War Cry 26 June 2021

Faith is a funny business for clowning priest

WAR CRY

26 June 2021 50p

Thank you for the music 1,000 weeks on the charts is the name of the game for Abba

Exploring the relationship between religions

The Salvation Army is a Christian church and registered charity providing services in the community, particularly to those who are vulnerable and marginalised. Motivated by our Christian faith, we offer practical support and services in more than 700 centres throughout the UK to all who need them, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. To find your nearest centre visit salvationarmy.org.uk/find-a-church

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.

WAR CRY Issue No 7531

Editor: Andrew Stone, Major Deputy Editor: Philip Halcrow Production Editor: Ivan Radford Assistant Editor: Sarah Olowofoyeku Staff Writer: Emily Bright Staff Writer: Claire Brine Editorial Assistant: Linda McTurk Graphic Designer: Rodney Kingston Graphic Designer: Mark Knight Email: warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk The Salvation Army UK Territory with the Republic of Ireland 101 Newington Causeway London SE1 6BN Tel: 0845 634 0101 Helpline: 020 7367 4888 Subscriptions: 01933 445445 (option 1, option 1) or email: subscriptions@satcol.org Founder: William Booth General: Brian Peddle Territorial Commander: Commissioner Anthony Cotterill Editor-in-Chief: Major Mal Davies Published weekly by The Salvation Army © The Salvation Army United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland 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.

Printed by Walstead Roche Ltd, St Austell, on sustainably sourced paper

Your local Salvation Army centre

INFO 2 • WAR CRY • 26 June 2021

EDITOR From the editor’s desk

THE restrictions we have experienced since March 2020 have had an impact on people’s behaviour. We have become aware of the need to give others space in public places. We have become accustomed to wearing masks and washing our hands more frequently.

Other changes came about through people adapting to changes in lifestyle. For example, according to the Publishers Association, ‘many people rediscovered their love of reading last year’.

In this week’s War Cry, we speak to the authors of three new books.

In Chosen, Giles Fraser describes some of the struggles he experienced as he went through a ‘crisis of identity’ and how that improved his understanding of the relationship between Jews and Christians.

In Miles to Go Before I Sleep, Claire Gilbert shares a moving collection of letters that reveal her feelings as she underwent chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant for incurable cancer.

Both authors are Christians and both turned to their faith during difficult periods. In her interview, Claire describes how she ‘clung on to God’ during her ‘awful times’.

But God is not just for times of crisis and disaster. Christians believe that he is involved in every aspect of their lives – including times of fun. That is reflected in Patrick Forbes’s book A Roomful of Elephants.

Patrick is an ordained minister of religion, and for more than 40 years his ministry of spreading the Christian message included performances as a clown.

‘My faith informs my humour, and my humour informs what I think about my faith,’ he tells us, adding: ‘Humour helps stories to happen and faith to be understood.’

Whether we are going through a time of great joy or deep sorrow, it is good to understand that we can invite God to be with us and that he wants to share in all our experiences.

FEATURES

CONTENTS

What is The Salvation Army?

3

So long

Abba about to celebrate 1,000 weeks on the

album chart

5

‘My cancer is not a source of bitterness’

Author on living with an incurable illness

8

Not just clowning around

Priest sees the funny side of faith

10 Who did I think I was?

Clergyman’s discoveries in a crisis of identity

REGULARS

4

War Cry World

12

Team Talk

13

Faces of Faith

14

Puzzles

15

War Cry Kitchen

5

10

Front-page picture: UNITED ARCHIVES GMBH/ALAMY

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KEYSTONE PRESS/ALAMY

FEATURE Björn, Anni-Frid, Agnetha and Benny look likely to make chart history

GOOD AS GOLD As Abba’s greatest hits compilation nears a milestone, Philip Halcrow tracks how their success began with a song about a man from The Salvation Army

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STEPHEN R JOHNSON/ALAMY

AMMA Mia! If Abba’s Gold is still in the album chart when it is announced next Friday (2 July), it will become the first title to clock up 1,000 weeks.

The greatest hits compilation, which includes their nine No 1 singles – among them ‘Waterloo’, ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘Super Trouper’ – first charted in 1992.

Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, tells the War Cry that, in terms of longevity, ‘the only albums that come close are Queen’s Greatest Hits and Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Legend. But they remain many weeks behind.

