Reports: England

'Event debates the spiritual care of soldiers'

was the headline in an October edition of the Church of England News.

The Big Tent Event in Aldershot, a joint project of the Garrison chaplaincy and the churches of Aldershot and Farnborough, saw soldiers and marines give testimonials to the role faith played in their lives, as well as speeches and Q&A sessions with the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, the commandant of the Royal Military Academy, Maj. Gen. Patrick Marriott, the chief of NATO’s HQ force, Lt. Gen. Sir Richard Shirreff, and the Army’s Chaplain General who participated in a talk on the “Spiritual Dimension of Soldering and Society.”
The Rev Ian Colson, an Army chaplain based at Aldershot Garrison told The Church of England Newspaper the event drew over 3000 people from the Garrison and local community and was a “great success.”

A spokesman for the Army’s 4th division said the idea behind the Big Tent Event was to “encourage discussion about how beliefs and faith underpin what makes people and communities what they are.”

“The Army has ‘Values and Standards’ including courage, discipline, loyalty, integrity, selfless commitment, and respect for other. The question is where we find the moral compass that points us to those values and standards,” he said.