Overview

Becoming a Chaplain

Chaplaincy
In-Service Training

Protocols

Codes of Conduct

Registry

DFACI

Defence Force
Board
- Future Challenges
- Membership

AMOS Foundation

Defence Sunday

The Archdeacons2

The Bishop

Defence Force Board

The Defence Force Board (DFB) was established by a Canon of General Synod of the ACA. It is an important interface between the Anglican Church and the ADF. It is responsible for a) developing policy and procedures that will assist, regulate, and extend the conduct of Anglican ADF Chaplaincy and b) maintaining the office of the Bishop to the Defence Force. The profile of the DFB has risen within the ACA and the ADF, with both Anglican clergy and laity recognising the importance of the Board in providing ecclesiastical oversight and sharing with the Bishop and the Archdeacons a responsibility for formulating overall policy for Anglican ADF Chaplaincy. The Board has sought to formalise and regularise many aspects of ADF chaplaincy and to promote a closer relationship between itself and National Church agencies and the 23 dioceses of the Australian Church. The DFB’s members have played an important role in supporting Anglican ADF Chaplains.

Future Challenges

In the period 2001-2006, the emphasis for the Board was necessarily on recruiting and retaining chaplains, and building a closer and more cooperative relationship with the National Church. During that period there was a 25 per cent increase in the number of full-time chaplains, a reduction in the average age of serving chaplains, and the filling of all vacant Anglican positions. Because recruiting and retention involve sustained effort, they continue to be priorities. Anglican Defence Force Chaplaincy has also achieved a much higher profile within the Anglican community and become more directly connected to the life of the National Church through a range of formal and informal contacts and associations. General Synod has increased its recurrent annual funding to the Board and granted the Board greater financial and administrative autonomy.

Over the next five years (2006-2011) the Board faces five clear challenges.

First , finding fresh opportunities to enhance and deepen the vocational well-being of Chaplains and ordinands, and the laity’s participation in the Church’s outreach to military personnel.
Second , developing strategies for the formation and nurture of worshipping and ministering communities within Defence Force establishments and among uniformed men and women, and their families.
Third , identifying and recruiting suitable clergy for part-time service with particularly emphasis on the Army General Reserve in New South Wales and South-east Queensland.
Fourth , securing adequate long-term funding for the work of the Defence Force Board and the ministry of the Bishop to the Defence Force.
Fifth , better providing for the ministry of the Anglican Defence Force Chaplaincy Registrar, the Director of Ordinands, the Director of Professional Standards and the Bishop’s Chaplain.

These challenges will also guide the work of the Anglican Defence Chaplains' Standing Committee (ADCSC), Defence Force Anglican Chaplains Incorporated (DFACI) and the AMOS Foundation.

Membership

The member's affiliation or diocese appears in brackets.

The Right Reverend Len Eacott, AM (Chairman)

Principal Chaplain the Venerable Eric Burton, CSC (Navy)

Chaplain the Venerable Geoffrey Webb (Army)

Chaplain Kevin Russell (Air Force)

The Right Reverend Mark Burton (Perth)

Mr Alan Gallimore (Brisbane)

Chaplain The Reverend Russell Joyce (Melbourne)

Surgeon Captain John Parkes, CSC, RANR (Melbourne)

Mr Allan Sauer (Brisbane)

The Very Reverend Andrew Sempell (Bathurst)

Canon Graeme Winterton (Melbourne)

The Board usually meets thrice annually with one of the meetings to coincide with the conduct of a Vocational Panel. A DFB Executive meets at other times as required.