HISTORY
While the antecedents of the WCA (previously known as the Wisconsin Chaplaincy Commission) can be traced back to the early 1960's, the Association was first organized as an ecumenical partnership of The Wisconsin Council of Churches in 1982. Since then, the Association has continued to mature under the leadership of the Council.

Initially, all faith group members of the Association were all Christian judicatories, but not all of them were also members of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. Today, member and observer faith groups include Catholic and Protestant judicatories as well as Buddhist, Islamic and Jewish faith groups.

In 2004 the Association became an independent non-profit educational corporation in the State of Wisconsin. The Association has also received non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service. Although legally a separate entity from the Wisconsin Council of Churches, the Association contracted with the Council for secretarial and financial services during 2004. Since January of 2005, the Association has been totally independent of the Wisconsin Council of Churches.

In January, 2007, due to a reduction in support from faith groups and judicatories and the resignation of our part-time Executive Director, the Board of Directors opted to not fill the position until such time as more stable finances could secured. In April, the Board met for six hours with Marlene Haigh of Project Management Associates to develop a clear and concise organizational identity and to set the direction for the organization over the next few years. The mission, vision and values statments approved by the Board in April are on the home page of this site. The Board is also working on developing a variety of materials to use in promoting the Association to individual chaplains, institutions, faith groups and judicatories. It is expected that these will be completed during 2008.