At the Northwest Regional training session in Bend, Oregon (April 10-11, 2000) , I shocked some chaplains with this statement:

By that I meant, while I believe that the predominant faith group is some "brand" of Christianity, we are a professional organization whose constituents are police chaplains from a multiplicity of faith groups. What follows is a "fleshing out" of my thinking on this matter.

Among others, I am familiar with Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews, Unitarians, Seventh Day Adventists and Quakers (my own denomination). To understand their various doctrines and even idiosyncrasies is not so hard. What is hard is to get them all to fit together in one organization like the International Conference of Police Chaplains.

Ten years ago when I "joined up" I was more than a little bewildered, puzzled and perplexed about whether it was "kosher" to pray in Jesus name or not; have an ICPC barbecue or to "greet the brethren with a holy kiss."

I am a simple, quiet Quaker, so what do I know, much less do, about fitting into an organization where there are all of the liturgical types; those who have dietary restrictions; and those who think Jesus was okay but certainly don't think of him like I do? How was I to fit in? How could we all get along?

My puzzlement, and sometimes exasperation, continued through several ATS summer gatherings, right on to the time I was being nominated as, what was then known as Second Vice President. I couldn't stand it any longer. I remember getting hot on my e-mail to one of ICPC's founders, Chaplain Jack Price (God bless his soul), hoping for some advice and counsel.

What Jack sent back has become my answer, and I believe the answer for all of us in ICPC as we face some of the quandaries when we highlight the differences of our traditions. Jack said, "We are not an ecclesiastical organization, we are a professional chaplain's organization."

With that I did an "Ah Ha!" I knew we were a professional chaplain's organization but my mind kept trying to make us a "church group" with homogeneous beliefs and doctrines. Friends and professional fellow travelers we hopefully are, but a church we are not.

For me that solves the problem. It's really a matter of my expectations.

I do not expect to go to ICPC functions and find people who believe and see things exactly as I do. I do not expect to go to ICPC functions and find worship exactly as at my home church. I do not expect to go to ICPC functions and have everyone conforming to my standards, my dress code, my eating habits or my way of thinking.

What I do expect when I go to an ICPC function is to be enriched in my personal life by diversity. I expect I will be respected as another human being that is called to be a chaplain. I expect to encounter new ways of worship, prayer, and thinking. I expect to have my horizons enlarged by conversations and interactions with chaplains from faith groups outside my own.

I expect to associate with some, that at this point in my life I could never agree with what they believe, fully expecting that they feel exactly the same way about me.

Further, I expect to be allowed to practice my conservative, evangelical faith as I understand it -- within the circle of respect for those who believe as fervently as I do their own understanding of being God's person. They, as well, should be expectant of the opportunity to practice their faith. I believe that it is at precisely this point that the problematic tensions among us are produced.

It seems to me that the tension comes when we fail to respect the other's faith.

A very simple example is in the matter of public prayer. There is the expectation that those who might otherwise do so, will not pray in the name of Jesus out of deference to those whose faith is not consistent with that practice. My personal opinion is that is wrong (and I am not speaking for anyone else in ICPC or ICPC itself).

It should be that I am respected enough (meaning that they know that I am not doing an "in your face" when I pray in Jesus' name) but am simply being consistent with my faith.

The same principle should apply if, as an example, a rabbi is asked to conduct the morning devotional hour. Christian chaplains should respect the practice of his/her faith that does not recognize Jesus. We should allow ourselves, rather, to be enriched by the experience of understanding the practice of his or her faith.

It is a matter of respect for the various expressions of religious faith even though we may not embrace such expressions or traditions ourselves. It is, as well, a matter of trust in the others who are a part of our organization.

To do anything other than to allow and even encourage freedom of expression, with accompanying trust, all of us will have only a "watered down version of God" that will satisfy no one. God may be more than a little miffed at it, too.

Some will not agree with my solution to this tension, but rather believe that the way to deal with it is for all of us to alter our public expressions seeking to be all inclusive.

To those I would say, "Ok, let's disagree, get it out in the open, discuss it, find agreement that would be pleasing to God and to one another. And then we should get on with the business of being a professional chaplaincy organization.

Short of having an understanding that we are a professional chaplaincy organization and not a "church" and then trusting each other as we individually express our faith, I can only see a continuing, and perhaps building, tension that will not bode well for ICPC.

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