WAR CRY
Magnificat
Documentary displays the natural wonders of Asia
‘It’s an honour to sound the Last Post’
What is The Salvation Army?
The Salvation Army is a Christian church and registered charity seeking to share the good news of Jesus and nurture committed followers of him. We also serve people without discrimination, care for creation and seek justice and reconciliation. We offer practical support and services in more than 700 centres throughout the UK. Go to salvationarmy.org.uk/find-a-church to find your nearest centre.
What is the War Cry?
The Salvation Army first published a newspaper called the War Cry in London in December 1879, and we have continued to appear every week since then. Our name refers to our battle for people’s hearts and souls as we promote the positive impact of the Christian faith and The Salvation Army’s fight for greater social justice.
Editor: Andrew Stone, Major
Deputy Editor: Philip Halcrow
Assistant Editor: Sarah Olowofoyeku
Staff
Emily Bright
Staff Writer: Claire Brine
Editorial
Graphic
Linda McTurk
Mark Knight
Graphic Designer: Natalie Adkins
Email: warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk
The Salvation Army
United Kingdom and Ireland Territory 1 Champion Park London SE5 8FJ
Tel: 0845 634 0101
Subscriptions: 01933 445445 (option 1, option 1) or email: subscriptions@satcol.org
Founders: William and Catherine Booth
International leaders: General Lyndon Buckingham and Commissioner Bronwyn Buckingham
Territorial leaders: Commissioners Jenine and Paul Main
Editor-in-Chief: Major Julian Watchorn
The Salvation Army United Kingdom and Ireland Territory ISSN 0043-0226
The Salvation Army Trust is a registered charity. The charity number in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 214779, in Scotland SC009359 and in the Republic of Ireland CHY6399.
Northampton,
This weekend millions of people will be remembering service personnel who lost their lives while carrying out their duties.
On Sunday (10 November) at 11 o’clock, two minutes of silence will be observed at war memorials across the UK. The King will be leading the nation in this time of reflection at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, accompanied by members of his family, political leaders and members of the armed forces.
Among them will be Lance Sergeant Nick Mott, a member of the Coldstream Guards Band.
‘Every year that I’ve stood on the Cenotaph parade at Whitehall, it’s a real moment for me as soon as we play “Nimrod”,’ Nick tells us in an interview this week. ‘That’s when I realise the gravity of what we’re doing.’
Reflecting on the commemorations in which he participates at this time of year, he says: ‘It’s a privilege and honour to be able to sound the Last Post, especially at high-profile occasions. I try to block everything out around me and focus on playing as well as I can.’
Doing our best for the sake of others is a worthy ambition and something that can leave a legacy. In this week’s War Cry author Sarah C Williams recalls the life of 19th-century social campaigner Josephine Butler. She describes how Josephine worked to be ‘a voice for those who had no voice’, campaigning tirelessly for the rights of women living in poverty.
While Josephine was spurred into action by the injustice she saw, Sarah explains that there was an additional motivation.
‘Her faith went right through every single dimension of her life,’ she says. ‘You can’t separate it from what we might loosely call her feminism or her social action. It’s part and parcel of the same thing.’
Through the years many Christians like Josephine have worked to help those who are suffering. They are inspired to act by their belief that God loves and values every individual and wants them to live a life full of purpose and meaning. It is a truth to remember always.
INFO INFO
Your local Salvation Army centre
What a wonderful world!
Elephants
The peaks of Asia are bursting with life
TV preview: Asia Sundays BBC1 and iPlayer
By Claire Brine
Nothing can live for long on the summit of Mount Everest, says David Attenborough, narrator of Asia
But on other peaks scattered around the world’s most mountainous continent, wildlife is flourishing – and the majestic sight of it proves breathtaking.
