History Main / UniversalChaplain

* Modern UsefulNotes/{{Freemasons}} are required to have a faith, but there are no rules as to which. It's not uncommon for Lodge chambers to contain universal symbols for God/Higher Power, a blank text on the lectern (that each brother can project their holy book of choice onto), and for speeches and parables to be pulled from any given faith as fits the ceremony.

* After the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing, Jewish chaplain Arnold Resnicoff worked side by side with Catholic chaplain George Pucciarelli, digging through the rubble and giving aid to those injured. When Resnicoff took off his kippah and used it to wipe the blood off the face of a wounded marine, Pucciarelli cut off a piece of his own uniform and gave it to Resnicoff to make an improvised kippah.

* Modern UsefulNotes/{{Freemasons}} are required to have a faith, but there are no rules as to which. It's no uncommon for Lodge chambers to contain universal symbols for God/Higher Power, a blank text on the lectern (that each brother can project their holy book of choice onto), and for speeches and parables to be pulled from any given faith as fits the ceremony.

SisterTrope of EmergencyMultifaithPrayer. See also ChurchOfSaintGenericus.

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[[AC:Real Life]]

* For a non-military example, many colleges, hospitals, and prisons have chaplains. They are trained to work with students, patients, or inmates, and their families, according to many different types of religions (whichever one they themselves might be). Sometimes they are lay people, other times they are ordained priests/rabbis/ministers/etc. or monks or nuns. Additionally, they also have rapports with local priests, rabbis, ministers, imams, etc., should one be needed or desired. (So, for example, if a Catholic patient at a hospital desires to receive [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing_of_the_sick Anointing of the Sick]], and the hospital chaplain isn't a Catholic priest, s/he can contact a local priest (or even the patient's priest) to perform the ritual.) They may also facilitate bringing different types of worship services onto the school/hospital/prison campus.
* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Crosses Hill of Crosses]] in Lithuania allows visitors of other faiths to bring and place their own holy symbols, as long as they are appropriate and follow the size limit.

This is the expression [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_no_atheists_in_foxholes "There are no atheists in foxholes"]] taken UpToEleven. While at war, soldiers will attend any kind of religious service or speak to any kind of chaplain regardless of their actual religion because that service and/or chaplain is the nearest (or only) one available. A variant is when chaplains of different denominations (or different faiths entirely) will work together in time of need.

* ''Fall of Giants'', the first book in ''Literature/TheCenturyTrilogy'', has a variation; in Aberowen, Wales, after the Battle of the Somme results in massive casualties (with a number of families in town losing family members), the churches (at least temporarily) put their doctrinal differences aside and hold a joint church service. It's worth noting how extraordinary this is, as at the time doctrinal differences between church denominations in this part of Wales was SeriousBusiness.

* Page quote is from ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'': before making a combat jump, everybody is given a chance for prayer with the unit's chaplain, and many of those present take up that offer regardless of what their own faith is.

* The ''VideoGame/SimCity'' series goes back and forth with this. ''Sim City 2000'' has Christian churches show up at random in residential areas, while ''Sim City 4'' has a non-denominational "house of worship" as an unlockable reward.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': In the backstory, Kiara Sesshouin, normally a Buddhist, got a job as a multi-faith therapist in Seraphix, a facility owned by the Chaldea Security Organisation. One of her discarded journals [[LampshadeHanging expresses confusion over this]].

* For a non-military example, many colleges, hospitals, and prisons have chaplains. They are trained to work with students, patients, or inmates, and their families, according to many different types of religions (whichever one they themselves might be). Sometimes they are lay people, other times they are ordained priests/rabbis/ministers/etc. or monks or nuns. Additionally, they also have rapports with local priests, rabbis, ministers, imams, etc., should one be needed or desired. (So, for example, if a Catholic patient at a hospital desires to receive [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing_of_the_sick Anointing of the Sick]], and the hospital chaplain isn't a Catholic priest, s/he can contact a local priest (or even the patient's priest) to perform the ritual.) They may also facilitate bringing different types of worship services onto the school/hospital/prison campus.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': In the backstory, Kiara Sesshouin, normally a Buddhist, got a job as a multi-faith therapist in Seraphix, a facility owned by the Chaldea Security Organisation. One of her discarded journals [[LampshadeHanging expresses confusion]], but it appears she did a good job [[spoiler: [[DemonicPossession until]] [[SanitySlippage she]] [[SuperpoweredEvilSide didn't]]]].