‘To rack up 1,000 weeks on the Official Albums Chart, a near 20 years of chart presence, is quite remarkable,’ he says. ‘It highlights not only Abba’s incredible popularity, but just how

closely they have connected with a succession of new generations.’

It seems Abba are about to make pop history. Who knew what lay waiting down the line when – as the history book on the shelf records – the four members first recorded together on the song ‘Hej Gamle Man!’: a song about a man from The Salvation Army.

‘Hello Old Man!’, released under the names of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson and featuring vocals from Agnetha and Anni-Frid, was a hit in Sweden.

Major Bert Åberg not only knows the song well but, at the time of its release, also witnessed the four future members of Abba sing it at a Salvation Army youth event in Gothenburg in 1971.

Translating the ‘Gold’ has accumulated lyrics, he explains almost 1,000 weeks on chart that they paint a picture of a bystander looking on at a Salvation Army member who is in the long tradition of War Cry sellers and collectors – ‘a friendly old man’ who stands ‘in the city square every day’. Sensing that the Salvation Army member seems to have something

‘that is so hard for us to understand’, the singer wonders if the man could ‘show us the way to walk in order to reach the goal of our lives’.

Bert says: ‘It is said that the role model for the song was a Salvationist in Västervik, Björn’s home town, who was there selling the War Cry and collecting every day, so he became like an icon. Björn is reflecting over why the man was standing there and what his message was.

‘In the song it seems that the singer has an affection for the old man, and that the man had a message that spoke to him. I think the song was pretty much a tribute to Christian people and Salvation Army people who are there in all weathers.’

In the years that followed – in their hits and lesser-known tracks – Abba sang about joys, worries, regrets and human failings, acknowledging that ‘man is a fool’ with ‘feet of clay’.

But the Christian message that The Salvation Army – and every War Cry round the world – has always tried to convey is one that offers guidance for our walk through life. It talks of forgiveness for our failures and hope for the future. It echoes the thoughts of one song in the Bible which says that ‘the words of the Lord are flawless … like gold’ (Psalm 12:6 New International Version).

It talks of the love of God for us that goes on and on and on.

The singer wonders if the man could ‘show us the way’

26 June 2021 • WAR CRY • 3

REUTERS/ALAMY

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JOE BIDEN attended a church service while visiting Cornwall for the G7 summit, ITV News reports.

The US President and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, visited the Sacred Heart and St Ia Catholic Church in St Ives and sat in a pew near the back of the building.

At the end of the church service, the president spoke to a few members of the congregation and was reported to have made a substantial donation, with dollar bills making up the majority of the collection.

HAILEY BIEBER revealed that the Christian faith is ‘the biggest thing’ in her relationship with her husband, singer Justin Bieber.

Speaking with actress Yvonne Orji in the YouTube series A Conversation With, Hailey described the importance of faith in her marriage, saying: ‘It’s what we believe in. If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t even be here. We wouldn’t even be together.’

Yvonne – who stars in the US TV comedy series Insecure – also discussed with Hailey the challenges of having a faith in the public eye. Yvonne said: ‘I don’t think fun and faith should be oxymorons. You should be able to have both.’

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A SALVATION Army charity shop that temporarily relocated during lockdown raised more than £10,000 in just eight weeks. The money will go towards the church and charity’s work to help struggling families, people who sleep rough and isolated older people.

The shop moved into Sudbury Salvation Army’s church building when the congregation could not carry out its usual community activities because of the government’s Covid-19 restrictions. As activities restart in the church hall, the charity shop is returning to its old premises, ready to welcome even more customers.

Interfaith match is all-out success A TEAM from the Blackburn Diocese of the Church of England beat a side featuring members from Lancashire Council of Mosques by just two runs in the third interfaith cricket match at New Longton Cricket Club. It is the first time that the church team have won the annual event.

The defeated team featured the leader of Burnley Council, Councillor Afrasiab Anwar, who said: ‘Sport is and always has been a great way to bring communities together.

‘The result is not important.

What matters is the mutual respect,

4 • WAR CRY • 27 26 February June 20212021 8

conversations and lasting friendships.

My bowling figures were the icing on the cake!’

