Worship

For several hundred years, these words or ones very similar have formed Article 1 of the Articles of War:

“All officers in command of Her Majesty’s ships shall cause public worship of Almighty God to be solemnly, orderly and reverently performed in their respective ships, and shall take care that prayers and preaching, by the chaplains of those ships, be performed diligently and that the Lord’s Day be observed.”

In a shore training establishment, like HMS RALEIGH or Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth which deal with New-entry training, there will often be 3 acts of Sunday Worship taking place at the same time which are Anglican, Church of Scotland or Free Church and Roman Catholic. Here we have the capacity to provide for people according to what they would expect if they were at home.

In a ship or Royal Marine Unit, which will usually have only 1 Chaplain, that Chaplain has to be a Chaplain to everyone. Therefore on a Sunday, operations permitting, the Chaplain will lead a Service of the Word in which people across the spectrum of the Christian community can take a full part. This will usually comprise the reading of the Scriptures, an address, prayers and hymns and will last 20-30 minutes. The larger ships often have a volunteer band which will play for the Service.

If it is the Chaplain’s tradition to celebrate the Eucharist every week, then this is done at a different time to the main Service.