The Chaplains Assistant PT II of II

Posted on Wed Apr 22nd, 2020 @ 7:48am by Lieutenant JG Maxmillio (Max) Solanga MA, Rev.,

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Inside the Chaplains Office
1763 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Continue Pt II of II

Impressed Max said Chief Aguan, why don't you come and have a seat in my office. Following Max, Frederika walked into the small office that was the size of a small 12 x 14 foot bedroom. But to Frederika's surprise, Max pused another button and suddenly the room as much bigger, and now there were two large desks, one for hers and one for Max that was filled with so much literature, and papers sitting on top of the desi, it seemed to overflow his desk.

Max said that desk over there is where my Chaplains Assistant will be working, and I expect punctuality, also a bit of reverence for the office of the Chaplain, replied Max as he noticed that Frederika was always looking around.

Now said Max I supposed you're going to be my Chaplains Assistant aeend finally Frederika began to speak, in a slightly accented sing song tone of his parents back in the Visayas. Though the English was good, she had this small problem with transposing her "P" and "F" sounding words, so to Max it was funny to hear her speaknig to him.

So in this case Max decided to use the tongue of his parents and started to speak in a regional dilect common to Filipinos loiving there. And in an instant Frederika began speaking to him, as she excitedly asked him from where his parents were from, and for hours as Frederika sat and listend to Max, and max did the same for Frederika, they were able to discuss many things that needed to be done in his office, and also as a second position, Frederika would be assisting the Counselors in their office.

Finally Max told Frederika that because of her training and her rank as a Chief Petty Officer working as a Chaplains Assistant, she got the job, but for the other job as Counseling Assistant, he would have LCDR Alika talk to her about her second job as a Counseling Assistant. But for now she would be working the following Monday, at 0600 hrs sharp, and he would want evertying in his office cataloged, filed and if it didn't fit, send it to the ships Logistics offier for safe keeping.

Now speaking back in Federation English, Max said..
Frederika, welcome to the Elysium and hopefully we'll have a good time working together.

Now as to your quarters; we'll start off by having you stay in temporary quarters aboard the ship, while the XO decides wehre to put you, and since you also have some counseling training, I think that there is also a spot for you as one of the Counseling aides, I"ll check with Lt, Alicia Salik, who is the Chief Counselor on board the ship. Once I've introduced you to her, I'll be back here in the office, and you join me for lunch. Then after lunch we have much to do for our first service in the Holochapel.

Inserting Frederika's Isolinear chip card into the slave unit. Within seconds, it showed that Frederika would be living in temporary quarters on another deck below the one he now inhabited.

With that out of the way, Max said, Now down to business, shall we?

The chapel has been programmed to react to each individuals own personal religious values meaning that once that person comes in and out of the Holochapel, so a person who is Islamic could see Mecca and the great temple. With multiple people having varied Spiritual values or faiths, the computer will not act, but will show a neutral color. leaving me to fine tune the services to fit the people inside the chapel for services. I don't really expect a large group, but I believe that our community is only a quarter of the entire crew or even less.

There are no seats, since the Holochapel will provided everything needed for a service; such as music, a musical band, and even a chior.

Next as for hours, this chapel is open 24/7, and anyone can come in and worship to their god or gods in whatever form, as the computer will automatically changed to suit that persons own spiritual beliefs.

We also celebrate the old religious celebrations such as Christmas; which is always a time of celerartion, but has had a religious connotation for thusands of years, however we will celebrate Christmas as a time of joy, and hope; without the typical mass.

I can perform a typical service for the non-catholics such as the protestant faith, and for members of the Federation who may have a deep seated spiritual faith that needs to be addressed. I am also a former Roman Catholic priest who has been defrocked, for my own heretical view on the church's doctrine, so being defrocked; I cannot perform some of the rituals, such as consecrating the blood and body of Jesus Christs; however, as a non-denominational minister/reverend, and a Secular Humanist minister; I do not recognize the old Roman Cahtolic churc, and believe that there is a god, but does not beieve that he was the person of the old and new Testament who did all of those miracles, but an advanced Alien life form who had vast scientific knowledge thtat allowed him to do those miracles.