Some of the game was umpired by the Bishop of Burnley, the Right Rev Philip North, who said: ‘The love, friendship and mutual support embodied in the match tangibly shows us that, whatever our background and faith, we can work together to achieve great things while enjoying each other’s company. That’s a message that is so important to get across just now, particularly after the very difficult year we have all experienced.’

Do you have a story to share? a warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk @TheWarCryUK TheWarCryUK

B salvationarmy.org.uk/warcry

INTERVIEW

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Writing about death brought lifelong hope At the age of 54, CLAIRE GILBERT discovered that she had incurable cancer. To help her process the diagnosis and cope with long-term medical treatment, she wrote letters to her loved ones.

She tells Claire Brine why honestly expressing her feelings about life while confronting the possibility of death proved a liberating experience

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HEN Claire Gilbert was diagnosed with myeloma, an incurable cancer of the blood, she started writing letters to her siblings and closest friends in an attempt to process her feelings about her illness.

‘I didn’t need people to respond to me, but I asked if they would do me the honour of reading my completely unedited, unvarnished, vulnerable words,’ says Claire, a medical ethics expert.

‘Writing is my best way of communicating, and the letters gave me loving listeners.

I found it helpful to describe my experiences because I was able to find humour in ghastly things, such as my exchanges with the poor young doctor who had to do my bone marrow biopsy.

I was able to pour my heart out to my beloved friends who understood me.’

Earlier this year, Claire’s letters were published as a book, Miles to Go Before I Sleep. The opening pages document what happened in March 2019, when she was told that she had terminal cancer.

The letters that follow express her feelings as she undergoes chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant – and faces up to her mortality.

‘When I found out that I had cancer, I was reeling,’ Claire tells me. ‘I felt as though I had been completely thrown off balance. When I tried to have a conversation with someone or read a newspaper article, I couldn’t concentrate. I remember looking at my eyes in the mirror, trying to see if I had the strength within me to face all this.’

As Claire prepared herself mentally for her first round of chemotherapy, she told a friend that she was ‘clumsily returning to God’.

‘God has never been absent from me, but my

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Claire Gilbert 26 June 2021 • WAR CRY • 5

From page 5 understanding of him has fluctuated over the years,’ she says. ‘Spirituality is the most important thing in my life – but it’s a wrestle. I think I’m not good enough, and I wonder how God could love me as much as I love him when I’m just not worthy of it. I don’t remember God enough. I’m prone to look to my own strength.

‘But in facing cancer, there was a cry of my soul, wanting to be saved. That’s when the words of Julian of Norwich became my companion. In the 14th century, she desired to feel Christ’s pain on the cross within her own body, because she wanted to grow closer to him. I felt as though I was about to embark on a Julian experience of my own, and I wanted to make the most of it. I called it extreme sport for the soul.’

Claire underwent four months of chemotherapy, followed by a stem-cell transplant, followed by 18 months of maintenance chemotherapy that is now coming to an end.

‘The worst moments have been when I’ve felt physically incapable of doing anything,’ she says. ‘It used to be unthinkable for me to spend a day without having achieved something. But there have been days when cancer treatment has made me so ill that I’ve been useless.

‘In those awful times, I clung on to God. I remembered that, whatever pain I was going through, so had his Son, Jesus. And that

6 • WAR CRY • 26 June 2021

INTERVIEW

thought brought me comfort and peace.’

In spite of her suffering, Claire found that having cancer delivered some surprising moments of joy.

‘When my hair started falling out, it was horrifying,’ she says. ‘It felt awful. But I looked at myself in the mirror and decided to shave my head. It signified a big moment for me, because I was walking towards my cancer rather than shrinking away from it.

‘I went to a barber’s and explained my situation. Then the barber sat me down and tenderly started to shave my hair off. This ministering angel took such great care with me. When he’d finished and I looked at my reflection in the mirror, it was as though all my armour

had been removed. Here I was – revealed – seeing myself as God sees me. It was a moment of self-acceptance. Suddenly, losing my hair became the biggest blessing.’

Another life lesson that Claire learnt was that facing up to death can be liberating.

‘When I received my diagnosis, I kept thinking that I’d deal with my cancer and get on with everything else in my life,’ she says. ‘Slowly it dawned on me that nothing would ever be the same again.

As this realisation came, there was shock, terror and tears, but then I let the waves pass over me and sat with the reality, making myself porous to it. OK, I have

My cancer should not be a source of bitterness

maybe ten years to live. Now what?

