Despite negative reactions from some Christian groups, new Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) instructions on religious neutrality for chaplains at public events are “not something new,” says Anglican Military Ordinariate (AMO) Bishop Jennifer Gosse-Vingerhoeds.
In July, the CAF released the instructions, stating that CAF members providing remarks at public events “shall uphold the principle of state religious and spiritual neutrality by not using words, actions, or symbols that are specific to a particular [spiritual or faith tradition].” It also specifies that chaplains are to deliver inclusive “spiritual reflections” where prayer or religious observances are requested at military ceremonies CAF members are mandated or expected to attend. This includes graduations, festive/seasonal events and commemorations like Remembrance Day, the instructions read, but not military funerals, which are considered family-led events.
The policy makes exceptions for Indigenous cultural practices, where relevant to the occasion, as part of recognizing their historic suppression by the government. It specifies CAF staff and attendees are not required to participate in any spiritual component of these practices.
Gosse-Vingerhoeds says the new policy simply makes explicit a principle which she and other chaplains in the AMO had already been applying: that any religious content at a public military event should be open for those present to interpret in a way that matches their understanding of God or spirituality. Previously, she says, “we took into account who was in that place and wanted to be able to provide as broad a possibility to hear in our words something that was meaningful to them. As a Christian in that kind of a public setting, I didn’t pray in the name of Jesus. I prayed to God in general and invited other people to understand that term in whatever way worked for their own belief system.”
Some interpretations of freedom of religion include the freedom not to participate in any religious observances, she says, which some may argue is infringed upon by being required to attend an event that includes prayer. She notes a 2015 Supreme Court of Canada decision which ruled that a prayer at the beginning of city council meetings in Saguenay, Que. created a “preferential space for people with theistic beliefs.” Whether that decision was correct is not for her to say, said Gosse-Vingerhoeds. But she believes Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan is well within her authority to mandate CAF staff cannot be forced to stand through words that are contrary to their conscience.
Some religious organizations have taken different stances. In an opinion piece in the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s newsletter, the group’s senior ambassador and president emeritus, Bruce Clemenger, called the policy a “secularist gag order.” He wrote that Christian chaplains were being asked to be mute about their faith and how it informs their understanding of life.
“We can now only gather publicly to remember sacrifice as if honour, gratitude, hope, duty, compassion are but human manufacture,” he wrote.
Clemenger, himself a member of the CAF’s Interfaith Committee for Canadian Military Chaplaincy, argued that since secular humanism is one of the belief systems from which the military accepts chaplains, it is not being neutral by requiring spiritual reflections remain secular. “Forbidding even a reference to the divine or the transcendent in spiritual reflections is not an expression of inclusive neutrality,” he wrote.
Gosse-Vingerhoeds says any claim—like those she’s seen on social media—that prayer is being banned from the CAF is untrue. Both she and Clemenger acknowledge the policy does not prevent chaplains from holding religious services or praying in private ministry or counselling. Chaplains are still being asked to share words of reflection at public gatherings, she adds, which is a privilege they are given, not a right. There are many ways other than public prayer that chaplains can add value to the CAF and bring faith into the lives of CAF staff, through counseling, religious services, baptisms and meaningful presence.
“Chaplains do so much more than just that,” she says. “They’re with people in the best times of their lives and in the worst times of their lives.”
