Quotes from the media

from Salvationist 8 January 2022

by The Salvation Army UK and Ireland

We are The Salvation Army 12 and

NUMBER OF CHRISTIANS IN ENGLAND AND WALES FALLS TO HALF THE POPULATION

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed a marked decline in the number of people identifying as Christian in England and Wales.

Figures from 2019 show that only 51 per cent are Christian, while those with no religion account for over a third.

It marks a considerable drop from the 2011 census, when Christians made up 59 per cent of the population.

The fall in Christian affiliation coincides with an increase in those recording no religion, which has grown from 32.3 per cent in 2011 to 38.4 per cent now…

The results of the 2021 census are due to be published [this] year and are expected to show a further decline in Christian identification…

The [Church of England’s] figures for 2020 also show a 7 per cent drop in the worshipping community on the previous year.

A spokesperson for the Church said the figures were ‘very much in line with expectations and really underline the scale of the challenge churches faced in the first year of the pandemic’.

Christian Today

PANDEMIC CONTINUES TO HIT CHARITY FUNDRAISING, REPORT SUGGESTS

Charities have been hit – and some forced to close – by a fall in donations during the pandemic, research for a City of London wealth-management firm suggests.

More than a third (36 per cent) of donors and almost half (44 per cent) of fundraisers had cut back on giving and other promotional activity, James Hambro and Partners said.

This follows a report [in November], also for James Hambro, that the drop in revenue for some British charities had brought them to the brink of closure. More than half of 100 charities with investable assets of at least £1 million reported that their income had fallen by more than 30 per cent. All but three said that cutbacks in their work were being considered or had already been made, and eight were facing permanent closure.

The latest research by Consumer Intelligence, which interviewed 989 adults, found that the drop in regular monthly payments and activity by donors and fundraisers was caused by cuts in their own income.

Church Times

RARE CRUCIFIXION VICTIM FOUND IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE

The only Roman-era crucifixion victim found outside the Holy Land has been discovered in Britain.

Radiocarbon-dating tests suggest that the victim, found in Cambridgeshire, was executed in the third or early fourth century AD, probably in about 250. This would coincide with the empire-wide persecution under Decius, during which thousands of Christians are thought to have been executed…

Albion Archaeology found the crucifixion victim in what had been a Roman roadside settlement at Fenstanton, 13 miles northwest of Cambridge. Aged between 25 and 35, he was probably a slave… His right foot contains the nail, hammered in horizontally through the back of his ankle and his heel…

At present, there is no evidence to prove that … [the] victim was a Christian martyr. But the classical historian Professor Roger Rees, of the University of St Andrews, says that radiocarbon-dating ‘clearly raises the possibility’.

Church Times

UNIVERSAL CREDIT CHANGES ‘SEVERELY IMPACTING’ THE POOREST, SAYS CHRISTIAN CHARITY

The charity Christians Against Poverty (Cap) says many of its clients are falling further into debt because of the scrapping of the £20 a week universal credit uplift...

Its survey of 291 people found that over a third had already fallen behind with bills, with a quarter falling into even more debt.

Cap’s social policy manager, Rachel Gregory, [told] Premier the rising cost of living is making the situation even worse: ‘It’s severely impacting people’s standards of living in the most basic ways…’

The universal credit uplift ended on 6 October 2021. A month later, Cap’s survey found 49 per cent had already fallen behind with bills or expect to in the next six months.

Premier

SALVATIONIST

salvationarmy.org.uk/salvationist Issue No 1840

EDITOR Lieut-Colonel Jonathan Roberts

MANAGING EDITOR Ivan Radford

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Simon Hope, Melita Day-Lewis, Major Margaret Bovey

ART DIRECTOR Hannah Holden

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Mark Knight, Louise Phillips

PROOFREADER Chris Horne

Published weekly by The Salvation Army and printed on paper from sustainable sources by CKN Print, Northampton. © The Salvation Army United Kingdom and Ireland Territory. ISSN 2516-5909.

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LOVE ACTUALLY

EARLY in December 2021 Heathrow Airport recreated the famous opening scene from the film Love Actually. A video showed passengers emerging into the arrivals area in Terminal 3 and being hugged by family and friends after Covid-19 travel restrictions had forced many to spend months apart. Martine McCutcheon, who played Natalie in the original film, provided a voiceover, saying: ‘When the world went into lockdown, all I heard were stories of people desperate to stay connected in any way they knew how, people surviving through the worst by supporting one another. If you look for it, whatever life throws at us, you’ll find that love really is all around.’

The types of love that are all around were explored years ago by CS Lewis in his book The Four Loves. He looked at the meaning of four Greek words: storge, the affection between family members, philia, the love of friends, eros, romantic love, and agape, selfless love that can be shown in any relationship.

Covenant Sunday this year focuses on that fourth type of love, expressed in the statement ‘Love God, Love Others’. It describes what should motivate all we do as an Army and as individuals.

In this week’s issue Lieut-Colonel Jayne Roberts introduces the theme and highlights some of the resources available to help us relate that covenant love to our day-to-day lives.

In another of our ‘We are The Salvation Army’ features, Lieutenant Corinne Seabridge reveals how love is shown to children, young people and families through the Aston 614 centre in Birmingham. Some of the young people explain how the centre’s activities have helped them during the coronavirus pandemic and Lieutenant Corinne asks us to join in a prayer to love God, love each other and love the community.

While we often think of ‘others’ as the people we serve outside the Army, LieutColonel Dean Pallant’s Bible study also emphasises the need to love those we serve alongside. He considers Jesus’ greatest commandment – the words on which ‘Love God, Love Others’ is based.

In doing so he quotes from Commissioner Samuel Brengle’s 1929 book, Ancient Prophets and Modern Problems, in which Brengle echoes Jesus by saying, ‘We must love one another.’ It was a timely word back then, when the Army was in turmoil over the deposition of General Bramwell Booth, and it is a timely word today, when other issues have the potential to divide us.

While ‘Love God, Love Others’ is essential in our covenant relationship with God, it is only one side of it. The biblical idea of a covenant was similar to treaties between nations in which the stronger one promised help and support to the weaker and expected loyalty and obedience in return. In the same way our covenant with God is founded on his love for us – the love that brought Jesus into our world and took him to the cross. That is the greatest example of agape, revealing what love actually is. His example and the power of his Spirit then helps us fulfil our side of the covenant by showing that same love in all our relationships.

I must love thee, love must rule me, Springing up and flowing forth From a childlike heart within me, Or my work is nothing worth. Love with passion and with patience, Love with principle and fire, Love with heart and mind and utterance, Serving Christ my one desire. (SASB 672)

From the editor Lieut-Colonel Jonathan Roberts