In the second episode of the nature series, David invites viewers to peep inside a vast limestone cave in the mountains of Thailand. The size of a 16-storey building, it is where more than 250,000 swifts can be found nesting. Nearly every crevice is occupied, and disputes for the few vacant sites are frequent. The swifts that find a home are glad of its shelter – but those that don’t are in danger. Hungry catfish are lurking in the water below.
Over in Borneo, the forested slopes of Mount Kinabalu provide fertile ground for the pitcher plant. The jug-shaped plant contains sweet nectar, which is the perfect food for the mountain tree shrew. After consuming its meal, the shrew returns the favour by leaving its droppings, which are
full of nutrients that help the plant to grow.
‘It’s an excellent arrangement from which both plant and animal can flourish,’ explains David.
Plants and animals also benefit one another in the Western Ghats of India. A family of Asian elephants are seen roaming tea plantations. They don’t eat the tea bush leaves, as the taste is too bitter. But they act as gardeners, pulling up and eating the weeds that grow in between the bushes. It’s a win-win situation: the elephants are fed and the tree plantations are able to thrive.
No nature programme is complete without providing close-up images of cute and cuddly animals – and a group of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, living in the eastern Himalayas, don’t disappoint. As mothers welcome a number of babies to the family, David explains that the secret to the primates’ survival is friendship. When temperatures drop, they huddle together to beat the cold conditions.
As viewers at home gaze upon the astonishing abundance of flora and fauna,
pictured against a never-ending backdrop of stunning beauty, it’s only natural to step into the territory of feeling awestruck. Perhaps programmes which show us the vastness of our world cause us to ponder its existence and how it came to be. Maybe we marvel at the greatness of the elephant or wonder at the intricate design of a leaf. Everywhere we look, there’s creation to be seen, heard, smelt, touched and tasted. But how did it all get here in the first place?
It’s a question that has been pondered around the world for centuries – and it’s a question that many people still answer with one word: God.
One awestruck prayer documented in the Bible reads: ‘Lord, you have made so many things! How wisely you made them all! The Earth is filled with your creatures’ (Psalm 104:24 Good News Bible).
Evidence of God’s creation is all around us. He cares for us too and is willing to help us flourish – if only we open our eyes to see it.
j TEA M TALK
Christmas creep is music to my ears
Claire
Brine
gives
her
take on a story that has caught the attention of War Cry reporters
Those who grumble that Christmas comes earlier every year are ‘actually justified’ in their complaint, reported The Guardian. An analysis of figures from major supermarkets, local news bulletins and the UK Top 40 charts reveals that ‘the slow and steady takeover of the calendar’ by Christmas-themed songs, items and adverts ‘is in fact real’.
The article – which greatly pleases a Christmas fan like me – said that in the 1990s and early 2000s ‘it was much more common for a Christmas song to only reach the Top 40 in the last two weeks of the year’, but in 2023 Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ and Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ entered the charts in the week beginning 10 November. It marked the first time two Christmas tracks made it into the charts that early.
WAR talk talk Team talk Team talk ‘ ’
The launch date of my festivities doesn’t matter
The ‘Christmas creep’ is also evident in major supermarkets, with figures this year revealing an average launch date of 7 September for a Mr Kipling six-pack of mince pies – two days earlier than last year. Having already begun my Christmas shopping some weeks ago, I have no problem with the festivities starting early. I’ve been listening to carols, working on Christmas articles for future issues of the War Cry and booking Christmassy outings with my family. I love the joy that Christmas brings – and am happy for that joy to last as long as possible.
I’ve always felt that the song ‘Christmas Can Be Every Day for You’ – not a chart-topper, but written by The Salvation Army’s pop group of the 1960s, the Joystrings – eloquently sums up the power of the Christmas story and how the birth of God’s Son, Jesus, can change our everything. The chorus says: ‘Christmas can be every day for you/ And this year be the best you ever knew./ If the love this child imparts/ Can be held within your heart,/ Then Christmas can be every day for you.’
