conducted a survey to see what chaplains wanted to do after the war.
| Post-War Desire | Approximate Percentage |
| Return immediately to congregational ministry | 60% |
| Enroll in school for additional education | 20% |
| Remain on active duty | 10% |
| Become a chaplain in another setting (Veterans Administration, hospital, etc.) | 10% |
The commission set aside $150,000 to assist demobilizing chaplains. The funds were allocated to episcopal areas in proportion to the number of chaplains who had served on active duty from that area. The money could be used for financial emergencies, school expenses, or just to fill in the gap until a new appointment could be secured. The funds were disbursed to individuals at the request of the returning chaplain’s bishop.
Recognizing the Need for Permanence
The Methodist Commission on Chaplains owed its existence to the state of war engulfed the globe from 1939 to 1945. The commission’s existence was an emergency measure – literally the product of the Methodist Emergency Committee. It was not created to be a permanent institution of the church. Most church leaders assumed that the commission would be dissolved as soon as the war was over. As it turned out, there was still work to be done.
Hundreds more remained in service as chaplains, either on active duty or in the reserves. Additionally, the Veterans Administration had a growing need for chaplains to serve the immense population of new veterans and the aging population of veterans from World War I. The 1944 General Conference had foreseen this need and adopted the following resolution.
Resolved, That the General Conference request the Commission on Chaplains to make definite plans in cooperation with the United States Government, or State governments, for the appointment of Chaplains to Veterans Hospitals, or seek to provide for such a program as will minister to the spiritual needs of the thousands of our men and women who will be coming back permanently incapacitated and in need of spiritual guidance.
Having seen the value of military chaplaincy in action during the war, a variety of civilian institutions also created or expanded opportunities for chaplains. There would be an enduring need to assess, endorse, and support chaplains in these ministries beyond the local church. The commission’s work was not finished.
Moreover, the wider church recognized the value of the commission’s work during the war. Over four years, it recruited, endorsed, supplied, and supported the work of 1,747 chaplains, earning recognition for the entire church. The commission’s success was largely due to the passionate work of its chairmen and the indefatigable labor of its executive secretaries and their staffs.
Church leaders came to realize that a centralized church agency was essential to this task, and that the commission provided expertise that was not available elsewhere in the church. It has been said that "no other agency ever rooted itself more deeply into the life of the whole church in so short a time as has the Commission on Chaplains."
The commission convened in a special session on October 1, 1946, and invited 25 chaplains to meet with it. The invited chaplains represented all service branches and all ranks. The Chiefs of Chaplains, who were also Methodist, also attended, as did every member of the commission. The meeting lasted all day, apart from a brief recess for lunch. At the end of the day, the group unanimously recommended that the commission become a permanent agency of the church. The commission would draft a petition (or “memorial”) to that effect for consideration at the 1948 General Conference.
There Shall Be a Commission on Chaplains
The General Conference of 1948 established the commission as a standing agency of the church. At the morning session on May 7, the Conference approved the following paragraphs for inclusion in the 1948 Book of Discipline.
¶1595. There shall be a Commission on Chaplains which shall represent The Methodist Church m securing chaplains for the armed services and the Veterans Administration, in granting the required ecclesiastical endorsement, in maintaining contact with and general oversight of Methodist chaplains in reference to their ecclesiastical status while in government service, and in rendering such other services to the chaplains plains as may from time be referred to it by the Council of Bishops. The duties of the Commission on Chaplains shall include general supervision of chaplains in any other areas of service provided that they serve in a religious capacity.
The Commission on Chaplains shall be composed of four bishops, one of whom shall serve as chairman; six ministers and six laymen (one minister and one layman being from the Central Jurisdiction); and one advisory member from each branch of the armed services and the Veterans Administration. It shall be elected by the General Conference, on nomination of the Council of Bishops. Vacancies shall be filled by the Council of Bishops.