‘I developed this absolute determination that my cancer should not be a source of bitterness but – if God granted it to me – a source of joy. My prayer isn’t that my cancer goes away or that I beat it. What matters to me, more than anything, is that I don’t become bitter about it. None of us knows when we are going to die, so for Heaven’s sake we need to find the joy and love in life and be open to it.’

In her letters to friends and family, Claire wrote openly about her thoughts on death and what she wanted to achieve in her remaining time.

‘I used to think that if I knew when I was going to die, I’d want to hurry everything up so that I could achieve all the things I wanted,’ she says. ‘But, interestingly, my experience was the opposite. I began to pace myself, to do the things that really mattered to me and to relish them.

‘When I consider what happens after we die, I think it’s going to be a fantastic surprise. I have no idea what it will be. But one thing I do feel convicted about is that there will be love. Love is the meaning.’

As Claire reflects on how much her life has changed over the past two years and considers the future, she feels thankful to God for how her understanding of faith has deepened through suffering.

‘I used to try to imagine God and have a picture of him in my mind as I talked to him,’ she says. ‘But now when I pray, I try to listen more rather than tell God what I think he needs to tell me. I suppose I have less of a sense of what God is like, but I’m much more open to learning, hearing and responding. I feel as though, through having cancer, God is changing me – and it’s exciting to find out what for.’ l Miles to Go Before I Sleep is published by Hodder & Stoughton 26 June 2021 • WAR CRY • 7

IN A JE ST CAU Priest PATRICK FORBES tells Emily Bright why he enjoys playing the fool

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PANTOMINE horse walks into the grounds of Lambeth Palace and is blessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This isn’t a set-up for a joke, but rather the real-life experience of the Rev Patrick Forbes.

Dressed in the horse’s head, he had teamed up with a colleague to raise funds for the Children’s Society while working for the Church of England’s communications team in Westminster in the 1990s.

Patrick explains the logistical challenges posed by cantering alongside the Thames towards the archbishop’s workplace.

‘The day before, I got anxious about the traffic, and rang the press officer at Scotland Yard to ask whether, given the traffic on the Embankment and across Lambeth Bridge, they could find us a police horse escort.

‘They rang back an hour later and told me that I would have one. However, they warned me to be on my best behaviour. Although the unit dealt with

riots, traffic jams and terrorist outbreaks, nothing in the horse’s training would help it to understand how to deal with a pantomime horse.

‘The next morning, we were escorted all the way to Lambeth Palace, which was great. And when we got there, I heard the Most Rev George Carey say: “I don’t know whether to confirm you or ordain you, so maybe I’d better just bless you.”’

Having pocketed about £400 in donations from the Church of England’s surrounding offices, the two fundraisers trotted home gleefully.

Patrick’s other unconventional life experiences are recorded in his new book, A Roomful of Elephants. His colourful career has included manning

Patrick dressed as a pantomime horse with his mounted police escort 8 • WAR CRY • 26 June 2021

Patrick Forbes trawlers, providing nursing assistance in a mental health hospital and working as a technical engineer in a recording studio.

He later began broadcasting his faith on Radio 4’s Priestland’s Progress and Radio 2’s Pause for Thought, while juggling his vocation as a priest. But it was his clowning around with Holy Fools UK, the performance group that he founded in 1979, that caught many people’s attention.

It all began with a clergy course, which required him to write a 10,000-word thesis on a theological subject of interest. Patrick’s laidback approach to the project led to a tense meeting with his tutor.

He recalls: ‘In the long silence, I suddenly heard myself say, “I’ve always wanted to research the connections between clowns, fools and the gospel.” I had never consciously thought that in my life. But I went for it and talked to

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INTERVIEW LIBRARY PICTURE POSED BY MODEL

clown trainers and people in pantomime.

‘Later I was invited to give a lecture at Washington University about the paper I’d written. In America at the time, they had some 3,000 clown ministry groups going into hospitals and old people’s homes to perform mime, puppet, dance and storytelling.

‘When I came back, I talked to my friend Roly Bain, who was a clown. We thought we should do something similar over here. So in 1983 we had a weekend clown course at St James’s Church, Piccadilly, and Holy Fools UK was born out of that. Since then, we’ve been into prisons, hospitals and wherever anyone’s mad enough to ask us.’

