Progress (Autumn 2016)

IHQ-ProgRes@salvationarmy.org

AUTUMN 2016 // ISSUE 16

Prog

A NEWS UPDATE FROM THE PROGRAMME RESOURCES DEPARTMENT AT IHQ

Global vision with local expression

Programme Resources 1

Programme Resources Serving the whosoever

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International Schools Services Relevant and innovative

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Europe Zone Against the grain

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International Projects and Development Services Creed and culture

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Programme Resources Part of a greater whole

8 Communications

Words of Life

Commissioner Charles Swansbury

International Secretary for Programme Resources

Serving the whosoever

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have just finished reading again through the minor prophets at the end of the Old Testament and was thus reminded of verses 8 and 9 of Zechariah chapter 13, which state: ‘In the whole land, says the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive… They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, “They are my people”; and they will say, “The Lord is my God”’ (Revised Standard Version).

This text was highlighted at the opening of the new International Headquarters

(IHQ) in 2004, for the present footprint of the IHQ building is approximately one third of the freehold site owned

by The Salvation Army; the two-thirds of the site not required was developed as commercial office space and is now occupied by an international bank. That IHQ remained on the site and occupied this most prominent and visible position in central London was evidence that we were very much alive and intentional about our mission and ministry.

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3 3CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Whilst the parallels with the IHQ building redevelopment are interesting, we would, of course, not suggest that those outside the immediate IHQ footprint – or indeed many of the world’s population who are not of the Christian faith – should thus be regarded as cut off and therefore doomed to perish, and hence be of no concern to ourselves. Whilst they might not exclaim in faith ‘The Lord is my God’, we are nevertheless compelled to consider them each as ‘My people’.

‘Local need, circumstance and opportunity have crafted a wide and diverse expression of Salvation Army activity.’

The focus, service and ministry of the Programme Resources Department seeks to express that inclusion, serving the whosoever in the name of Christ. As our International Mission Statement puts it: our purpose is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and meeting human needs in his name without discrimination.

Such an emphasis demands an international perspective and a global culture – which is a theme of this issue of ProgRess.

Of course, local need, circumstance and opportunity have crafted a wide and diverse expression of Salvation Army activity and programme around the world. A perusal of our IHQ website, the Year Book or other of our international publications shows a menagerie of expressions of inclusion, yet undoubtedly remaining as One Army, with One Mission and One Message. The IHQ communications team, one of the seven

sections within the Programme Resources Department, also receive copies of territorial publications from all parts of the Army world, which reinforces this global ministry as expressed locally.

A word coined a few years ago which sought to give expression to this worldwide concept is ‘Glocal’. In other words, global in vision but local in application. There are now numerous groups and initiatives that have taken up this concept. But the one movement in the world where this should be best exampled is the Church.

From my perspective, the Programme Resources Department at IHQ is wholly committed, focused and intentional about exampling that principle. I trust, reading through these pages – a snapshot of our recent activity and perspective – you will concur and be similarly envisioned!

May God bless you.

International Schools Services Howard Dalziel

International Schools Coordinator

Relevant and innovative International Schools Strategy Guiding Principle 5: ‘Salvation Army schools should be a resource for the whole community, a focal point for lifelong learning, contributing positively to the life of families and the neighbourhood in relevant and innovative ways.’

A

s a former English literature teacher, one of the key strategies used to deconstruct text with younger high school children was to get them to read an excerpt and ask them to pick out key words. Looking at the above Guiding Principle I see :

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RESOURCE, WHOLE, COMMUNITY, LIFELONG LEARNING, CONTRIBUTING, POSITIVELY, LIFE, FAMILIES, NEIGHBOURHOOD, RELEVANT, INNOVATIVE.

In my role at IHQ, and as a former teacher and school manager, it is, to refer to a well-known phrase, ‘all about relationships’. The word resource above does not refer to anything financial, or to anything involving equipment or materials, but to the contribution that

a school can make to the community through the skills it can teach and share, and through the facilities that could be used to enable a community to learn.