Among those elected to the commission in 1948 was Edgar A. Love, a minister in the segregated Central Jurisdiction. During World War I, he and had served 14 months as an Army chaplain. Love was elected to the episcopacy in 1952 and remained on the commission to become its first African-American bishop. Earlier in his life, he was one of the founding members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
During deliberations, Chester A. Smith of New York moved to amend the enabling legislation by adding the following statement: "We look with disfavor upon the Chaplains being members of the Armed Forces and being subject to the Military Authorities and being the recipients of Commissions, thereby making the Church a part of the war system." D. Stewart Patterson, Executive Secretary for the Commission on Chaplains, spoke against the motion and the amendment failed. Smith introduced nearly identical motions at the 1952 and 1956 General Conferences with the same results.
Reporting on its work to General Conference in 1948, the commission wrote:
The Methodist Church through its ministers serving as chaplains, continues to render a needed and effective spiritual ministry to the men and women of the armed services and those in the Veterans Hospitals. The Church's agency for the recruiting and selecting of chaplains, the maintenance of contacts with the Church, government, and men themselves, and the providing of special services to the chaplains is the Methodist Commission on Chaplains.
Appointed by and working under the direction of the Council of Bishops, the Commission operates from its headquarters in The Methodist Building, Washington D.C.
The work of the Commission falls under five general divisions:
- Procurement and Personnel Maintenance
- Supplies
- Records and Reports
- Liaison and Public Relations
- Administration and Finance
In detail the activities cover the handling of the large volume of world-wide correspondence; reviewing and preparing applications for consideration for ecclesiastical endorsement and arranging for interviews with candidates; coordinating with the Army, Navy and Veterans Administration in all phases of the work; handling requests from the Chaplains for assistance in personal and professional problems; providing supplies, such as communion sets, literature, and many items of religious supplies; maintaining detailed records of Chaplains on duty; receiving and analyzing monthly reports on activities of Chaplains; maintaining historical files (photographs and personal data); preparing material for church publications and secular press; distributing monthly letter or news bulletin to all Chaplains; maintaining contact with related agencies and denominational groups; conferences and agencies; and maintaining regular contact with all Chaplains – active duty, reserve and national guard – through correspondence and field visitation.
Funding the Commission
The Journal of the 1948 General Conference reported that commission Executive Secretary D. Stewart Patterson received an annual salary of $6,250 for the final year of the quadrennium, up from $5,659.80 during the previous years. Treasurer O. O. Thomen received annual compensation of $1,000.
The special Crusade for Christ fundraising campaign, which ran from the last month of 1944 to the first month of 1946, exceeded its $25,000,000 goal and provided $435,454.14 for the commission. Additionally, the commission continued to receive 25% of the communion offering known as the Fellowship of Suffering and Service. From 1944-1956, communion offering provided:
| 1944-45 | $ 124,133.35 |
| 1945-46 | $ 92,558.17 |
| 1946-47 | $ 110,007.27 |
| 1947-48 | $ 108,382.98 |
| 1948-49 | $ 99,156.44 |
| 1949-50 | $ 87,346.37 |
| 1950-51 | $ 99,989.46 |
| 1951-52 | $ 110,571.13 |
| 1952-53 | $ 138,767.08 |
| 1953-54 | $ 160,827.97 |
| 1954-55 | $ 179,552.54 |
| 1955-56 | $ 185,890.34 |
In 1956, the Fellowship of Suffering and Service first found its way into the Book of Discipline, now to be received on World Communion Sunday (the first Sunday in October) AND at observances of the Lord’s Supper. The distribution remained the same. Fifty percent of the offering was allocated to the Committee on Overseas Relief, and twenty-five percent each to the Commission on Chaplains and the Commission on Camp Activities. The name was changed to the World Communion Sunday offering in 1971, and the Division of Chaplains and Related Ministries was moved removed from the offering in 1980.
The Evolution of the Commission at the 1952 General Conference
The United States found itself at war again in July 1950, when North Korea invaded its southern neighbor. During World War II, the commission was fully occupied with the tasks for recruiting hundreds of chaplains, assessing them, putting them in uniform, supplying them with the necessities of their work, guiding them, and communicating with them on a regular basis. Policies and practices were ad hoc temporary measures dictated by circumstances and the demands of the moment.