Holy Fools comprises about 50 individuals, based across the UK, who perform a repertoire that spans poetry, drama, circus skills and puppetry.

As a man of faith, Patrick believes that Christianity and comedy can go hand in hand.

‘My faith informs my humour, and my

humour informs what I think about my faith. Comedy has kept me going, and it’s so much a part of who I am.’

He delivers the punchline of what his Christian faith means to him.

‘Distilled down, it’s God saying to people: “I love you more than you could possibly imagine. If you want to know what love is like, look at my Son Jesus.

And follow what he says and does. Love God and love your neighbour as yourself.

The Holy Spirit will help you.”

‘I also believe if you can find those things that speak of God and find ways to express them, you’re doing the best you possibly can.’

For Patrick, that means expressing his faith through comedy. He adds that clowning around can effectively convey human experience and help us to make sense of our own suffering.

‘For me, the clown has represented Everyman. His car blows up, people throw

Humour enables people to deal with life

whitewash at him, he has terrible falls off ladders, but he always gets up.’

Patrick cites one particularly memorable performance at Wandsworth prison as an example.

‘While improvising, I picked up a bucket and walked across the prison chapel with it. The prisoners then all started laughing.

‘The more I played with the bucket, the more they laughed. Later, I asked my fellow fools why, and they said: “You were helping them to laugh at something which is absolutely awful: slopping out their toilet waste. And if they can laugh at it, then it loses its power over them.”

‘Humour helps stories to happen and faith to be understood. It enables people to deal with life.’ l A Roomful of Elephants is published

by Bauhan

26 June 2021 • WAR CRY • 9

Who do you think you are?

Ten years ago, GILES FRASER made headlines when he resigned at the forced removal of the Occupy protest camp from outside St Paul’s Cathedral. He tells Philip Halcrow about the identity crisis that followed – and how learning about a family figure from the past gave him a new sense of belonging

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JANINE WIEDEL PHOTOLIBRARY/ALAMY

FTER the protesters were removed from outside St Paul’s Cathedral, the priest who made his own protest by resigning from his post went through dark times.

In October 2011, as the financial crisis seemed to flag up injustices, protest movement Occupy attempted to set up camp outside the London Stock Exchange, but, met with an injunction and security, pitched up outside neighbouring St Paul’s. When the cathedral eventually agreed with the City authorities that the protesters should be evicted, Canon Giles Fraser resigned. He could not endorse a church’s involvement in the potentially

10 • WAR CRY • 26 June 2021

violent removal of protesters who were peacefully highlighting a moral issue.

The cathedral had been divided over what to do. The press were divided on its decision and on Giles’s resignation. And Giles himself felt divided – from old friends and from something he could not at first identify.

He certainly had been unhappy with the way the cathedral had handled the protest.

‘Part of my anxiety was that it was a management-type response of PR people and lawyers,’ says Giles, who now serves as rector of St Mary’s Church, Newington, a couple of miles south across the Thames

from St Paul’s. ‘We didn’t develop a distinctly theological voice to speak into those concerns of economic justice.’

In Chosen, his new book about his life after Occupy, he admits that he drank too much. His marriage fell apart. He had suicidal thoughts.

‘I was struggling, and people presumed it was with questions connected with Occupy,’ he tells me. ‘But in a way, Occupy had just created the conditions for me to have a crisis, which was actually a crisis of identity. It was what happened in Liverpool that really brought me to my knees.’

Visiting the city, Giles called into a synagogue where, from 1891 to 1932, his greatuncle had been the minister. When he saw a portrait of Samuel, he was overcome.

‘Something I didn’t really know about myself just broke in,’ he says.

He had a sense of being between worlds.

Suddenly, the book that he had begun writing ‘just to distract myself from being so miserable’ became ‘a book about my family history but also about the relationship between Christianity and Judaism’.

While looking into his family’s past, he also tried to make sense of the developments and interactions of the two faiths.

‘From a Jewish perspective, Christianity seems a curious hybrid of Greek and Jewish The Occupy movement set up camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral in 2011

INTERVIEW

ways of thinking,’ he says. ‘One of the great cultural antagonisms of the West is between Judaism and Christianity, whose anti-Judaism has come out in anti-Semitism.