When I consider lyrics like that, I’m reminded that the launch date of my festivities doesn’t matter. The love of God, expressed through the gift of Jesus at Christmastime, can be experienced all year round. That’s something worth celebrating.
Church saves NHS £8bn a year
The UK’s churches provide essential health-related support services that would cost billions of pounds to deliver, a new report has shown.
The House of Good: Health, produced by the National Churches Trust, lists youth groups, food banks, drug and alcohol addiction support and mental health counselling among the vital services that churches provide directly or host for people in need.
Research commissioned by the trust found that, in offering such services, churches relieve the National Health Service of an estimated £8.4 billion a year in costs.
The report, launched in the House of Commons was welcomed by the Right Rev Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London.
She said: ‘Churches and other faith groups play an extremely important role in the health and wellbeing of their communities, and in our collective health.
‘There is a church in every community, including the most deprived, and many have been serving their communities for generations. Church buildings are important and rich assets in the delivery of this work, which we must look after, and for which we give thanks.’
WAR CRYWnRLD
Podcast guest Welby talks forgiveness
The Archbishop of Canterbury highlighted the power of forgiveness when he was a guest on the podcast The Rest is Politics
‘I think what Christ brought to the world is hope and the resources to live a fully human life,’ the Most Rev Justin Welby told hosts Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, when asked what the Christian faith could offer the world.
‘With modernity and postmodernity, or ultra-modernity, we’ve lost the sense of the fallenness of human beings, which applies to every human being,’ he said. ‘So we over-demand and over-accept, and we are not prepared to forgive standards that do not come up to what we’ve demanded, which is much more than we could do.
‘There is no sense that everyone gets things wrong and is forgivable, that there is forgiveness… Christians bring the capacity from God to see fallenness and to forgive, because they’re part of that fallen nature.’
The archbishop asked: ‘How on earth do you get reconciliation if, taking a long time over it, you don’t have a sense of being able to forgive what’s been done to you?’
Slavery survivors meet MP
Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips speaks with a group of modern slavery survivors who have received support from The Salvation Army and its partner the Medaille Trust.
At a private lounge in a Salvation Army building, Major Kathy Betteridge – the director of anti-trafficking and modern slavery for The Salvation Army – introduced the women and their support workers to the minister.
The slavery survivors recounted their experiences of exploitation and recalled how the support they received had transformed their lives. The women also shared their thoughts with the MP on what could be done to protect and support other survivors of modern slavery.
nA Somerset church bell is ringing for the first time in more than 150 years – in an Australian wedding chapel, BBC News reported.
The bell, which dates from about 1550, first hung in the original 14th-century church, St James, in what is now Exmoor National Park. When the church was replaced in 1870, it was built nearby without a belltower, so its two ancient bells remained unrung until they were sold on.
One of the bells was sold to Cherie Reid, who built a wedding chapel at Kantara House in Green Point, New South Wales, some 9,500 miles away from its original church in Upton.
She said it had been difficult to source a bell in Australia, explaining that ‘most of them are for schools and there’s nothing of the calibre of the one I sourced in the UK’. Cherie now rings the bell at the end of wedding services at the chapel.
‘We’re
paying our respects to those that have given the ultimate sacrifice’
To mark Remembrance Sunday (10 November), Lance Sergeant NICK MOTT, a Coldstream Guards bandsman, explains
what it’s like to sound the Last Post and why military commemorations are so important
Interview by Emily Bright
Coldstream Guards Band member Lance Sergeant Nick Mott fell into the rhythm of musicality from an early age. His upbringing in a family of musicians played a pivotal role in his future career. Nick owned his first cornet aged 7, and by the age of 10 he had joined the young people’s band at The Salvation Army’s Kettering church.
‘Playing the cornet or the trumpet is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and the only thing I’ve been any good at,’ laughs Nick. ‘I fell into the job I do because of that.’
Nick’s interest in the Coldstream Guards Band was sparked when they performed at the Live 8 concert in London in 2005.
