LAST UPDATE:
May 16, 2010

NCMAF - What is it?

Speaking With A Single Voice

Our name is the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces. We go by our acronym, NCMAF (rhymes with pick staff). We’ve only been around since 1982, but our roots go back to 1901 when the decision was made by the War Department (predecessor to the Department of Defense) to require the ecclesiastical endorsement of clergypersons who serve as chaplains in the armed forces.

We are a one of a kind organization in the world, bringing together in a working and mutually supportive relationship official representatives of all the major faith communities in the United States.

We are Protestant and Roman Catholic, Jewish and Orthodox, Buddhist and Islamic. Our members represent the total theological spectrum of faith organizations that make up the organized religious community of the United States.

We are for one another, support one another, and work together as a single community because we believe in quality chaplain ministry in the armed forces. Our common goals are to recruit, endorse and provide ongoing oversight of persons for service as chaplains in the armed forces.

We want clergypersons to serve as chaplains who are credible, committed to their faith, open to all persons, able to meet all military standards, and who represent the highest standards of their own faith communities.

NCMAF members are the point of contact between the armed forces and their particular faith community. Being a part of a common organization allows systematic and ongoing dialogue among the various religious bodies and between the religious bodies and the Department of Defense. Our unity is a demonstration to the Department of Defense and the nation of our common areas of moral and spiritual convictions.

When the need exists to address the Department of Defense or the Congress around issues of significance to the faith community, our unity provides a significant power base out of which to operate for the good of our constituents.

NCMAF is a non-profit organization supported entirely by voluntary contributions from the member faith groups and other interested parties. Its interfaith nature and its mission makes NCMAF a very appropriate recipient for chapel offerings or for grants from military chaplain funds. It is our shared voice raised in unison in behalf of ongoing quality ministry for and with every member of the armed forces. You can help make that voice heard.