Chaplain Service Pastor as a Special Kind of Public Service Military Officer in the Ukrainian Army

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the chaplain’s legal status as a serviceman of the Ukrainian army, and the service of military chaplains as a component of the public service system in Ukraine, to the identification of signs and peculiarities of their legal regulation. The authors suggest considering a military chaplain as an employee of a separate type of public service, which has a dualistic status: on the one hand, he is a military serviceman, and on the other, a religious servant of a certain church. Despite the fact that the practice of military chaplaincy under the new legislation in Ukraine has not been developed yet, the duality of status will emerge in some practical and theoretical problems, which are also described and analysed in the article.

Keywords

• chaplain service
• military service
• public service
• freedom of conscience
• armed forces of ukraine