‘I saw these fantastic photos of the gig and thought: “Wow, I want a bit of that,”’ he says.
He spoke to a family friend who was in the Coldstream Guards Band at the time. The friend told him about all the exciting places that they played.
‘The band had a very good reputation, something I wanted to be a part of,’ says Nick. And, for almost 15 years, he has fulfilled his ambition. He is now its principal cornet player.
Nick has taken part at royal events including the Queen’s funeral and the King’s coronation.
‘I led the trumpet section of the orchestra for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the King’s coronation concerts outside Buckingham Palace and in Windsor,’ he says. ‘Those events were great fun. It was surreal to walk out on to a stage, see thousands of people and know that people were watching it at home on TV too.’
The Coldstream Guards Band has also taken him overseas.
‘I’ve gone on several concert tours of Japan,’ Nick says. ‘I’ve had the opportunity to perform as a soloist across the world, and to lead a fantastic team of
The Coldstream Guards Band take part in the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall
musicians. I get to do my hobby for my job.’
Nick explains that the role of military bands is to act as ‘the public face of the Army’, both at home and abroad. The distinctive uniform of the band has a rich heritage.
Formed in 1650, the Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regiment of the regular British Army. It guards the monarch and performs regular ceremonial duties – set to the beat of its military band, which was established in 1785.
‘The red tunic and the bearskin are iconic images of London and Britain,’ Nick says. ‘With Trooping of the Colour on TV every year, we are in the public eye. Every day, thousands of people watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. And military bands have been an important part of parades and ceremonial occasions for centuries.’
The band of the Coldstream Guards, Nick explains, are ‘primarily employed as musicians’. However, he did have to undergo basic military training when he joined the band.
‘It’s 14 weeks of gruelling physical and mental tests,’ he says. ‘Once that’s done, life in the band is slightly less strict and militarised.’
Representing the regiment is a
responsibility that Nick and his band take very seriously. At remembrance events each year, its trumpeters sound the Last Post to honour fallen members of the military.
Remembrance is something we do extremely well
‘It’s a privilege and honour to be able to sound the Last Post,’ he says, ‘especially at high-profile occasions. I try to block everything out around me and focus on playing as well as I can in front of royalty and presidents.’
This weekend the Coldstream Guards Band’s high-class musicianship will be in demand.
‘We are at the Festival of Remembrance this year at the Royal Albert Hall, which is on TV on the Saturday,’ explains Nick. ‘On Remembrance Sunday, we’re on duty at the Cenotaph parade at Whitehall. I’m sure I’ll be out on a Last Post engagement around that week too.’
Nick sees such Remembrance Sunday commemorations as an important tradition in the UK.
He says: ‘It’s something we do
extremely well, paying our respects to those people that have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Every year that I’ve stood on the Cenotaph parade at Whitehall, it’s a real moment for me as soon as we play “Nimrod”. That’s when I realise the gravity of what we’re doing.’
As well as the pride that Nick feels when playing at events, he has a strong spiritual connection to particular compositions.
‘I never feel closer to God than when listening to certain pieces of music,’ he says. ‘Music stirs something up within me, and that’s my favourite way of worshipping.
‘For instance, a brass band made up of people from guards bands did a concert recently of all Salvation Army music.
‘We played a song called “Somebody Prayed for Me” as part of a piece called “Glorifico Aeternum”. This was a huge song for me, because it made me think back to an earlier point in my life when I knew someone was praying for me. It reminded me of the power of support and community – particularly within The Salvation Army.
‘One of the best things about being a part of a church is the support you have. Someone’s always thinking of you and praying for you. That’s something that really has stuck with me.’
