Evening Activities

The chaplains organised many evening activities in Syria, but it is necessary to point out that the good chaplain thought of himself as a Minister of Religion first and foremost and never allowed welfare duties to overshadow his real work. He spent his day with the men as they worked, and in the evening wandered around the canteens and the huts where the men lived. In this way he got to know his flock and his visiting would lead to private interviews, small voluntary services, and classes for religious instruction. But of course religion and welfare are closely bound together, and the chaplains were always eager to help anything that promoted mental and spiritual health, though they objected strongly when too material a view was taken of their calling.

In the long, dark evenings in Syria the chaplains turned their hands to many tasks. They organised foreign language classes, often acting as the instructors. They arranged lectures, debates, discussions, card tournaments, and concerts, and after the Church

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services on Sunday mornings ran a kind of tourist office, sending parties off in trucks to places of interest in the surrounding country.