And if you try to quote to me the hundreds of bliblical passages that at one time caused so much discrimination around the earth, then I will say that these passages were written by men who had no scientific knowledge, but because of their own heretical views on religion forced many well deserving or races to be exterminated, hounded or discriminated for centuries.

Let me give you an example.."Leviticus" (18:22) has been translated in common English versions as: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination" But then he also says in ("9:19") Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material, or how about this one Eating an animal which doesn’t both chew cud and has a divided hoof (cf: camel, rabbit, pig) (11:4-7) [“You will be unclean.] So you see Ikay, that the Bible has many inconsistencies that it has perpetuated the need for war, and if we're going to deal with other Aliens who may have very different views of religion or none at all, and we try to use the old ways of religious teachings, then we should expect a war on the basies that they think as we think we are better than they are.

Now as for weddings, I can do the usual Christian weddings, Handfasting rites, Bajorian weddings, Betazeid weddings. So how do you feel about being naked in front of everyone? laughed Max as he just watched Frederica's face begin to turn a slow darkening red, as she began to sputter in her native Visayan dialect, mixed in with Federation Standard English. Laughing Max said, don't worry, we don't have any planned just yet. Plus we can also do Klingon Weddings, which is generally much faster than others, and a bit violent. So be prepared to help me with a human wife who ends up in sickbay on the night of her wedding, laughed Max..

Baptisms, Funerals, rites for the dead, and others can be performed by me, replied Max, and since I do have a masters in counseling, along with my counseling training as a priests, I can help a person with their spritual issues, but for complicated counseling issues, I turn each case over to Lt. Selik's personnel, which I feel that as a minister that is one of my duties to work in conjunction with Counseling; however for small issues such as marriage counseling, I do not have to have permission from counseling, nor do I need permission from any other such as Medical, since much of what I do, is judge whether a couple are right for each other, know their responsiblities to their children if any, based upon their own spiritual training, and to make sure that they have made arrangementts in who will take care of the children if one of the spouses or both die on the ship.

As for the LGBT personnel on the ship, I do give counseling to them, but usually prefer to leave that to the Counseling department, where they will have access to a Gender Counselor and a Psychaitrist, but usually there are a few who would rather see a Chaplain for issues they still find too embarrassing to tell, and have that on their psych eval. But being a former priests has given me one power that no Captain or even Starfleet can order me to do, is tell them the conversation with a particular crewman during a visit in the confessional, and though I do have a duty to Starfleet, my duty is to a much higher calling, one that even the Admirals know. I cannot divulge the confessions of anyone who sees me and want to talk about anything in the confessional, even though it may mean the destruction of the ship and the death of the entier crew. And not even Starfleet can force me to say anything about this..

Now as for my own office hours on the ship. I am always on call 24/7, for any emergency; or just to talk to someone who is having a spiritualistic doubt about themselves and how they see their lives unfolding. From divorces, deaths in the famly, and death of a crewman, all have a direct correlation on how each of us behaves after a crisis, so what you will do, is also be ready to help me with many things, at which at this time I have no idea at this time.

Frederika, during normal duty hours I do not use the title of Lieutenant Maximillio Solanga, that is strictly used when being addressed by a senior officer, or during VIP visits abaord the ship; but I would you and the others to refer to me as Chaplain Solanga, Reverend Solanga. However among the personnel in Counseling, you can call me "Max" whenever we are all inside the office, for I am referred to as just 'Max', but since we are working in close proximity to each other inside this office, you can call me 'Manang Max'.

Listening to the instructions Frederika who was tempted to say;" but Manang Max, the Regulations from Starfleet are... Suddenly realizing that Max was not going to budge from his postion, all Ikay could do was say "Yes Manang Max".

End

Reverend Max Solanga, Lt
Ships Chaplain
USS Elysium