Now firmly established as a permanent presence in the church, the commission faced the challenge of planning for the future of chaplaincy in the Methodist Church. Professional chaplaincy was evolving beyond the military context. How would the commission support professional chaplaincy as career over the long-term, both inside and outside the military context?
The 1952 General Conference expanded the scope of the Commission on Chaplains oversight beyond the armed forces and Veterans Administration.
¶1581. There shall be a Commission on Chaplains, which shall represent The Methodist Church in the procurement, endorsement, and general oversight of all Methodist ministers serving as chaplains in the Armed Forces, Veterans Administration, and federal prisons. The duties of the commission shall include also the general supervision of chaplains in public and private institutions (other than those of The Methodist Church) and industry. The commission shall render such other services to these chaplains as may be referred to it by the Council of Bishops.
With the 1952 legislation, the commission first received responsibility for chaplains in federal prisons, industry, and other institutions, both public and private. The church’s vision of chaplaincy was rapidly expanding.
The 1952 General Conference also adjusted the composition of the commission.
¶1582. The commission shall be composed of six bishops, one from each jurisdiction, and five ministers and five laymen, elected by the General Conference on nomination of the Council of Bishops, Vacancies shall be filled by the Council of Bishops. A member bishop shall serve as chairman. The commission may elect one advisory member from each department of the Armed Forces, from the Veterans Administration, and from other fields of service where Methodist chaplains are serving.
The requirement that there a be a bishop from every jurisdiction on the commission was new and represented more than geographical equity. From the beginning, the commission saw itself as the primary point of contact between the chaplain and the church, and most chaplains saw it that way as well. The commission communicated with chaplains more frequently than their bishops and district superintendents did. The commission also understood the context of chaplain ministry better than most bishops and superintendents. The presence of a bishop from each jurisdiction on the commission created a natural bridge between the commission and bishops in every part of the country. The bishops on the commission could talk to their peers bishop-to-bishop. They could advocate for chaplains and chaplaincy and help resolve differences between chaplains and their annual conference leadership.
In other firsts, the 1952 Book of Discipline authorized chaplains to receive individuals into membership in the Methodist Church when it was not possible to connect them a local congregation. It also refers to a Chaplain Pension Fund to be administered jointly by the Board of Pensions and the Commission on Chaplains. The fund was designed to support military chaplains who served on active duty after December 31, 1946, but who were not eligible to receive a government pension. Service prior to December 31, 1946 was covered by another provision of the Book of Discipline. The current General Membership Roll of the Church and the Chaplains Supplemental Pension Grant Fund are the grandchildren of these provisions and still overseen by the church’s endorsing agency.
The Impact of Methodist Chaplaincy in the 1950's
- 3,771 baptism and received 3,274 professions of faith.
- 24,671 preaching services with an attendance of 2,239,393.
- 8,679 communion services for 245,171 communicants.
- 7,208 Bible classes with 246,971 in attendance.
- 383,158 "personal interviews" (also known as counseling sessions).
- 1,096,480 hospital calls.
Patterson delivered the report again in at the 1956 General Conference. As of February 1, there were 533 Methodist chaplains serving in 25 different countries. For the previous 12 months, Patterson reported:
- 4,045,516 in Worship
- 397,775 in Communion Services
- 932, 879 in Church School
- 126,451 in Bible classes
- 1,894,453 in Character Guidance lectures
- 4,883 Baptisms
- 3,054 Professions of Faith
- 782,589 General Pastoral Visits
- 1,284,465 Hospital Visits
Patterson used the same expression in both reports: The Methodist Chaplain is a living symbol of the church.
Two Methodist chaplains were killed in Korea during the 1950's, one at the beginning of the war and one shortly after the signing of the armistice. Captain Samuel R. Simpson, Army, was killed in action in North Korea in November 1950 when Chinese forces who had just entered the war overran his unit in North Korea. Major James Waddell Roberts, Air Force, was killed in Korea in 1954 when his helicopter crashed attempting to rescue pilots from a burning jet.
