Save Our Wiccan Chaplain

The Sacred Well Congregation has been engaged with the Armed Forces Chaplains Board (AFCB) since September 1998 attempting to secure status as an endorser of chaplains to the Armed Services. This would allow us to nominate a member of our faith group to serve as a chaplain in the US military. Through a long series of bureaucratic maneuvers, and both passive and active bias on the part of some key officials, eight years later we still have no Wiccan Chaplain.

The Sacred Well Congregation is currently pending as an endorsing body for military chaplains. We need only to be able to present a viable candidate for appointment without waiver.

In the spring of 2006, US Army Chaplain (CPT) Donald M. Larsen contacted our Congregation to discuss the possibility of changing his endorsement. On July 6, 2006, we received a formal request from CH Larsen stating that he wished to be considered as our candidate for the AFCB certification process and immediately thereafter to change his endorser to the Sacred Well Congregation.

In a deviation from procedure, CH Larsen’s then-current endorsing body, the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC) was notified that CH Larsen was considering a change of endorsers and that, also, he was speaking to the Sacred Well Congregation, a Wiccan Church, about becoming his new endorsing body. Within hours CH Larsen’s endorsement was pulled by the CFGC. Without an endorsing body, CH Larsen is unable to act as a military chaplain. Furthermore, with no current endorser, a letter of good standing cannot be issued to the AFCB on CH Larsen’s behalf. This letter of good standing is crucial to his standing as a viable candidate without waiver for the Sacred Well Congregation’s AFCB certification process.

There is a clear and present need for a chaplain of the Wiccan faith in the US Armed Services. The Sacred Well Congregation has met every requirement put before us in our quest to become an endorsing body for military chaplains and this latest roadblock was caused by the unethical, unprofessional and discriminatory conduct of at least two US Army senior officers. This conduct has led directly to the immediate withdrawal of endorsement of a dedicated and distinguished battalion chaplain serving in Iraq.

This petition is in support of the Sacred Well Congregation’s attempt to become an endorsing body for US military chaplains and CH Larsen’s ability to serve in that capacity.