Explanation

Although The Dorchester Chaplains: Lieutenant George Fox, Lieutenant Alexander D. Goode, Lieutenant Clark V. Poling and Lieutenant John P. Washington, 1943, are commemorated on February 3rd in the Church publications Holy Women, Holy Men, and in A Great Cloud of Witnesses, their feast day has not been included in the Episcopal Church Calendar in Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 that is being proposed to this convention. This resolution identifies that the military community is an important subset of the Episcopal Church and that worthy veterans such as the Four Chaplains should be included in the Calendar on February 3, a date that is currently vacant in the proposed Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018. A similar resolution, 2006-B008 was passed by both Houses at the 75th General Convention, but the Four Chaplains of the USAT Dorchester was never added to the calendar. Military service has been experienced by many members of this church who look to other Veterans as a source of inspiration, such as the Four Chaplains who gave up their life jackets on a sinking ship in the North Atlantic on February 3, 1943. As reported by the STANDING COMMISSION ON LITURGY AND MUSIC SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE CHURCH CALENDAR in their report to this convention “It is our strong belief that at some point the Episcopal Church would do well to attend to the different theologies of sanctity that are at play in the church, and the different understandings of what it means for someone to be placed on the calendar.” In acknowledgment of that diversity, we note here that the Four Chaplains were of different faiths, one Dutch Reformed Minister, one Methodist Minister, one Jewish Rabbi and one Roman Catholic Priest. The wartime sacrifice and selfless service of the Four Chaplains is a model for all Episcopalians, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NRSV