For a school to be successful it needs to have not only quality learning and teaching, but it also needs to engage with families in a meaningful way. Sometimes this is pastoral, but often the key to success for a community is giving those who have not previously had access to education the opportunity to learn. A

‘For a school to be successful it needs to have not only quality learning and teaching, but it also needs to engage with families in a meaningful way.’

wonderful example of this can be found in Indonesia. Here there is a programme of reading rooms, being developed by the territory’s Women’s Ministries, with technical input from the Salvation Army World Services Office. This is in its infancy, but the church or the school is used by the community as a resource because it has light and somebody – a Salvation Army officer or a teacher – who can assist with literacy.

This brings the community together to learn. Simple, but a wonderful example of a resource used for lifelong learning, contributing positively to the life of families and the neighbourhood in relevant and innovative ways.

Top: Children enjoying their new facilities at Dongi Dongi School Right: Bandung Primary School, Indonesia. Quality education and pastoral support are given to the children, eighty per cent of whom are in care 3

Above: supporting education in rural Sulawesi, Indonesia. This village will have its school developed to serve local communities in Palu Barat (West Palu) Division.

Left: Dongi Dongi School.

A new building constructed with the support of the Australia Eastern Territory and Qantas.

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Europe Zone Jo Clark

Capacity Development Coordinator for Effective Integrated Mission

Against the grain Reflections on recent visits

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ut this is counter-cultural here!’

This is a phrase I have heard numerous times in the past 18 months, both in some of the most economically advanced countries of Western Europe as well as those further east developing in a post-soviet context.

This shouldn’t however come as anything of a surprise; ‘Kingdom culture’ is counter-cultural.

So we went, empty-handed (and a little fearful), to visit the family about whom we knew relatively little; only that they had been internally displaced by conflict and had previously been recipients of some food aid offered by The Salvation Army.

We knew that they would speak and dress differently.

We met a family with a strong faith, united in their support of their youngest member; choosing to stay together in their country of origin to give him the chance of completing university studies

to become a professional musician. We met a family with hopes and dreams. We experienced genuine hospitality and in doing so enabled ‘a house to become a home’ for the first time in a whole year.

We met God in that home, within that family; he was present there long before we were. Through the conversation shared that day we no longer had a single story of that family and they, along with other friends, through continued deepening relationship with The Salvation Army, have since testified to ‘feeling like we are living again, rather than just existing.’

That morning of ‘counter-culturalism’ changed us all.

Now change the cultural context.

It is less than a week after the historic UK Brexit vote. Eighty Czech and Slovak Roma Christians, Salvationists, are together in a room in the UK one evening, exploring what it means to ‘live incarnationally’, challenging each other

‘We met God in that home, within that family; he was present there long before we were… That morning of ‘counter-culturalism’ changed us all.’

Above: Jo Clark (third from left) visits recipients of Salvation Army food aid in Eastern Europe Below: a group of UK Roma Salvationists

to consider what their behaviour towards others should look like if they were to truly live out what they claim to believe – that we are all created in the ‘image of God’. Looking at how Jesus, throughout his ministry, acted (and still acts) so as to break down barriers between people, as well as between us and God. Asking what steps they can take to cross boundaries and build bridges with their non-Roma neighbours. Considering how they can reach those outside the Roma community with the gospel through their living out of its truths. Contemplating how they might be both challenged and transformed through the intentional building of relationships with those by whom they have been oppressed for generations.

As Christians, God calls us to own his Kingdom culture; to learn what it means to ‘be mission’ in a multicultural world. He urges us to move outside of our comfort zones to teach us (personally and corporately) about ourselves, to enable us to develop in our knowledge of and relationship with others and with him, and to more fully understand what it means to ‘be relationship’ as God himself is. As Jesus prayed for us in John 17:21 (English Standard Version), ‘… that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’

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International Projects and Development Services (IPDS) Major Heather Poxon

International Projects Officer

Creed and Culture Some searching questions

‘[Jesus’] disciples … were surprised to find him talking with a woman’ (John 4:27).

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urprised?’ Not surprising!

