Thinkaloud

Thinkaloud by John Coutts

IMADE my first visit to Germany way back in 1951. In Frankfurt, guided by Major John Dale, I visited an enormous windowless bunker that The Salvation Army was using to house ‘displaced persons’. I then moved to Munich to stay with my friend Hans, a former prisoner of war who used to attend the corps at St Albans. All went well until I got into a discussion with Hans’s father on a tricky question: ‘Who started the war?’

In schoolboy German, I pointed out that – while the war was now over – the conflict had clearly been started by a certain Adolf Hitler. ‘Not so fast,’ replied Hans’s dad. ‘What about the Treaty of Versailles imposed after the First World War? What about the seizure of all Germany’s colonies, and the Allied bombing campaign?’

Our heated discussion turned into a shouting match, after which we both felt ashamed of ourselves, and Hans’s dad made me a generous gift from his fine stamp collection, including a complete set featuring the Führer himself. This strange peace offering is tucked away in my schoolboy album to this day.

On balance, I still think that Hitler started it, but with my outlook and education, I would, wouldn’t I?

Fast forward to 1967, when civil war broke out in Nigeria. On one unforgettable day, I heard two radio broadcasts. First the Eastern Region – where we had recently been working as missionary teachers – proclaimed itself the independent Republic of Biafra. Then the Nigerian Federal government announced ‘police action’ to crush the rebellion. Former students would be fighting on both sides. Our school would be closed, garrisoned by the Biafrans and bombed by the Federal Air Force. Fortunately, they only hit the tennis court.

So who started that war? And – a different question – whose cause was just? The sufferings of the people of Biafra created huge international sympathy and led to the foundation of the great international charity Médecins Sans Frontières. Once again, my views were coloured by my previous experiences. I had lived among – and learnt the language of – a ‘minority ethnic group’, most of whom were opposed to the creation of a breakaway state. So when I heard over the radio that the Eastern House of Assembly had ‘unanimously’ voted for Biafran secession, I didn’t believe it.

But with my particular background, I would think that, wouldn’t I?

The recent article ‘A conflict of opinion’ (2 July Salvationist) showed us how Salvationists were divided in their reactions to the Boer War. Some saw a brave Boer ‘David’ standing up to the British imperialist ‘Goliath’, while others saw their country’s cause as just, because of the way that the Boers had treated the ‘native races’ of South Africa. What those ‘native races’ thought was not mentioned. But then, in those days, their views weren’t often reported, were they?

Blessed are the peacemakers

SEEKING PEACE

Our Lord commands us to be peacemakers in Matthew 5:9. Sometimes we are called on to seek peace in personal disagreements. We may be so tied up emotionally that outside mediation is needed to sort things out. If so, let’s be prepared to admit it.

Some of us are called on to play peacemaking roles in personal, social, industrial or even international relations. Let’s not then forget that our own experiences and prejudices can influence our outlook and approach.

The last of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets is named ‘Little Gidding’, after a village that was home to a Christian community that sought peace during the upheavals of the 17th century. Eliot reflects that many in the opposing parties – the Cavaliers and the Roundheads – were sincere in their motives. They were ‘united in the strife that divided them’.

Relying on the ultimate reality of God’s love, the third part of the poem concludes:

And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well By the purification of the motive In the ground of our beseeching.

As we seek to bring peace to ourselves and others, personally and internationally, let’s purify our motives, let’s seek to understand and recognise where we are coming from. That’s part of our calling to holiness.

A w ld idea: Seeing God

Simon Hope learns from Forest of Dean Corps how environmentalism and discipleship can intertwine

EARLIER this month, on Creation Sunday (3 September), we learnt from Major Vivienne Prescott (Forest of Dean) what mission can look like in an eco-church. At the start of The Great Big Green Week (24 September to 2 October), we catch up with Vivienne to explore how environmentalism isn’t just a secular idea, but a calling from God.

A self-proclaimed ‘country girl’, Vivienne describes Earth as the ‘first book’ of the Bible, the first medium through which God spoke to his people. Today, Christians and non-Christians alike turn to nature for a spiritual experience. As Paul wrote: ‘Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse’ (Romans 1:20).

This, however, presents a fine line. On the one hand is a deeper connection with God brought about by basking in his living world. On the other hand is a slippery slope into transgression. Vivienne readily acknowledges that, among believers, there is often an increased level of suspicion and scepticism towards the natural world. The Church is wary of the perceived link between nature and pagan ideas, and there is a fear that people could go astray and start worshipping nature rather than its Creator.

But Vivienne also draws attention to the way this has led Christians to lose the benefits of being in nature. A primary risk of fearing the natural world is that people can begin to divorce God from his creation. This can not only be spiritually detrimental, but also lead to a deep apathy towards the serious environmental issues that face us all today. Vivienne rightly asks: how can we as The Salvation Army care for creation if we as individuals live in fear of it?

‘I feel the Church has thrown out so much in fear of paganism,’ she mourns. ‘We cannot love something we do not know. We will not protect – will not fight for – something that we do not love.’

Forest of Dean Corps has developed its Wild Ministries programme to take people back out into the world and help them rediscover a love of nature and of God.

Comprising Wild Church and Wild Kids, Wild Ministries is more than simply taking a Sunday morning meeting to the park; the worship model is intentionally designed to connect people to the Almighty through a natural space.