The Need for a General Secretary
Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam chaired the commission beginning in 1952, while Bishop Paul Garber served as one of the vice-chairs. D. Stewart Patterson remained Executive Secretary, now supported by staff members Fred Heather, a chaplain who had been injured in World War II, and Fred C. Reynolds.
Heather (pictured above) would leave the commission briefly in 1957 to accept the pastorate of a church in California. He would later return and remain a fixture in the commission until his retirement in 1970. The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry has a scholarship named for him.
Bishops Oxnam and Garber believed that it might be time to make another change in the structure of the commission. Bishops on the commission were busy with their day jobs. Perhaps there was need for an ordained minister to run the day-to day-operations of the commission.
This was still one step short of a move that some preferred. A memorial (#143) presented to the 1948 General Conference proposed a bishop be assigned directly to organize and oversee chaplains in a manner similar to the diocesan arrangement in the Catholic and Episcopal churches. The proposal did not make it out of committee, but the idea lived on.
At the urging of Oxnam and Garber, the commission authorized a study of the situation and assigned Bishop Garber to conduct it. Garber surveyed all Methodist chaplains and personally interviewed many. In a nearly unanimous opinion, the chaplains wanted a fellow chaplain at helm of the commission, an experienced peer supervisor to whom they could look for guidance and counsel. As a member of the clergy, he could perform a role something like a district superintendent, serving as the link between the chaplains, the commission, their bishops and their conferences. As a fellow chaplain, he would understand what chaplains needed and could shape the commission’s work in response.
Out of this study came the proposal to convert the commission’s Executive Secretary position into a General Secretary. The field of chaplaincy had matured quickly over the past decade. Chaplains were rapidly developing a body of specialized knowledge and professional experience that set them apart as experts in their field. That expertise was being applied in a growing number of settings. Methodist chaplaincy had come of age and it was time to put the chaplaincy on a level playing field with other forms of ordained ministry.
The members of the commission accepted the Garber Report study and decided to act on it. They realized, however, that making the change involved a personnel problem. Mr. Patterson, a layman, had successfully organized and directed the work of the commission successfully through the war and the period of demobilization. He had been reelected for the 1952-1956 quadrennium and they did not want to create an unnecessary disruption. The commission decided to make the change at the 1956 General Conference.
The Selection of John McLaughlin
The commission selected Dr. John R. McLaughlin, an elder from the Newark Annual Conference, to become the first General Secretary of the Commission on Chaplains. McLaughlin was well suited to the job. He had been a chaplain with the Army Air Force during World War II. He had also pastored three churches and had served for seven years as a district superintendent. In 1951 and 1956, he was a delegate to meetings of the World Methodist Council.
McLaughlin (pictured above) was born on May 24, 1905, in Kansas to William McLaughlin and Mattie King McLaughlin. His first wife was Ada Frances Richard, who died in Germany in 1961 during his tenure as General Secretary. He later married Iona Shulenberger Henry, a widow.
Iona’s own story is worth mentioning. In March 1952, Iona’s 14 year old daughter died with a brain tumor. At the beginning of April, her family thought that a trip to visit family would help them with their grief. On the trip, a train struck the family car in Illinois near Saint Louis, killing her husband and son, and seriously injuring her. She wrote about the experience, Triumph over Tragedy, co-written by Frank S. Mead and published in 1957.
Iona went on to earn a Ph.D. from New York University. Her dissertation was entitled, "A study of the educational policy and effort of the Woman's Division of Christian Service of The Methodist Church." Her work analyzed the Division's educational policy from 1940-1960, with particular regard to schools for African Americans, Southern whites, Hispanics, and Native Americans.
Iona McLaughlin died in 1996 at the age of 88. Dr. McLaughlin died on January 7, 2005 at the age of 99. He and Iona are interred in the Concord-Saint Andrew United Methodist Church Columbarium in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Dr. McLaughlin took his seat as General Secretary in May 1956 at the conclusion of the General Conference held in Minneapolis. He remained General Secretary until 1970.
