HB2314: State Police Volunteer Chaplaincy Program; established.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 52-6.2 as follows:

52-6.2. Volunteer Chaplaincy Program.

The Superintendent of State Police shall have the authority to establish a Volunteer Chaplaincy Program, enabling employees of the Department otherwise trained in ministry to serve as volunteer chaplains, without supplemental compensation. Duties of the volunteer chaplains shall be established by order of the Superintendent and may include, but are not limited to, providing employees of the Department and their families with spiritual counseling and guidance, and providing invocations and benedictions at Department-sanctioned events and ceremonies. The Superintendent may establish guidelines regarding the selection and general supervision of the volunteer chaplains in the Volunteer Chaplaincy Program; however, the activities and services of each volunteer chaplain shall be provided in his individual capacity and in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience. Neither the Department, the Superintendent, nor any other Department official shall prescribe, proscribe, regulate, limit, or otherwise dictate the religious content of the volunteer chaplains' expression of religious beliefs, prayers, invocations, benedictions, spiritual counseling, or spiritual guidance. Anytime a volunteer chaplain is called upon to provide an invocation or benediction for the purpose of solemnizing a Department-sanctioned event or ceremony, and a printed agenda or program is distributed at such event or ceremony, a disclaimer shall be included on the agenda or program to acknowledge that the invocation or benediction is the voluntary offering of an individual, and that the views or beliefs expressed by such individual have not been previously reviewed, approved, sanctioned, or endorsed by the Department.