Compulsory Church Parades

In the 2nd NZEF the main Church service on Sunday morning was compulsory. The Roman Catholic services at first were not, but later, at the request of the authorities, the Roman Catholics for the sake of uniformity made them so. Atheists and agnostics were excused but everyone else had to attend. No man could legally be forced to attend a service taken by a chaplain of another denomination, but with the system of unit chaplains in the 2nd NZEF, the unit Church parade was to all intents and purposes compulsory.

Since the war ended compulsory Church parades have been abolished in the British Army, and during the war there was frequent criticism of the system by New Zealanders. The whole idea sounds un-Christian and undemocratic, and yet many chaplains approved of it. So, too, did many senior officers and quite a number of other ranks; for like many other British institutions it may have seemed out of date but it worked. It was a relic from the days when the soldier proceeded everywhere in military formation—to his meals, to his shower, to the doctor, to Church.

Tradition dies hard in the Army for the lessons of war come down through the ages and are not lightly to be set aside. In this war a man was compelled to go to Church but his liberty was protected in several ways. On enlistment he was asked to state his religion. This question often surprised soldiers, and if a man asked why the Army wanted this information he was liable to receive the common reply—that the Army would want to know which chaplain to get for the funeral. If the soldier gave the wrong denomination, or later for any reason wished to change it, he had complete liberty to do so. Any man could have avoided compulsory parades by having his religious classification changed to that of atheist.

Many men said that they liked going to Church but hated the compulsion; they said it spoilt the whole spirit of the service for them. Many civilians listening to soldiers talk must have agreed heartily and decided that such Church parades were old-fashioned page 92 and wicked. But these civilians did not know much about the Army, or about soldiers, or about chaplains. A very strong case can be made for compulsory Church parades, provided the practice is limited to certain specific occasions.