Jesus healed lepers and the lame (unclean), befriended tax collectors (reviled), welcomed children (pesky, irrelevant), treated women as equals (women!), praised a Samaritan as good (Samaritan scum) and even – horror of horrors – touched coffins and corpses. Was there no end to Jesus’ wholly outrageous holy disregard for longstanding cultural traditions? For God’s sake, he even displayed his healing handiwork in the synagogue on the Sabbath!

He was the ultimate taboo-breaker, culture-smasher, public pricker of pious pomposity.

Song 328 in The Song Book of The Salvation Army contains these words, penned by General John Gowans: ‘To be like Jesus! This hope possesses me…’ Okay, let’s see about that!

To be like Jesus; a man at peace in a world at war, casting prophetic scorn on caste systems that marred the image and dignity of his beloved, a political firebrand who spoke truth to power, and who kicked career ladders to high Heaven even while they were fully laden.

To be like Jesus; favouring the marginalised over mucky materialism

and threatening those whose strength was loveless.

To be like Jesus; walking with the weak while the pseudo-righteous paraded their ranks and emblems of supposed superiority, preaching a gospel of humble virtue that struck at the core of flimsy ambition, brutal influence and temporal gain.

This same Jesus offered ‘life in all its fullness’ (John 10:10 The Living Bible).

To the guttered, begging Indian? To the diseased prostitute working within yards of London’s Westminster? To the avaricious banker? To the shy teenager?

To the paedophile? To the despairing drunkard?

Below: a group from a minority tribe receive training on the dangers of trafficking; opposite page right: The Salvation Army seeks to build community with people such as this widow. In her 80s, she has no family to care for her, so she continues to farm her own ground.

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‘To be like Jesus; walking with the weak while the pseudo-righteous paraded their ranks and emblems of supposed superiority… ’

Photo by Graeme Hodge

Salvation Army Founder William Booth might say today, ‘These are our people!’ The problem is, offering the life of Christ to the marginalised might mean that we too – Salvationists, The Salvation Army – have to keep on, Christlike, breaking down barriers, attracting unpopularity, courting controversy and covering our uniforms and our flags with mud and blood.

Still want to be like Jesus? When the popular press have a go? When our best friends are the lowest of the low? When our mercy seats are lined with the scabby and the reckless? When our halls are filled with those who have nothing but wealth?

How relevant is The Salvation Army to such as these? Do we swim, salmon-like, against prevailing norms in the struggle to bring home the wounded, the scoundrels, the undeserving, the 21st-century unclean…?

Maybe we rediscover our relevance by being gloriously and unrepentantly culturally irrelevant!

Programme Resources

Part of a greater whole When 39 international delegates to the Programme Resources Consultancy Group met at High Leigh Conference Centre in Hertfordshire, UK, discussions centred on work, ministry and service accomplished by and through the Salvation Army programmes and development offices around the world.

In November 2016 this forum for consultation will gather again, this time in Norway. The conversation will continue around international partners and working relationships, policy and strategy, community development and financing – with the overall aim to enable effective and purposeful ministry.

The Programme Resources Consultancy Group 7

Written by Beverly Ivany 144pp (paperback)

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Take time with the Father daily as you meditate upon his Word Ask Jesus to interpret his Word and speak to your heart Open yourself to the Spirit as he brings inspiration A series of daily devotional readings inspired by Scripture, including psalms, proverbs and Christian hymns. Published three times a year, each edition features a mini-series by a guest writer, reflecting the cultural diversity of the international Salvation Army Can be purchased on subscription or as individual copies from any Salvation Army trade or supplies department

Editor Colonel Lisbeth Welander EditorIAL ASSISTANCE Paul Mortlock design and Artwork Berni Georges PROGRAMME RESOURCES The Salvation Army International Headquarters 101 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4EH, United Kingdom Tel: [44] (0)20 7332 0101; email: IHQ-ProgRes@salvationarmy.org Founder William Booth GENERAL André Cox COMMUNICATIONS SECRETARY Major Brad Halse

To subscribe to an electronic copy of Progress please email: IHQ-ProgRes@salvationarmy.org Published by THE General of The Salvation Army © The General of The Salvation Army 2016