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SEOUL, South Korea – Throughout the course of military history, chaplains have served a critical role to restoring and maintaining spiritual strength and readiness across formations. Chaplains of the United Nations Command Ministry Services, or UNCMS, gathered in South Korea to educate and collaborate on various strategies to enhance their support to military personnel.
This year, the UNCMS held its second iteration of the Chaplain Symposium from June 16-20. The symposium is designed to better educate UNC Member States chaplains in support of the UNC commander's priority of building coalitions and to strengthen spiritual events within the UNC.
Throughout this multiday symposium, the UNCMS collaborated with UNC Member States – Australia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States, and the Republic of Korea. This event provided a platform for chaplains to share best practices, discuss challenges, and develop unified approaches to addressing the spiritual needs of soldiers in diverse and often challenging environments.
“The symposium is designed to better educate them of UNC and to collaborate in providing world class religious support operations as well as the importance of religious support operations in UNC necessitating the need of a spiritual alliance,” said Col. Chul Kim, UNC Chaplain.
The first full day of the symposium, June 17, consisted of fellowship at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys with the unit ministry teams meeting with their respective country’s service members in the UNC. Also, during this time, the chaplains visited the UNC headquarters to have office calls with Gen. Paul LaCamera, UNC commander, Lt. Gen. Derek Macaulay, UNC deputy commander, and Gen. Kang Shin-chul, Combined Forces Command deputy commander.
An information exchange in Seoul further increased the shared understanding of each Members States military chaplaincy. Member State participants shared the structure of their chaplaincy, as well as their strengths and challenges.
The symposium group also made a trek south to the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, which allowed participants to pay tribute to their respective fallen and hold a small-scale memorial ceremony and tribute to the Netherlands chaplain buried there.
“The gathering of these Member State Chaplains in Korea is the testament to the commitment to safety and security on the Peninsula,” said Master Sgt. Crystal Jones, UNC/CFC/USFK master religious affairs NCO. “Watching these men and women of Faith find commonality in a belief greater than themselves has been awe inspiring,”
From Busan, the chaplains traveled north to visit Dora Observatory in the Demilitarized Zone, for an orientation and introduction to the area followed by a ROK Military Patriotic Revival Service at Osanri Choi Jasil Memorial Fasting Prayer Mountain.
The chaplains held a closing ceremony for the week-long event at the Dragon Hill Lodge, June 20, to not only commemorate the second iteration of the UNC Chaplains Symposium, but also to build a lasting partnership and coalition between the Member States.
“The visit drove home the importance of caring for the Soul of every Soldier, Airman, Marine, Sailor, and Guardian,” said Jones. “When our body and mind is depleted, having faith can carry us far beyond our expectations; and that strength can be shared no matter our religious beliefs or country of origin.”
| Date Taken: | 06.27.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.14.2024 21:03 |
| Story ID: | 475085 |
| Location: | SEOUL, KR |
| Web Views: | 81 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Connecting ROK and Member States, Chaplain Corps builds spiritual alliance, by Carrie Castillo, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
