4,000 Funerals

Chaplain Jeff Jencks leads a memorial service in Iraq
The weight of war falls first and last longest on the shoulders of the men and women who fight. And alongside them are the chaplains who serve in the field. Newsweek has a current story Chaplains salute each of the fallen. The chaplain's work is vital to our troops, it is largely unsung, and it is done on behalf of those of us of faith who can not be there to comfort soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in the field. Chaplains in Iraq include at the moment our own Pat Hahn, whose wife Madeleine attends the earlier service at King of Peace as well as a fellow Diocese of Georgia priest, Sean Wead, who is also currently serving in Iraq. Please remember them in your prayers.

The Episcopal Chaplain website offers more information. King of Peace maintains online an Online Prayer Vigil in time of war. The site includes a number of prayers, a brief prayer service, and the names of those for whom prayers have been requested. This prayer for combatants is from that part of our website:

Jesus Christ,
who in the hour of your death was recognized as Savior
by a soldier standing nearby:
be to those whose bear arms now, a sign of saving hope.
In circumstances of danger and ever-pressing fear
keep alive in them steadfastness and courage.
Preserve in them when tested, righteous and humane values;
and uphold their good wills
until they are released from the awful necessities
of human strife. Amen.

Baptizing a soldier in Kuwait