Chaplaincy at the 1956 General Conference
In his address to the Conference, commission chair G. Bromley Oxnam reported that there were 454 Methodist ministers on active duty; 147 in the Army, 129 in the Navy, and 178 in the Air Force. In addition 52 were serving in the Veterans Administration ; 57 in corrective institutions, hospitals and homes; 90 serving as civilians in the Civil Air Patrol; and 545 Reserve Chaplains not on active duty, making a total of 1,198 Methodist ministers directly related to the Chaplaincy Service.
General Conference moved chaplains moved out from the “Missionary Category” in the section on Ministerial Orders. Chaplaincy now earned its own paragraph under both deacons and elders.
In 1956, General Conference first authorized full clergy rights for women. The 1956 General Conference received over 20 petitions (known in Methodist language as memorials) related to chaplains and chaplaincy, with a large number of them pertaining to women in chaplaincy and women serving on the commission.
With change in the Fellowship of Suffering and Service offering to include both World Communion Sunday and the regular communion offerings, the conference experienced a good bit of discussion around the question of how much of the regular communion offering local churches owed the general church. D. Stewart Patterson argued that churches should donate the entire communion offering to the Fellowship of Suffering and Service. As passed, General Conference asked churches to send “a portion” of their regular communion offering. The distribution percentages remained the same: 50% to the Committee on Relief, 25% to Camp Activities, and 25% to the Chaplain Commission.
The Conference took a stand on the issue of the West Point Chaplain being selected from regular Army chaplains, as chaplains at the Naval and Air Force academies were, and not by special appointment. The Methodists joined most other denominations in pressing for this change.
McLaughlin Settles In
McLaughlin worked diligently during the 1956 General Conference to talk with all the active bishops, some of whom he already knew. Going forward, he hoped to deal directly with them concerning the chaplains who belonged to their conferences. He discovered that the commission had already acquainted the bishops with the new plan and they were ready to do their part. Additionally, McLaughlin’s presence on the denominational Council of Secretaries, the body of staff executives charged with coordinating the work the church’s agencies, opened doors to facilitate the commission’s work and provided access to needed resources.
The World Communion Offering continued to be the commission’s only source of income and funding was a continual challenge. The commission could only afford to employ 3 of the 4 ministers authorized for the staff. Some of the commission’s funds could only be used in case of a declared war and were locked up in investment bonds at 2½% interest. The commission’s presence in the Methodist Building involved it in a real estate deal being pursued to by the Board of Church and Society, the building’s owners. The board borrowed from the commission’s investments to purchase a tract of land across the street from American University. The Board of Church and Society later sold the property at profit, in which the commission did not share.
The staff office remained in the Methodist Building at 100 Maryland Avenue in Washington, DC. The offices remained there until the 1964 quadrennium when they moved to a location on Wisconsin Avenue. The lack of parking at the Methodist Building was a major factor in the move. The commission later moved again, this time to the Virginia side of the river. Throughout its life, the commission never incorporated, keeping it from accumulating assets or negotiating contracts in its own authority. Its lack of independent corporate existence would, decades later, come back to bite it in the butt.
The staff included a number of secretaries, including Mrs. Stanley Knock, personal secretary to the McLaughlin and his associate, Fred Heather. McLaughlin took a direct role in managing staff schedules. Some clergy staff members had lived outside of D.C. area, but the commission began requiring them to live in Washington. Salaries and housing allowances were adjusted for the cost of living in D.C. In lieu of a parsonage, the commission allowed staff to borrow money to purchase a home. The borrowers paid more interest than the commission would earn from its bond investments, but less than they would pay at the bank.
The Overseas Retreat Program
To build a sense of unit and trust among chaplains stationed overseas, the commission authorized McLaughlin and to visit chaplains, first in Europe, and then in the Pacific.
In Europe, the chaplains were happy to learn of this development and helped the commission staff coordinate the trip. Senior Methodist chaplains set the itinerary and assigned a succession of escorts (chaplains and their wives) for stops in England and on the continent. The trip concluded with a retreat in the General Walker Hotel at Berchtesgaden, Germany. This first visit set the pattern for the years ahead.