‘In the 20th century, the Church did begin to deal with anti-Semitism, but I think we still have the puzzle of what to do with the very Jewishness of Jesus. It’s a curious business – we have a faith whose founder was not a member of the religion that he apparently founded.

‘It’s difficult to explain how within two or three hundred years of Christ dying as “King of the Jews”, the Church became desperate to distance Christianity from Judaism – which would have worldhistorical consequences.’

Chosen explores a variety of viewpoints on various subjects through the academic and the personal. It highlights how the Dean of St Paul’s, while disagreeing with him at the time of Occupy, wanted to make sure Giles could voice his opinion.

Examining Judaism and Christianity, Giles also describes his experience of falling in love with a Jewish woman.

‘Reconciliation is too easy a word sometimes,’ he tells me. ‘It doesn’t mean that all things come into one. It just means that they are related to each other in a less antagonistic, more fruitful way. I know I have to live like that because my wife is Jewish, and my children are both Jewish and Christian – they live on that fault line between the two great religions.

‘You have to work your way through your history and see where you come from. Then you have to acknowledge differences joyfully. But I’m not sure I’ve found a way where you can fix it and come to a position where differences dissolve – and I’m not sure I would even want to do that.’

Giles may be wary of trying to ‘fix’ divisions or differences, but there is one Christian perspective with which he has long been preoccupied.

‘We humans are not selffixers,’ he says. ‘The message of original sin is about our brokenness and inability to fix ourselves. Instead, we are dependent upon something that lies outside of ourselves.

‘The book’s title is deliberately ambiguous. It could refer to being chosen

by God and to Jews as the chosen people, but it is also about Giles Fraser

being chosen by someone who loves me, my wife. That sense of being chosen is the joy of grace as something that is freely given by God. ‘Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, talks about prayer being like sunbathing: you seek out the light and then you lie in it. It’s a remarkably passive image of what faith involves. It’s about finding the light and staying in the light. And the light for me is now here.’

You have to acknowledge differences joyfully

l Chosen is published

by Allen Lane

26 June 2021 • WAR CRY • 11

EXPLORE

Prayerlink 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, 101 Newington Causeway, Lon­don SE1 6BN. Mark your correspondence ‘Confidential’.

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Becoming a Christian

There 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

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.

Team talk TEAM TALK

talk ‘ ’ It’s easy being green

Emily Bright gives her take on a story catching the attention of War Cry reporters

RADIO 2 breakfast show host Zoe Ball is buzzing about a new initiative, the Big Bee Challenge. Launched earlier this month by the network, it encourages listeners to protect their pollinators, because, as is well known, these small creatures make a huge impact for good on the environment.

The radio station plans to broadcast tours of celebrity gardens, run a children’s competition to design a bee-friendly garden for an NHS mental health centre, and provide an educational podcast called Bees in a Pod. In an interview with Radio Times to promote the initiative, Zoe explained how grateful she was for nature, having enjoyed ‘lovely moments of calm’ in her own garden.

‘I’ve found it quite life-changing,’ she says. ‘What I really found during lockdown was having that 15 minutes every evening … pottering around, talking to my plants, making some mistakes, watching things grow.’

Many others have sought comfort in nature during lockdown. Almost 9 in 10 people surveyed

by Natural England in May last year agreed that natural spaces are good for mental health and wellbeing, while more than 40 per cent felt that the importance of nature, wildlife and visiting green spaces had grown for them since the pandemic began.

Having stumbled across hidden treasures of walking trails throughout lockdown, I can relate to those findings. As I walk, I watch wildlife scamper by, and my heart soars when I hear birdsong. It helps me put the stresses and strains of each day into perspective.

As Zoe embarks on her quest to look after the landscape she loves, it leads me to wonder what I can do. The trouble can be that, as an individual, my efforts can seem small and insignificant. However, I’m heartened by Jesus’ description of how a tiny mustard seed can grow into the largest of all plants, where birds can go and find rest in its branches.

Sometimes the seemingly most insignificant of things can make a big difference. Let’s take our example from the bees and do what we can to support the world around us.

A mustard seed can grow into the largest of plants

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

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War Cry 101 Newington Causeway London SE1 6BN

Basic reading about Christianity Information about The Salvation Army

Looking for help?