‘Prayer and political and the same thing’
Historian SARAH C WILLIAMS describes how the 19th-century reformer Josephine Butler fought for the welfare of outcast women
Interview by Emily Bright
‘Awoman who stretched my imagination, moved my heart, shook my intellect and challenged my everyday priorities to the core.’ That’s how historian Sarah C Williams describes 19th-century reformer Josephine Butler in her biography When Courage Calls: Josephine Butler and the Radical Pursuit of Justice for Women. It’s easy to see why.
Josephine’s attitudes on intellectual and spiritual equality, shared by her husband George, were revolutionary. She relentlessly campaigned for the rights of women and championed the welfare of prostitutes, even rescuing and inviting a former sex worker into her home, which flew in the face of what was culturally acceptable for a middle-class Englishwoman. She worked hard to end child prostitution and legislation that punished women prostitutes in humiliating ways.
Sarah explains that, at her core, Josephine had a passion for prayer, which acted as the engine room for everything she achieved.
‘Her faith went right through every single dimension of her life,’ she tells me ‘You can’t separate it from what we might loosely call her feminism or her social action. It’s part and parcel of the same thing. She saw faith as an action of God in the world, but also as the action of human beings as they relate to one another –which encompasses the Church, but is bigger than the Church.’
Josephine was never afraid to express her views on the theological or social issues of her day. In their early married life, the Butlers lived in Oxford and often hosted artists and intellectuals who would debate everything from educational and social reform to biblical interpretation.
The city of Oxford would not only shape her thinking, but also spark her lifelong vocation: campaigning for the rights of women cast out by society. While living there she was made aware that there were prostitutes working in the heart of the city. She realised that she was surrounded by
Sarah C Williams
Josephine Butler
ALAMY
action were one
men who were posing as morally superior during the day and consorting with prostitutes at night. Josephine became frustrated by their hypocrisy.
However, other problems preoccupied her. In 1856 her health deteriorated as she struggled with fevers, chills and a form of complex depression, which prompted the family to relocate to Cheltenham.
By 1864 Josephine was a mother of four and happily settled in domestic life. But that year, the family was torn apart by tragedy. The youngest daughter, Eva, had a fatal accident.
‘It was a traumatic death, falling 40 feet from the bannisters down on to the tiled floor below,’ says Sarah. ‘Josephine never got over that. The death of Eva redirected her life. The family moved up to Liverpool, and Josephine became involved with women on the city’s streets and with the Brownlow workhouse.
‘It also shifted her existentially. She started to understand herself as both a mother and a voice for those who had no voice themselves. This was core to her sense of vocation and her identity. She had compassion before, but Eva’s death catalysed her into her direct engagement with women on the streets.’
She aligned herself with outcast women
Josephine’s engagement with outcast women was also driven by her Christian beliefs.
‘At the heart of her faith was the idea that there is no such thing as the fallen woman, but actually all human beings stand before Jesus in need of his forgiveness,’ says Sarah. ‘There is no
special category of sin that marks one group out from any other. Everybody is in need of Jesus’ salvation.
‘She talked about outcast women, and aligned herself with them. She saw Jesus not just as somebody who welcomed the outcast, but crucially as someone who became the outcast. That was how she thought humanity was meant to relate to one another.’
Josephine was inspired by reading the Bible.
‘She took her reference point in how she treated women from the way that Jesus engaged with them, like the story of how he talked to the Samaritan woman at the well,’ says Sarah. ‘There’s also an incredible story of when another woman breaks into Simon the Pharisee’s home
Turn to page 10 f
Brownlow Hill workhouse
From page 9
and anoints Jesus’ feet with oil and then kisses his feet.’
In both instances, Jesus’ response was one of compassion.
‘These stories of women’s encounters with Jesus in the Bible became the defining way in which Josephine understood how Christians need to relate to one another, but in particular to women. Jesus, in that sense, was her liberator.’
Josephine quickly found a focus for her campaigning on behalf of these outcast women: unjust legislation known as the Contagious Diseases Acts. Legally, prostitutes underwent forced medical examinations – which became known as steel rape – to ensure that they weren’t carrying any venereal disease. If they were, the women were incarcerated until another invasive medical examination pronounced them clean. There was no such medical examination for the male clients, who could continue to be sexually promiscuous without consequence.