The second trip took the McLaughlin and his wife to Alaska and Japan where they were joined by Bishops Oxnam, Kennedy, and Tippett, and their wives. The retreat in Japan drew chaplains not only from Japan and Korea but from other widely scattered installations in the Pacific. Chaplains on Guam were surprised when McLaughlin arrived the day after a typhoon had devastated the island. They assumed that storm would cancel the visit. The final stop was Hawaii.
The trips were an unqualified success. The bishops’ presence, in particular, lifted the morale of the chaplains and their wives. With one round of overseas trips under their belt, the commission formed a plan that incorporated lessons learned.
Overseas, there would be:
- A retreat at Berchtesgaden each year plus visitation
- A retreat in the Far East (probably Japan) limited to every other year, limited by cost.
There would also be retreats in the United States.
- A retreat at Asilomar, California each year
- A retreat at Lake Junaluska, or at a nearby retreat center, each year
- Austin, Texas
- Buck Hills Falls in Pennsylvania
- In the Midwest, either Indiana or Illinois
Later three other stateside retreats were added:
The notes from a discussion at the 1968 Tokyo retreat indicate what participants hoped to accomplish by attending the retreat:
- To stimulate the renewal of one's own religious life by the bishop's inspirational addresses, our worship services and personal devotional life;
- To assist persons in their communication of the Gospel, as fellow journeymen preachers, to learn more of the joy of seeing that the "sheep who look up are fed;"
- To provoke meaningful discussion and stimulate to read more widely and study more deeply the more important issues we face.
A bishop would always be included at each of the retreats; this was specifically requested by the chaplains. The inclusion of bishops in the retreat program had a three-way effect.
- The bishops themselves were effective, intelligent, caring pastors who inspired and informed attendees.
- Their presence conveyed the message that the whole church cared for chaplains, their families, and their ministries. It reduced the sense of isolation among chaplains and gave them a feeling of belonging.
- The bishops could report their first-hand experiences to the Council of Bishops and emphasize the importance of chaplain ministry. The support of the Council of Bishops was critical to the overall work of the commission.
The secretary and the bishops would spend considerable time visiting chaplains at their home bases both before and after the retreats. The chaplains' wives also asked that the wives of the bishop and the secretary be included in the visits, and that there be events designed specifically for them. McLaughlin’s wife accompanied him to most retreats and conducted programs for chaplain’s wives, but she traveled at her own expense. Iona’s programs were so well received that the U.S. Army Europe later invited her to lead retreats in Germany, Spain, Italy and Greece. The popular group sessions were known as "Tea and Talk.” In 1966, Iona wrote What now Susannah!: A few guidelines for the wife of a newly commissioned military chaplain of the Methodist Church.
Laity were also invited to the retreats. The 1960 retreat in Berchtesgaden included 50 chaplains, 100 laymen, and 57 wives and children from Germany, France, Italy, Scotland, Crete and Newfoundland. At one later retreat, a young serviceman approached McLaughlin and asked the bishop would be willing to baptize him and receive him into the church. “Frankly,” he said, “I came here because the army allowed me these days away from the daily grind without taking it out of my leave time. But I have taken part in the program and played golf with some of the men this afternoon and I realize that I have never known people like this before. I wonder, would the bishop baptize and confirm me so that I can try to be like them?” The bishop, Dwight Loder, accommodated the request.
When the commission began receiving a designated offering from the Air Force, collected on Easter at Air Force chapels and distributed proportionally, the commission used part of the offering to pay for noted Bible scholars and theologians to participate in the retreat program. The first designated offering paid for a New Testament professor to attend the retreat at Berchtesgaden.
The Last Decade
In 1960 Bishop Donald Tippett of San Francisco was elected as the chairman of the commission. Bishop W. Angie Smith followed in 1964 and Bishop Dwight Loder in 1968. All were strong supporters of the commission and its work. Bishop Loder was also chosen to lead the Board of Missions and was unable to serve as the commission chair. Bishop Ellis Finger replaced him.