Contact details of a Salvation Army minister Name Address

Extract from Why Jesus? by Nicky Gumbel published by Alpha International, 2011. Used by kind permission of Alpha International

Or email your details and request to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk 12 • WAR CRY • 26 June 2021

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EXPRESSIONS

FACES OF FAITH ADAM SCOTT from Manchester on becoming a minister of religion, working as a tutor and walking dogs What’s your typical day?

I’m a tutor at a theological college. My day can involve teaching, meeting students, preaching and leading worship and doing my own research. I’m also a trained chartered psychologist, and I still see some clients. I’ve also got two feisty Jackhuahua dogs – half Jack Russell, half chihuahua – that I walk after work.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I was a little philosopher and asked very deep questions, so I always wanted to be a minister of religion. There has never been another minister in my family, but I was inspired to become one as I grew older.

What advice would you give your teenage self?

It gets better. I’m a much happier Adam now than when I was a kid and a teenager.

What was the last book you read?

Q A

QUICK QUIZ 1

What TV programmes do you like to watch?

I like anything where people are nice to each other, like The Great British Sewing Bee.

What were the names of the four main puppet characters in the

Nineties children’s show Tweenies?

2

I’m reading Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness. It’s by a guy who had a breakdown and through birdwatching has got himself back on track. I’m not a birdwatcher, but it’s interesting to hear someone talk about their passion.

Who had a hit in 2006 with the song

How did you become a Christian?

I was brought up in a Christian home and nurtured in faith. What keeps me a Christian is that same connection with God that I had as a child. Even if I’m finding things difficult, God keeps reaching out to me.

‘Put Your Records On’?

3

British athlete Katherine Grainger

won five Olympic medals in which sport?

4

What’s good about being a Christian?

As a Christian you have a brilliant experience of community and diversity because you’re part of a group of very different people. Also, I love the message that God loves you no matter what you have done or what has been done to you and you are accepted.

Who wrote the ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey?

How does faith influence your life?

5

What is the capital of South Korea?

It shapes everything. I don’t see a sacred-secular divide. I believe God is redeeming all things and all people.

6

Which actor played the young boy separated from his family in the first two Home Alone films?

ANSWERS

What do you pray about?

I pray for God to help me with my work and to be with my family. But I don’t necessarily pray lots of words because, in essence, every moment of my life is an act of prayer.

1. Bella, Milo, Fizz and Jake. 2. Corinne Bailey Rae. 3. Rowing. 4. Homer. 5. Seoul. 6. Macaulay Culkin.

26 June 2021 • WAR CRY • 13

PUZZLES

CROSSWORD QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Restrain (4) 3. Joke (3) 5. Excited (4) 7. Arranged (9) 9. Security device (4) 10. Feat (4) 11. Cut (5) 14. Play (5) 15. Clumsy (5) 17. Interrogate (5) 18. Dirt (5) 19. Way in (5) 20. Unable to bend (5) 23. Bluish-white metal (4) 25. Couch (4) 27. Punctuation mark (4-5)

8. Trickery (9) 11. Wiser (5) 12. Competing (5) 13. Irritated (5) 14. Excavate (3) 16. Attempt (3) 21. Fool (5) 22. Satire (5) 23. Gusto (4) 24. Dungeon (4) 25. Bitter (4) 26. Askew (4)

28. Labour (4) 29. Plaything (3) 30. Depend (4)

DOWN 1. Moderately cold (4) 2. Yap (4) 3. Rank (5) 4. Skim (5) 5. Elderly (4) 6. Virtuous (4) 7. Instances (9)

SUDOKU

Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9

HONEYCOMB HONEYCOMB

6

2

Each solution starts on the coloured cell and reads clockwise round the number

5

9

5

1

9 7

1. Spanish rice dish

2. Used for climbing up or down

8 4

6

4. Not decline

5. Written text of a play or film

QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS: 1. Curb. 3. Gag. 5. Agog.

7. Organised. 9. Lock. 10. Deed. 11. Sever.

14. Drama. 15. Inept. 17. Grill. 18. Grime.

19. Entry. 20. Rigid. 23. Zinc. 25. Sofa.

27. Semi-colon. 28. Toil. 29. Toy. 30. Rely.

DOWN: 1. Cool. 2. Bark. 3. Grade.