‘For Josephine,’ explains Sarah, ‘the Contagious Diseases Acts – which were brought in during the course of the 1860s – were a concrete example of a deep injustice, of a sexual double standard that ran like a fault line through the whole of Victorian society.
‘Those acts allowed men to avail themselves of the services of prostitutes without any compromise to their reputation and left the women themselves carrying full responsibility in terms of the effects on their body with regard to venereal disease.
‘Hence, from the late 1860s through to the mid-1880s, with this single-minded focus and determination, Josephine worked consistently to get those acts off the statute books. As she did so, momentum grew. Women from almost every walk of life began to cast light on injustices that affected them.’
Narrowing the target for feminist action was Josephine Butler’s ‘political genius’, says Sarah.
‘Widespread injustice towards women
was like this amorphous cloud. You couldn’t name it. You couldn’t see it. It was like a hidden foe. But by focusing all her energy on the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts it could become this focal point for galvanising and mobilising women across the board to begin to fight against injustice.’
Her imagination was saturated in Scripture
While Josephine galvanised support through campaigning and public speaking, George anchored the home, working and looking after the children – in itself a model of the very gender equality she was fighting for.
Whereas some viewed fighting for women’s rights as a political battle, Josephine saw it as a spiritual one. She invited people from all denominations to prayer meetings designed to defeat the Contagious Diseases Acts.
‘Prayer was the way in which she engaged first,’ says Sarah. ‘Prayer and
political action were one and the same thing for Josephine Butler. For her, prayer was personal, it was a deeply intimate time with God. She understood that as the core of her relationship with Jesus.’
Another core part of Josephine’s faith, Sarah adds, was the Bible.
‘Her imagination was saturated in Scripture. It’s the language of her heart. It’s through Scripture that she interprets the events that are taking place around her. That emboldens her like nothing else.’
Thanks to her openness to other denominations, Josephine quickly found a firm ally in one particular organisation, which at that time was finding its feet.
‘It’s impossible to talk about Butler without talking about The Salvation Army,’ says Sarah. ‘For her, they were the community of people who were engaging most effectively with those on the margins of society. She held them up as the example of good practice when it came to social engagement, as well as spiritual engagement.
‘The Salvation Army was involved in all
Catherine Booth, a Salvation Army founder who became a friend
the petitions she presented in parliament, and Josephine supported petitions that were made by the church and charity. There was this mutual engagement with one another.’
Sarah says that Josephine developed close relationships with members of The Salvation Army.
‘She was a friend of one of the founders, Catherine Booth. They collaborated on absolutely everything. They supported one another’s work. They were theologically of one mind. They read the Bible in similar ways. They understood prayer in similar ways.
‘She was also close friends with Florence and Katie Booth, the daughters-in-law of Catherine. In much of the practical action and in many of the communities of prayer, The Salvation Army were extraordinarily well represented.’
Josephine’s work wasn’t just in the public sphere. It began at home. In 1867, the Butlers rescued Mary Lomax from Brownlow workhouse.
As a 15-year-old, while working as an under-maid in a middle-class home, Mary had been raped by the gentleman of the house. When she became pregnant, she was sent away and, in her desperation, became a prostitute in return for accommodation in a brothel. Ill with consumption, she was thrown out on to the streets and ended up at the workhouse, where she tried to kill herself.
On discovering the woman’s plight, Josephine invited Mary to live with her and her family. She stayed with the Butlers – where she became a passionate follower of Jesus – until she died three months later.
Their lodger drew huge controversy.
‘It was utterly scandalous,’ says Sarah. ‘It wasn’t unusual for middle-class women to visit people in workhouses. But it was extremely unusual for a middle-class woman to make friends with those people, treat them as her equals, and then to bring women who had been on the streets, or indeed were still on the streets, back into her own home.’
