TIMELY RECOGNITION
When on April 6, 1917, the United States made the memorable decision which allied her with the other liberty-loving nations of the world, struggling for the preservation of freedom, Christian Scientists were not slow to respond to the call to arms. It was natural that they should wish to be represented in the Chaplain Corps and efforts were at once made towards securing official recognition of Christian Science chaplains, who should minister to the spiritual needs of men of their own faith.
The appointment of Christian Scientists to this position was first made possible by an amendment to the Revised Statutes of the United States authorizing the President to commission twenty chaplains-at-large to represent those denominations not already included in the existing law. Prior to this chaplains were drawn from the membership of those churches united as The Federated Churches of Christ of America, and the Roman Catholic Church, and all applicants were required to be ordained clergymen. Not included in this list were several denominations which had many members in the service, and to meet their demands the Chaplain-at-large bill was introduced and passed by Congress and approved by the President on October 26, 1917. The Committee of the House having this bill in charge recommended that these chaplains be given a roving commission not attaching them to any one regiment directly. The concluding paragraph of the order as passed by Congress was as follows:
“Division commanders may apply to the Adjutant General of the Army for the services of chaplains-at-large of the Jewish, Christian Science, Eastern Catholic, Mormon, and Salvation Army denominations if they deem that there are
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