Reflection 12 and

A meeting of the RIWG

How good are we at showing welcome and hospitality to people we don’t know?

Recently The Salvation Army launched the Race Inclusion Working Group (RIWG), a diverse group of employees, officers and soldiers endeavouring to engage every aspect of the Army in thinking more intentionally about welcome, hospitality and inclusion, specifically towards people from minority ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Jesus spoke of loving God and loving others as the greatest commandments. The RIWG wants to encourage every person involved in The Salvation Army, whether a soldier, adherent, friend, employee or volunteer, to actively find ways to be more welcoming, hospitable and inclusive of anyone who may be different from us – to go out of our way to ensure that everyone feels included.

The good Samaritan was willing to go out of his way, possibly making a detour on the route to his final destination, as well as going out of his way to pay for the care for the Jewish man. How good are we at deliberately placing ourselves among people who are different from us in order to learn from them, value them and find ways to ensure they are included? The Christian message of welcome, inclusion and hospitality that Jesus demonstrated reaches beyond race. Ultimately the message is the same for everyone, whatever our differences.

We are all made in the image of God – and the human race, in all its variety, reflects God’s perfect image. We are all created in God’s image with a part to play in the Church, which is one body (see 1 Corinthians 12:12–27) – we would not want to miss out on the gifts and skills that others may have because we have neglected to welcome or include them.

I think that very few people are intentionally exclusive, but I do wonder whether some of us intentionally do enough to ensure everyone is included, involved and valued. To be fully inclusive we need to invest time and energy in getting to know others and realising the value they can add and then finding ways to utilise the gifts and skills they bring.

The prayer of the RIWG is that our multi-faceted Army would be seen as the most welcoming, hospitable and inclusive place in the communities with which it engages – the place where diversity is celebrated, where congregations are enhanced because of that variety and where loving God is demonstrated by loving others.

‘In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilised, slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us’ (Colossians 3:11 New Living Translation).

2020 Intercultural Mission Conference COLONEL MAIN IS TERRITORIAL SECRETARY FOR LEADER DEVELOPMENT