Nomination, Selection, and Commissioning
In the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Defence employs chaplains, but their authority comes from their sending church. Royal Navy chaplains undertake a 16-week bespoke induction and training course, including a short course at Britannia Royal Naval College, and specialist fleet time at sea alongside a more experienced chaplain. Naval Chaplains called to service with the Royal Marines may undertake a gruelling 5-month long Commando Course, and if successful wear the commandos' Green Beret. British Army chaplains undertake seven-weeks training at The Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre Amport House and The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Royal Air Force chaplains must complete 12 weeks Specialist Entrant course at the RAF College Cranwell followed by a Chaplains' Induction Course at Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre Amport House of a further 2 weeks.
In the United States, the term, nomination, is not generally applied to the process of becoming a military chaplain. Individuals volunteer, and if they are accepted, they are commissioned as military staff officers in the Chaplain Corps. Members of the clergy who meet the qualifications for service as an officer in the military are free to apply for service with any of the three United States Chaplain Corps: the Army, Navy, and Air Force each has a Chaplain Corps, with Navy chaplains also assigned to serve with Marine Corps units, Coast Guard units, and the Merchant Marine Academy. Some clergy, like rabbis, can apply without permission from any individual or organization within their faith group; others, in faith groups that have a hierarchy established to make decisions on the postings or positions of their members, must be granted permission from the appropriate official, such as the appropriate Bishop. As the application process proceeds, and the military determines whether the applicant will meet standards in areas such as health, physical fitness, age, education, citizenship, past criminal history, and suitability for service, which includes supporting the free exercise of religion for men and women of all faiths, an endorsement from an endorsing agency that is recognized by the Department of Defense, representing one or more faith groups in the United States, will be required, in part to ensure that the separation of church and state is honored. Neither the government as a whole nor the military in particular will be put into the position of determining whether an individual is a bona fide priest, minister, rabbi, imam, etc. (The requirement for such an endorsement has been in force since 1901, and today many of the various religious endorsing agencies work together under such non-governmental voluntary umbrella groups as the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces.) Although ordination is normally required for chaplain service, some "equivalent" status is accepted for individuals from religious groups which do not have ordination, such as the Church of Christ. Additionally, in cases where an endorsing agency is not yet established for an individual's religion, it is possible for him or her to be endorsed by the endorsing agency of another group, a process which was followed for the first Muslim chaplains in the military. In any event, this endorsement is recognized as necessary, but not sufficient for acceptance as a chaplain: in other words, the military will not accept an individual for service as a chaplain, nor allow him or her to continue to serve, without such an endorsement remaining in force; however, the decision as to whether to accept that individual remains with the military service, and the individual can be rejected for a number of reasons, including the needs of the military, even with the endorsement of an endorsing agency.
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