4. Glide. 5. Aged. 6. Good. 7. Occasions.

8. Deception. 11. Sager. 12. Vying.

13. Riled. 14. Dig. 16. Try. 21. Idiot.

22. Irony. 23. Zest. 24. Cell.

25. Sour. 26. Awry.

HONEYCOMB 1. Paella. 2. Ladder. 3. Depart.

4. Accept. 5. Script. 6. Delete.

4 2 8 9 7 6 1 3 5

6 1 5 2 3 4 8 7 9

3 9 7 1 8 5 6 2 4

5 6 2 8 4 1 3 9 7

8 3 1 7 2 9 4 5 6

7 4 9 5 6 3 2 1 8

2 5 3 4 9 8 7 6 1

9 8 6 3 1 7 5 4 2

1 7 4 6 5 2 9 8 3

SUDOKU SOLUTION

9 7

8

2

14 • WAR CRY • 26 June 2021

3

6 3

5 2

4

9 7

5

6

8

ORDSEARCH ORDSEARCH ORDSEARCH ORDSEARCH ORDSEARCH

ANSWERS

7

8 7

3

4

3. Leave on a journey

6. Erase

7 4

8

2

WORDSEARCH

4 Look 6 up, 3 down, 5 8forwards, 7 2 backwards 9 1 and diagonally on the grid to find flowers 2 these 1 9 6 3 4 5 8 7 8 5 7 2 1 9 3 6 4 AFRICAN LILY H K C O H Y L L O H K W L G T G K R 9 2 1 8 7 5 4 3 6 BLUEBELL R T Y G B P L W K W G G N M Q X D E 7 3 8 4 I 2 X 6J T Q A C W 9 1 5 COMMON POPPY Z D I L R P E Q Z Q

S L Y S Q O B Y Y Q W K N A F D S O DAFFODIL 6 4 5 1 9 3 8 7 2 P O K Z E P E Z K R Z M Z F Q Z U L FIELD DAISY 1 8 6 3 4 2 7 5 9I F L G P M N N U Q E N K A O R R M FORGET-ME-NOT I I V U L O L N J X Z D Y 3 7 2 9 5 1 I 6 X Q T N 4 8 FRENCH MARIGOLD A R H V H M B Z A S I E N C T H Z U 5 9 I 4P 7L T 6 I 8Z A 1 R 2Q W S 3 A A D W K M U HOLLYHOCK

JAPANESE IRIS

MADEIRA ORCHID

MEADOW SAFFRON PETUNIA

STARFLOWER SUNFLOWER TULIP

F M E A D O W S A F F R O N T H F S R H Y B T C H X N P C A Q L P Q J Y P C T O N E M T E G R O F I S Y T P J N P X E Q U T S T A R F L O W E R Q E Z Q X L U Z E J Q C H Y C X H F Z R K Q I N T F I V L H Q U B J Z W A F F P I Q R J R F Q I F V P J G V Q K Z A Z Q L F I E L D D A I S Y Q K G T Q Y P Z Q S W H X Z S Q O V Z

7

6 4

6

4

8

5 3

2

Turkey burgers Ingredients

Method

450g minced turkey

Preheat the grill to a medium-high heat.

1 small onion, very finely chopped 1 carrot, grated 50g sweetcorn 2tsp dried mixed herbs Ground black pepper 4 burger buns, cut in half 4 handfuls of lettuce leaves

SERVES

8 tomato slices

4

Place the turkey mince, onion, carrot, sweetcorn and herbs in a large bowl. Season with a pinch of pepper and mix together.

Shape into 4 burger patties.

Grill the burgers for 12-15 minutes, turning over halfway, until browned and cooked through. Remove from the grill and allow to rest for 2 minutes.

Lightly toast the burger buns under the grill on the cut sides only. Place a handful of lettuce on each of the bottom halves, then layer a cooked patty and 2 tomato slices on top. Cover with the tops of the buns, to serve.

Easy banana ice cream Ingredients

Method

4 very ripe bananas

Peel and slice the bananas.

Freeze for 2 hours or overnight.

Cinnamon (optional) Frozen fruit (optional)

Add to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Scoop into bowls.

For extra flavour, add a sprinkle of cinnamon or a handful of frozen fruit.

Serve immediately.

SERVES

4

Recipes reprinted, with permission, from the Public Health England website nhs.uk/change4life

26 June 2021 • WAR CRY • 15

God made us to enjoy our lives and shine lives and enjoy our Aled Jones

WAR CRY