Wanting to help more people like Mary, George and Josephine decided to rent an entire house close to their own and run it as a refuge for women, which provided work, through a modest envelope factory, as well as times of prayer and worship. Setting up the House of Rest, as it was called, was a bold move.
Sarah explains: ‘The House of Rest, was, in many respects, an extension of the Butlers’ home and, in setting up this little envelope factory in the house, Josephine was making a strong statement about the need for allowing women to be part of the community and become economically self-sufficient.’
Josephine continued campaigning for women’s rights, including in the area of education. She would see significant legislative changes during her lifetime. In 1885 the age of consent was raised to 16 years old and in 1886 the Contagious Diseases Acts were repealed.
George was by her side every step of the way, and Sarah says that the spiritual and emotional support they gave each other within the marriage spurred them both on.
‘George and Josephine were one of the great love stories of the 19th century,’ she says. ‘There’s this sense of deep companionship, of a belief in equality that wasn’t a propositional belief. It was a deeply internalised vision of what it means to be male and female, with each supporting the other, and mutually affirming one another as equal in who they were in Christ.’ l
When Courage Calls: Josephine Butler and the Radical Pursuit of Justice for Women is published by Hodder & Stoughton
ALAMY
Josephine Butler
The War Cry invites readers to send in requests for prayer, including the first names of individuals and details of their circumstances, for publication. Send your Prayerlink requests to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk or to War Cry, 1 Champion Park, London SE5 8FJ. Mark your correspondence ‘Confidential’.
jThere is no set formula to becoming a Christian, but many people have found saying this prayer to be a helpful first step to a relationship with God Becoming a Christian
Lord Jesus Christ,
I am truly sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. Please forgive me. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong.
Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free.
Thank you that you offer me forgiveness and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me for ever.
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen
Eating fruit and vegetables is good for us – and, according to the Bible, a healthy inner life also includes fruit. In this series Peter Mylechreest takes his pick of nine life-enhancing qualities called ‘the fruit of the Spirit’
Bert worked in a large builders’ merchant warehouse, among some pretty coarse blokes. Over the years his Christian beliefs made him the target of caustic comments, ridicule and even open opposition. Yet when one worker had trouble at home, he confided in Bert and asked him to pray for him.
Bert’s unrelenting loyalty to Christ had shone through. He had displayed the sort of faithfulness that one early Christian teacher, Paul, described as ‘the fruit of the Spirit’.
Everyone exercises faith in something every day, even if it is simply that the chair they sit on won’t collapse or that the brakes on their car will work. Delivering and receiving goods ‘in good faith’ is an essential part of the world of business. Without trust, the financial and economic structure of a country would fall apart.
Having faith in people can lead to mutual relationships. However, faith and faithfulness, although related, are not the same. Faithfulness in a Christian is about how they choose to behave long-term because of their commitment to God, especially during trying times when it can be hard to maintain principles and remain obedient to him.
However, God is always faithful, and his Spirit can help Christians to develop a desire for authenticity, regardless of their feelings of failure or frustration from time to time. The awesome presence of God’s Spirit invigorates, fortifies and re-establishes faith in God and in people’s potential.
The more that Christians willingly and unswervingly co-operate with God’s Spirit within them, the more reliable and faithful they become. Faithfulness is good to grow.
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Or email your name and postal address to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk
Extract from Why Jesus? by Nicky Gumbel published by Alpha International, 2011. Used by kind permission of Alpha International
QUICK QUIZ
Who starred as Nasa pilot Cooper in the 2014 sci-fi film Interstellar?
Who won Team GB’s first Olympic gold medal in trampolining at the Paris Games this year?
What is the name for the black and white pattern that can direct people to websites from their smartphones?
Who is the head of state in the UK?
Who wrote the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge?
Martin Sheen played fictional US president Josiah Bartlet in which TV drama series about the White House?
