CAP Leaders Visit LDS Church Elder

[RADIOMAN015]

Interesting article in the recent "Volunteer"magazine, regarding CAP National Commander & National Chief of Staff meeting with LDS Elder to "discuss programs of mutual interest".

Interesting to note that no one from CAP's Chaplain corps attended the meeting.  Got to wonder if CAP's leadership intends on meeting with other religious groups in the future?
RM 

[Orville_third]

CAP does have an MOU with the Salvation Army, which is a religious denomination.

[davidsinn]

Interesting to note that no one from CAP's Chaplain corps attended the meeting. 

Because almost no one in that "religion" would meet the educational and training requirements to be a chaplain. You'd probably have a hard time finding someone that meets the education requirements to be a CD instructor too.

[Hawk200]

CAP does have an MOU with the Salvation Army, which is a religious denomination.

No, it's not. Salvation Army is an organization. It's a program run by a religious domination, but isn't a religion or a denomination on it's own.

I think it's a good idea to reach out to religious leaders. Church kids have the same problems as any other.

[Orville_third]

No, it's not. Salvation Army is an organization. It's a program run by a religious domination, but isn't a religion or a denomination on it's own.

Actually, it is.

From "The Salvation Army in the Body of Christ - an Ecclesiological Statement.":
http://www1.salvationarmy.org/ihq/documents/Ecclesiological-Statement.pdf

"The Salvation Army, under the one Triune God,
belongs to and is an expression of the Body of
Christ on earth, the Church universal, and is a
Christian denomination in permanent mission
to the unconverted, called into and sustained in
being by God."
(Page 1)

"WE BELIEVE that The Salvation Army is an
international Christian church in permanent
mission to the unconverted, and is an integral
part of the Body of Christ like other Christian
churches, and that the Army's local corps are
local congregations like the local congregations
of other Christian churches. The Army springs
from the Methodist Revival and has remained
unassimilated by any other denomination. Like
other reformers before him, William Booth did
not intentionally set out to found a new
denomination. However, through the years
Salvationism has moved on in its emerging selfperception,
and in the perceptions of others,
from being a para-church evangelistic revival
movement (at first known as The Christian
Mission) to being a Christian church with a
permanent mission to the unsaved and the
marginalised. Salvationists remain comfortable
in being known simply as 'the Army', or a
'mission', or a 'movement', or for certain
purposes as a 'charity'. All of these descriptors
can be used alongside 'church'. With this multifaceted
identity the Army is welcomed to, and
takes its place at, the ecumenical table at local,
national and international levels.
WE DO NOT BELIEVE that The Salvation
Army's history, structures, practices or beliefs
permit it to be understood as anything other
than a distinct Christian denomination with a
purpose to fulfil and a calling to discharge
under God. Similarly, its local corps cannot
properly be understood unless seen primarily as
local church congregations meeting regularly by
grace and in Christ's name for worship,
fellowship and service. Typically a local Army
congregation will offer an integrated and
holistic ministry, with both spiritual and social
service dimensions, to the local population.
Commissioned officers (both men and women)
of The Salvation Army are duly ordained
Christian leaders and ministers of the Christian
gospel, called by God and empowered by the
Holy Spirit to preach and teach biblical,
apostolic truth (Acts 2:42), and to serve others
in the name of Christ and for his sake."
(Pages 10-11)

Salvationists may work with other religious denominations, but they are clearly a seperate religious denomination. (Inc ase you were wondering, I'm not a Salvationist. I do disagree with certain of their theological doctrines on various subjects.)

As for the LDS, while its ministry does tend to be ordained unconventionally (and I'm not sure what it would take for an LDS Chaplain (Anyone know the USAF regs?)), it does have an emphasis for its members to be prepared for disaster. (I'm not LDS either, and I have significant differences with them too...)

[RiverAux]

Evidently it is done: http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,4924-1,00.html

It does seem a little strange to me to have CAP leaders meeting with the head of individual churches in this manner.  Nothing wrong with it, but I don't see the advantage.

[heliodoc]

Mutual interest??

Dinero?

[Major Lord]

Our squadron had a Mormon Chaplain, fully accredited by CAP as a bona fide Chaplain, until he retired for health reasons. ( Aaron Jones, who some of you might remember) But I have never heard of a Salvation Army "Chaplain" in CAP....just think of the uniform threads (no pun intended) that would create!

