Site
Contents
 |
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
Area United Methodist
Foundation
For resources to assist your congregation in welcoming guests,
click here
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
|
Hoosier United Methodists together |
May/June 2005 |
Welcome:
Giving God praise for the ministry of military chaplains
I begin each work day by reading from a small brown devotional book titled Strength for Service to God and Country. It was published in 1942 by Abingdon-Cokesbury Press. The pocket- sized devotional book, a resource of strength, encouragement and hope, was given by chaplains and pastors to military personnel involved in the Second World War.
My 63-year-old copy was given to me several years ago as a gift for officiating at a wedding. The couple thought I might like reading it, since it was a piece of Methodist history. For many years, it's been on my book self untouched. At the beginning of the Iraq War, I decided to begin using it for my daily devotions to see if there was a parallel between what was said and prayed during the war sixty years ago and the war today.
I discovered what was on the hearts and minds of those who lived through World War II are the same things on our hearts and minds today as we live through another war. The language is masculine and old English, and sounds strange to our contemporary ears. Prominent ecumenical ministers in the United States wrote each daily entry. The entry for Sept. 1 was written by Bishop Richard Raines before he was bishop of Indiana, when he was senior pastor of the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis.
|
What the Grand Generation did during World War II in saving civilization can never be underestimated. |
On this 60th anniversary of Victory in Europe and the liberation of thousands of Jews from Nazi concentration camps, I have found this little devotional guide to be a bridge between the present I am living and the past which was lived shortly before my birth.
Both past and present times experience a nation under distress. We know that sooner or later, the conflict between the United States and the insurgents in Iraq will end. What wasn't known during World War II was whether the Axis Powers of Germany and Japan would triumph over Western Civilization or whether the Allied Powers that included the United States would defeat them. What the Grand Generation did during World War II in saving civilization can never be underestimated.
Another book that helped me bridge the past and present in relation to World War II is about the Methodist chaplains of World War II. I learned that more than 10,000 military chaplains served during that war. Of those, the book pictures more than 1,700 chaplains including 88 chaplains who served from Indiana's Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.
As a tribute to honor those chaplains of 60 years ago, Together interviewed three of the four chaplains who are still alive. They are the Revs. Robert Blodgett, age 102; George Dinwiddie, age 93, and the youngest chaplain of World War II, John Wolf, age 86. Read their stories on page 12 and review the list of the 88 chaplains who served from our North and South Indiana conferences on page 13. Remember them on Memorial Day Sunday.
Today, according to the Endorsing Agency's records, there are a total of 1,278 United Methodist chaplains world wide. Of these 586 are endorsed military chaplains of whom 78 are presently deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan and in harms way. They have answered both the call to Christian ministry as well as the call to serve their country. As we approach Memorial Day, let us remember and give thanks for our military chaplains that continue to mean so much in the lives of so many during these past six decades.
A revised version of Strength for Service to God and Country was published in 2002. The book contains 365 devotions written by leading Protestant ministers in 1942 and more than 40 contemporary contributions from women, Jewish and Islamic writers, Roman Catholic clergy and African-American leaders. The book can be ordered through Cokesbury by calling 800-672-1789 or by logging on to www.cokesbury.com. This little book would make a welcomed gift to those who are serving in the armed forces today. It sells for around six dollars.
My copy is priceless.
Welcome
Daniel R. Gangler
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008