Robert Robinson (centre) with team captains Frank Muir and Patrick Campbell
CALL AGAIN
Show’s rerun means more word games
TV feature: Call My Bluff BBC iPlayer
By Philip Halcrow
The feelings experienced by some viewers when they come across the BBC’s current reruns of Call My Bluff can be summed up by the word ‘senshaw’ – that is: the joy of rediscovering something from years ago.
Except that they can’t be – because ‘senshaw’, as revealed in one 1974 episode, is not anything to do with a joyful rediscovery but is instead a gauze-like silk fabric.
Nevertheless, it is true that people have again been tuning into the panel show where Robert Robinson serves as ‘referee’ between two teams, one captained by comedy writer Frank Muir and the other by newspaper columnist Patrick Campbell. After listening as the opposing team offer three possible definitions of an obscure word from the Oxford English Dictionary, the panellists have to decide which is correct. All is revealed when those doing the defining display cards that reveal whether their definition was ‘True’ or ‘Bluff’.
But, while waiting to see whether actor Peter Sallis was right to decide that ‘sunck’ was a Cossack stove (it was a bluff) or whether Bond girl Madeline Smith was correct to believe that ‘ternar’ was a low-ranked student at the University of St Andrews (true), today’s viewers may find the reruns raising questions about the wider world as well as the words.
What was society like back then when Patrick Campbell could become a team captain with a stammer, even though people who stammer can still be made to feel awkward today? What sensitivities were causing previously acceptable conversational language to be questioned on the programme? What social changes can be detected behind Frank Muir’s introduction of one of his team, Sheila Tracy, as Radio 4’s ‘first full-time lady newsreader’? And what unrest and upheavals were being reported in the Nine O’Clock News, broadcast on the same evenings as this light entertainment?
The world was going through changes. It needed to change. People were getting things right. But, almost by definition, humanity was also getting things wrong, and still is.
Thankfully, though, there is such a thing as ‘kenosis’ – a word meaning that Jesus was willing to let go of power to bring to humanity God’s offers of forgiveness for its past mistakes and hope for the future. True.
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ACROSS
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CROSSWORD
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Lettuce (3)
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Look up, down, forwards, backwards and diagonally on the grid to find these words associated with bravery
Pork with apples and celery
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
750g potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks
2tsp vegetable oil
1 red apple, cored and cut into 1cm-thick slices
½ tsp caster sugar
400g pork tenderloin fillet, cut into chunks and fat trimmed
2tsp dried mixed herbs
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 celery sticks, thinly sliced
150ml reduced-salt vegetable stock
150ml unsweetened apple juice
Ground black pepper
4tbsp 1 per cent fat milk
INGREDIENTS
150g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
50g caster sugar
100ml semiskimmed milk
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract (optional)
40g lower-fat spread, melted
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 banana, mashed
Cook the potatoes in simmering water for 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, heat 1tsp oil in a large non-stick frying pan and cook the apple slices over a medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Add the sugar and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until browned. Remove the apples from the pan and set aside. Wipe the pan with kitchen paper.
Roll the pieces of pork in the dried mixed herbs. Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan and cook the pork over a medium heat for a few minutes to brown.
Add the onion and celery, then pour in the stock and apple juice. Leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with pepper.
Mash the potatoes and beat in the milk, then serve with the pork, apples and some vegetables.
Mini apple and banana muffins
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6.
Line a 12-hole bun tray with paper cases.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl, then stir in the sugar. Whisk the milk, egg, vanilla extract (if using) and melted spread together in a jug, then pour into the mixing bowl. Add the apple and banana. Stir until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the muffins have risen and turned golden. Carefully remove the muffins in their paper cases from the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack before serving.
GREATER
LOVE HAS NO ONE THAN THIS: TO LAY DOWN ONE’S LIFE FOR
ONE’S FRIENDS
WAR CRY