Royal Army Chaplains Department

The British army today has more chaplains on active service than at any time since World War II. Thanks to a recruiting drive launched by army, navy and air force in 2005, there are about 280 chaplains in the armed forces (2007 figures). Twelve chaplains serve the approximately 7000 British troops in Iraq.

No army chaplain is permitted to carry or use weapons.

The Royal Army Chaplains' Department is based at Bagshot House. All recruited chaplains in the British services are Christian (as of 2007), but the armed forces retain civilian chaplains to care for their Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Muslim recruits.

My job as a padre - as the Army refers to its priests, chaplains and so on - is not to oil the wheels of war but to help the humanity caught up in it. We do wear fatigues, but the fact that we do not carry weapons is symbolic of our peaceful role.
Clinton Langston, army chaplain

The U.S. armed forces have 1400 chaplains, all Christian except for about 30 rabbis and 15 imams (2003 figures).