The Spirit Of Ecumenism

I was assigned to St. Ann’s Catholic Church as pastor last July and I would like to express my gratitude for the warm welcome I have received from the community.

Before I came to Saratoga, I served eleven years as a parish priest in Wyoming, followed by seventeen years as a chaplain for the Department of Veterans Affairs. My twenty-eight years of ministry has allowed me to witness the interaction between pastors and their faith communities, and the interaction of pastors with their fellow pastors. In some communities, I noticed a common practice of abusive behavior of parishioners toward their pastors, which usually was not limited to just one Church. In those communities, you would see one pastor after another flee the community. Eventually, rivalries would develop between the different religious traditions within the community. It came as a big shock the first time I witnessed this behavior. It was foreign to my life experience. I did not recognize the benefit of growing up in a family where we shared a spirit of love and understanding; yet we belonged to different faith communities. On my Father’s side of the family, the Patriarch was my Great Grandfather who was a solid Methodist and well versed in the Bible. After his death and in my childhood, it was common for the family elders to remind us of his words: “A man who does not respect another man’s religion, does not respect his own.”

As a parish priest, I developed a strong desire to serve my Lord and Savior in hospital ministry to the sick and dying. Eventually, I received permission from my Bishop to take the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, as a chaplain in the Department of Veterans Affairs. In my role as a Catholic Priest, I still had the responsibility to proclaim the Gospel; however my primary responsibility was to protect the Veteran’s right to religious expression. I never felt any conflict between those two roles; and as a chaplain I had the example of “The Four Chaplains”.

Eighty-one years ago this month, the SS Dorchester was struck by a torpedo from the German Submarine, U-223 off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic. “The torpedo knocked out the Dorchester’s electrical system, leaving the ship dark. Panic set in among the men aboard, many of them trapped below decks. The chaplains sought to calm the men and organized an orderly evacuation of the ship, and helped guide wounded men to safety. As the life jackets were passed out to the men, the supply ran out before each man had one. The chaplains removed their own life jackets and gave them to others. They helped as many men as they could into the lifeboats, and then linked arms and saying prayers and singing hymns, went down with the ship”. According to Grady Clark, survivor: …”As I swam away from the ship, I looked back. The flares had lighted everything. The bow came up high and she slid under. The last thing I saw, the Four Chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They done everything they could. I did not see them again. They themselves did not have a chance without their life jackets”. The sinking of the SS Dorchester was considered “the second worst sea disaster of World War II”. “Only 230 of the 904 men aboard ship were rescued” (Wikipedia - Four Chaplains).

“The relatively new chaplains all held the rank of first lieutenant. They included Methodist minister the Reverend George L. Fox, Reform Rabbi Alexander D. Goode (Ph.D), Catholic priest Father John P. Washington, and Reformed Church in America minister the Reverend Clark V. Poling” (Wikipedia - Four Chaplains).

It was a great honor to be chaplain for the Veterans Health Administration; and to work side by side with chaplains from a wide variety of faith traditions who had the same mission of ministering to our Nation’s Heroes. When I retired from the VA, I was worried about losing that sense of working with professionals in a shared mission. However, the last six months have proven to me that my concerns were misplaced. You have something very beautiful and special here in this Platte River Valley. The members of your churches support their pastors. The pastors show concern for all of the individuals within the community, without consideration of the individuals religion. They acknowledge the limitations of each others faith traditions, while at the same time reaching out to each other in friendship and wisdom. The pastors relate to one another in a way that would be expected of chaplains. They are professionals and this community is Blessed.

By the Rev. Bruce R. Clapham, M.Div.

St. Ann’s Catholic Church

Saratoga, Wyoming