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': In the backstory, Kiara Sesshouin, normally a Buddhist, got a job as a multi-faith therapist in Seraphix, a facility owned by the Chaldea Security Organisation.

* The second volume of ''ComicBook/Maus'' features a beautiful moment when Vladek, weeping with sorrow after arriving at Auschwitz, is approached by a Polish priest. He proceeds to comfort Vladek by pointing out how full of good omens the latter's ID tattoo is in the form of several numbers important in Judaic tradition, confidently asserting that Vladek is fated to survive. Vladek states the priest "put another life in me".

-->-''Literature/StarshipTroopers''

* ''Film/JoyeuxNoel'', a film about the Christmas Truce of 1914, has a Christian priest holding a Christmas Eve religious service. After some hesitation, a Jewish German officer joins in.

* Most religious buildings on U.S. military bases built since the 1940s are designed to be non-denominational, with no permanently affixed religious symbols or decorations.

* For a non-military example, many colleges, hospitals, and prisons have chaplains. They are trained to work with students, patients, or inmates, and their families, according to many different types of religions (whichever one they themselves might be). Additionally, they also have rapports with local priests, rabbis, ministers, imams, etc., should one be needed or desired. (So, for example, if a Catholic patient at a hospital desires to receive [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing_of_the_sick Anointing of the Sick]], and the hospital chaplain isn't a Catholic priest, s/he can contact a local priest (or even the patient's priest) to perform the ritual.)

* For a non-military example, many hospitals and prisons have chaplains. They are trained to work with patients or inmates, and their families, according to many different types of religions (whichever one they themselves might be). Additionally, they also have rapports with local priests, rabbis, ministers, imams, etc., should one be needed or desired. (So, for example, if a Catholic patient at a hospital desires to receive [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing_of_the_sick Anointing of the Sick]], and the hospital chaplain isn't a Catholic priest, s/he can contact a local priest (or even the patient's priest) to perform the ritual.)

* Most religious buildings on U.S. military bases built since the 1940s are designed to be non-denominational, with no permanently affixed religious symbols or decorations.

SisterTrope of EmergencyMultifaithPrayer and [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=flatl0bqy2867y9778usw87z Urgently Married by a Rabbi]], which is the marriage-related version of this trope. See also ChurchOfSaintGenericus.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': In the backstory, Kiara Sesshouin, normally a Buddhist, got a job as a multi-faith therapist in Seraphix, a facility owned by Chaldea Organisation.

SisterTrope of EmergencyMultifaithPrayer and [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=flatl0bqy2867y9778usw87z Urgently Married by a Rabbi]], which is the marriage-related version of this trope.

* In ''{{Series/MASH}}'', Catholic chaplain Father Mulcahy has performed Jewish ceremonies (including circumcision and saying kaddish) in the absence of a rabbi. He also takes interest in other religious practices, including various Protestant denominations (although he's apparently intimidated by Southern Baptists) and has even sat in on Buddhist services conducted by local Koreans.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' the All Faiths chapel in Diamond City attends to it's residents spiritual needs regardless of their own religious beliefs.
* The ''VideoGame/SimCity'' series goes back and forth with this; ''Sim City 2000'' has Christian churches show up at random in residential areas, while ''Sim City 4'' has a non-denominational "house of worship" as an unlockable reward.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' the company chaplain, Reverend Theo Forbius, is from an explicitly multidenominational order. On occasion he's even taken the agnostic approach when counseling the mercs.

* After the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing, Jewish chaplain Arnold Resnicoff worked side-by-side with Catholic chaplain George Pucciarelli, digging through the rubble and giving aid to those injured. When Resnicoff took off his kippah and used it to wipe the blood off the face of a wounded marine, Pucciarelli cut off a piece of his own uniform and gave it to Resnicoff to make an improvised kippah.

* Most religious buildings on US military bases built since the 1940s are designed to be non-denominational, with no permanently affixed religious symbols or decorations.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3chaplainsymbols_1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Pick a chaplain, any chaplain...]]

This is the expression [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_no_atheists_in_foxholes "There are no atheists in foxholes"]] taken UpToEleven. While at war, soldiers will attend any kind of religious service or speak to any kind of chaplain regardless of their actual religion because that service and/or chaplain is the only one available. A variant is when chaplains of different denominations (or different faiths entirely) will work together in time of need.