By 1960, the commission had 3 ministers and 4 secretaries working at its offices in Washington. The ministers spent much of their time on the road, attempting to visit every chaplain in the lower 48 states every year and those overseas every other year. There were a total of 595 chaplains serving under endorsement, 462 men as chaplains to the armed forces, 132 men in hospitals, homes, correctional institutions, and industry. And, for the first time, one woman. By 1964, the numbers had civilian numbers had risen slightly to 160 men (and 1 woman) serving in non-military settings. The number of military chaplains decreased, however, to 494. Over 200 of the chaplains were stationed overseas.
McLaughlin told the 1960 General Conference that the commission had, over the last quadrennium, received 566 applications for endorsement, with 529 being granted interviews. Of those 420 were endorsed, and 392 finally commissioned or appointed.
In one 12-month period (1959-1960), Methodist chaplains had:
- Led 3,174,366 in worship.
- Served 279,017 in Holy Communion
- Baptized 4,256 individuals.
- Received 1,1882 confessions of faith.
- Married 2,465 couples.
- Conducted 2,019 funerals.
- Led 829,150 in church schools.
- Taught 119,959 in Bible classes.
- Visited 1,697,741 in hospitals.
In both 1960 and 1964, McLaughlin reported concerns about the viability of pensions for chaplains who retired from the annual conference but who did not qualify for government pensions because they did not serve long enough to be vested. Pension payments for chaplains in this situation came directly from the operating budget of the Commission on Chaplains.
In addition, the denomination’s support of the ecumenical Protestant General Commission on Chaplains consumed about 10% of the commission’s budget.
In addition to retreats and personal visitation, the commission continued to coordinate with other agencies of the church to support chaplains in the field, which in the 1960s began to include Vietnam. Dr. Emory Buck, book editor of Cokesbury, produced laminated cards for use during communion service in the wet environment of the Vietnam jungle. The General Secretary served as member of the Curriculum Committee, which supported the chaplains’ need for Sunday School material. The Laymen's Organization chartered men’s groups at bases in Vietnam. Other parts of the church responded in a similar manner.
Methodist Chaplain (Major) Ambrosio S. Grandea died at the age of 34 from wounds he received on May 25, 1967 while conducting field services with the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment. Sixteen chaplains of all faiths died in Vietnam. Grandea was the only Methodist to do so.
Among the other Methodist chaplains who served in Vietnam were James Townsend and Tom Carter, who would both later serve as endorsing agents for the United Methodist Church.
The Birth of the United Methodist Church
In 1968, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren to become the United Methodist Church.During the next four years, the new denomination planned for a major reorganization to come into effect at the 1972 General Conference. Under the new plan, the Commission on Chaplains would become a division of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. You can read about the last days of the Methodist Commission on Chaplains at the link.
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:
Chaplains of the Methodist Church in World War II, Methodist Publishing House, 1948
“The Vietnam Chaplain,” Together For Methodist Families, October 1967
The Chaplain, A Journal Chaplains Serving the Armed Forces, Veterans Administration, and Civil Air Patrol, January-February 1969.
Triumph over tragedy: Henry, Iona, Fleming Revell, 1957.
What now Susannah!: A few guidelines for the wife of a newly commissioned military chaplain of the Methodist Church: McLaughlin, Iona H, Methodist Publishing House, 1967.
Women in the Wesleyan and United Methodist Traditions: A Bibliography Edited by Susan E. Warrick The General Commission on Archives and History The United Methodist Church, 1991.
History of Headquarters, United States Forces Japan, First Quarter 1970, 1 January – 31 March
Memo: Operational Report - Lessons Learned, 25th Infantry Division Period Ending 30 April 1970
Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Church, 1944-1964
Journals of the General Conference of the Methodist Church, 1944-1964
Quadrennial Reports of the Commissions and Agencies of the Methodist Church, 1944-1964
Find a Grave: John R. McLaughlin, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/106803816/john-r-mclaughlin Accessed 4/5/2023
