Routine Work

The ordered life in Syria, free from action and constant movement, permitted a certain pastoral routine to appear in the chaplains' work. Church services were held regularly; sometimes a choir was formed, and often music would be supplied by a brigade band. A chaplains' conference was held every week in Baalbek, and on one occasion the speaker was the Deputy Chaplain-General of the British Army in the Middle East, who gave an interesting talk on the Royal Army Chaplains' Department. Hospitals and detention camps were visited regularly and religious instruction given to classes and individuals; and sometimes, following an accident or fatal illness, there were funerals in the picturesque village grave. page 49 yards, often with the co-operation and participation of the local clergy. Some Church of England chaplains took men down to Damascus for a confirmation conducted by the Bishop of Pretoria, at which the New Zealanders knelt beside British soldiers and South African native troops and listened to a service conducted in three languages. Once a party of Maoris, conducted by Padre K. Harawira,¹ who set off by truck for a confirmation service in Beirut, was snowbound for a night on the top of a high pass. However, they found the Bishop next day and another service was arranged for them.