MAKAND Singh found that, when he joined up more than two decades ago, the Army wasn't as welcoming to a Sikh as it is now.

But the one place he could consistently find support was with the Christian chaplain. "In 1981, I was sent to Germany. I couldn't find a temple in the town we were in, so I went to see the chaplain, and he offered to help me out. He found a Sikh temple in Cologne, and I was given the time to travel and visit it. It was a great help to me, " he says.

While he was gladly accommodated, it would obviously have been more practical if there had been a spiritual advisor of his own faith nearby. There are about 740 people in the armed forces who belong to Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities. By the end of a Ministry of Defence's interview process taking place now, they will finally have chaplains from their own religion to turn to.

Ashok Kumar Chauhan is a member of the Army's diversity action recruiting team. Part of his role is to address the worries of prospective recruits' parents.

He believes the Army has become such a welcoming organisation that worries over allowances being made to celebrate religious festivals and concerns about racism are not their most pressing.

"Lately, with Iraq, we have sensed a little more concern from parents of prospective recruits about faith, " he says, "but what we find in general is that, no matter what a person's background is, the first question they ask is about the safety of their child - will my child die?

They think of the Army and they think of war, even though people can spend decades in the Army and not even go to war.

"What we are doing is definitely working, as there is increasingly a representation of people from different backgrounds in proportion with how they are represented in the population, " he says.

"A lot of parents we talk to seem to think 'this is not for my child', " adds Singh. "But if we are going to be an integral part of the country, we should take part in all its commitments."

He believes that the introduction of multi-faith chaplains will consolidate the work that has already been done to make the Army more attractive to people of all faiths. "It will make things better, on a practical level if nothing else.

"Already it is helpful that when one person is celebrating one religious festival, others are working. When others need time off, those of other faiths who don't need time out can make it possible, " he says.

Sajit Razzaq, a Muslim who served as an officer in the RAF, sees the value of bringing in multi-faith chaplains, but not necessarily because of a need for appropriate spiritual guidance. "I don't think it's that important in terms of making the forces allinclusive. It's a good idea to have them as a complement to those already there, to add that different dimension, but I think where their role is important is for relations in general. When the RAF go abroad it would be good to have multi-faith chaplains as a way of making sure there are common ties between you and those you are working with, " he says.

"The role of the chaplain isn't entirely religious anyway. People tend to go and see them more from a welfare point of view, as a neutral person who is perhaps easier to talk to than your line manager."

He would have been comfortable speaking to a Christian chaplain, however, if he had felt the need.

"The set-up within the RAF is such that you see chaplains around during your training, but it's generally not the done thing to go and see one, " he says.

"But I served in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, and you could always see that it's in the places where you're under most stress that their role becomes much more crucial. They don't just spout Christianity to you:

they are there as support. People tend to get more religious when a situation is more threatening, though, and will seek them out more in their more religious role."

When plans for multi-faith chaplains were announced, Khurshid Drabu, the Muslim adviser to the MoD, said it would be misleading to suggest that the armed forces are free from Islamophobia and racism.

"However, I believe there is a strong determination and a real commitment to address these issues in a serious and effective manner, " he said. "A career in the armed forces offers great and exciting opportunities and this announcement on the appointment of imams and chaplains for other minority faiths shows that the culture and environment of this huge institution is gradually becoming more inclusive."

Apart from anything else, says Chauhan, the move also serves to underline that the chaplain's role still has great importance, for all recruits. "It's extremely important to have spiritual guidance available. When do we really, really think about God? When we're in trouble. It's the way we are. Faith is something that brings us all together as one family. The Army is meant to be one happy family."