I worked with Salvation Army people quite a bit in Hurricane Katrina ( I was there for almost a year) and found them to be wonderful. Unlike the generally green, Red Cross people, their people are very squared away, since the work is literally their vocation, and they don't melt down like other volunteers and rescue workers often do in the face of insurmountable tragedy. As a charity, their "pass-through" rate is better than just about any charity, and they use their resources extremely efficiently. This is not intended to denigrate the Red Cross; They do the best they can with the temporary help, but the SA rocks!

Major Lord

Major Lord

[PA Guy]

^^
+1.  I worked with them at the WTC, Katrina, Rita, Ike and a few other places and the SA always comes through. :clap: :clap:

[Flying Pig]

So what was the meeting about?  Does anyone know or are we going to talk about the Salvation Army?

[ZigZag911]

LDS (according to an article I read recently, I think in Time magazine?) has become quite active the past ten years or so in disaster mitigation in the community at large....I bet that's what CAP leaders were discussing with church leaders, setting up an MOU similar to ones we have with Salvation Army and Red Cross

[heliodoc]

Another MOU?

Has CAP kept up to date with the other organizations and customers that we have MOU's with?

Keep those up to date first, Maybe??

More CAP secret squirrell stuff???  Its not like this is new .....look under NVOAD in your local EMA's and PLENTY of NVOAD in the FEMA world

But if it is.......better late than never!!!

[heliodoc]

my mistake

Drop the N in the VOAD.......

[PA Guy]

This was probably nothing more than a courtesy call much like the mult. US presidents who have an audience with the Pope.  Some PAO type probably thought it would be a good PR photo op. No big deal.

[Westernslope]

I wonder if the fact that the National Chief of Staff is LDS, as well several chaplains from RMR,  may have some bearing on these discussions? Possibly, they just identified needs and opportunties.

edit to correct VC to COS

[SilverEagle2]

The current Wing Chaplain in Utah is also LDS as are other Chaplains in the Wing. So...not sure where the

Because almost no one in that "religion" would meet the educational and training requirements to be a chaplain.

came from.

The LDS and CAP organizations would share many exciting mutual interests. If we dual chartered all the BSA units within Utah alone that are sponsored by the LDS Church, Utah wing would have the biggest Cadet Program in all of CAP.

There are quite a bit of "Mutual Interests" between the organizations.

You'd probably have a hard time finding someone that meets the education requirements to be a CD instructor too.

Not true.

while its ministry does tend to be ordained unconventionally

Matter of opinion and debate of "Biblical Proportion!" 

[w7sar]

FYI....

The CAP's chaplain was there.   As was the Utah Wing Commander. So was I.  I shot the photo.  The visit was simply a courtesy call as the CAP leaders were in SLC for the board meeting.  Lots of VIPs routinely visit the church HQ including presidential candidates, sitting presidents, heads of state from other countries, etc.  It was just a courtesy call. 

Realize too that many LDS members do serve as chaplains and are members of CAP.  I have no idea as to demographics (it's nothing measured) but I would say a number of CAP members in Utah and Idaho are LDS church members (where there are higher concentrations of LDS church members in the general population).

Also, Russ Chazell (who I first got to know when he joined CAP as a cadet!) is from Utah.

Jerry Wellman
Utah Wing

[Orville_third]

Sorry about any offense. I wasn't trying to offend anyone, LDS or otherwise.
I do know the Utah Wing patch shows a Beehive, one of the emblems of Utah. The Beehive is also and LDS emblem as well. (Deseret (the planned name for the State of Utah) means "Land of Honeybees")

[wuzafuzz]

I worked with Salvation Army people quite a bit in Hurricane Katrina ( I was there for almost a year) and found them to be wonderful. Unlike the generally green, Red Cross people, their people are very squared away, since the work is literally their vocation, and they don't melt down like other volunteers and rescue workers often do...

Major Lord

Major Lord

I won't debate the experience level of SA volunteers versus other organizations, but I will say the only "meltdown" I witnessed during a recent disaster response was an experienced SA member.  He was a great guy who was simply overwhelmed by the circumstances and his compassion for those he was serving.  Everyone out there is human, subject to the same failings, even in spite of training and experience.  SA is a great organization, but their members aren't superhuman.  I share this simply to say we shouldn't assume any group is immune to stress; we should always watch for folks who are getting stressed and might benefit from some Critical Incident Stress Management type attention.