Episcopalians make up one of the smaller mainline church denominations in Kansas, with about 15,000 members statewide.
For that reason alone, the Rev. Don Davidson said he found it highly unusual that Episcopal clergymen have been selected three times in a row for the post of state chaplain of the Kansas National Guard.
“That is weird,” Davidson said, “because the Army doesn’t care if a chaplain is a Baptist, a rabbi or an imam.”
He said, only half-jokingly, that Episcopalians make up only about “0.0002 percent of the population of Kansas.”
Hmm…..the way things are going, Episcopalians will soon make up only 0.0002% of the population of the [i]entire country.[/i]
This may come as a suprise to some of you but the Episcopal Church has a really good abbreviated BCP which is used by the Army. I have used it many times and have taken it to Cursillo in years past. It was revised in the late 1990’s by Col. Mal Roberts, now retired, who was an Episcopal priest and later commander of the joint services Chaplain School at Ft. Jackson.
Comment regarding David Keller’s comment (#2.).
I used that abbreviated BCP along with my brother at my mother’s bedside at the time of her passing a little over two years ago.
The abbreviated BCP that was in use when I entered service in 1958 was the 1928 BCP, and it was the little olive green edition with the blue wheel cross on the cover. I still have it, and it was prefaced by the then-presiding bishop, the Rt Rev Arthur Lichtenberger.
Cennydd, I have that one also. The new one is based on the current BCP with more modern language.
Maybe TEC priests will perform battlefield “generous pastoral blessings.”