Sal-2007-06

salvationist. june 2007

communicating Passion and mission

ca

Canada and Bermuda

All Aboard!

Celebrate 125 Years of the Army in Canada

Urban Forum: Bright Lights, Big City Resurrection in the Heart of Germany

Human Trafficking: WhatYou Should Know

www.salvationist.ca e-mail: salvationist@can.salvationarmy.org

Features

Provincial Congress 2007 June 22-24 Corner Brook Pepsi Centre

4

Forever Family

In her final interview as territorial commander, Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan recounts the joys and challenges of leadership and celebrates the lasting bonds of Christian love

With Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan, territorial commander, supported by Colonels Glen and Eleanor Shepherd, chief secretary and territorial secretary for women’s ministries and Lt-Colonels Wayne and Myra Pritchett, corps officers, Guelph, Ontario Friday 7:30 p.m. Officers’ and Leaders’ Session (leaders by invitation)

Corner Brook Temple Saturday 9:30 a.m. Plenary Session with congress leaders

Corner Brook Temple 11 a.m. Break-out Sessions/Workshops

Corner Brook Temple 2 p.m. Outdoor family and youth events

Margaret Bowater Park 7 p.m. Worship (followed by Youth Happening)

Corner Brook Pepsi Centre Sunday 10 a.m.

4 p.m.

Worship and Commitment Service Corner Brook Pepsi Centre Salvation, Celebration and Sending Out Service Corner Brook Pepsi Centre

Salvationist is a monthly publication of The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory, 2 Overlea Blvd, Toronto ON M4H 1P4. International Headquarters: 101 Queen Victoria St, London, England EC4P 4EP. William and Catherine Booth, Founders; Shaw Clifton, General; Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan, territorial commander; LtColonel Ray Moulton, editor-in-chief; Geoff Moulton, managing editor (416-422-6226); Major Ken Smith, associate editor (416-4226117); Timothy Cheng, art director; Pamela Richardson, production and distribution coordinator; Lt-Colonel Marilyn Moulton, Ken Ramstead, Brandon Laird, Jeannette Kerr, Linda Leigh, Clint Houlbrook, contributors.

2

Salvationist June 2007

Member, The Canadian Church Press. All Scripture references from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version (TNIV) © 2001, 2005 International Bible Society. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

All rights reserved worldwide.

Agreement No. 40064794, ISSN 1718-5769 All articles are copyrighted by The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory except where indicated and can be reprinted only with written permission.

Subscriptions: Annual: Canada $29.80 (includes GST); U.S. $36; Foreign $41.

Available from: The Salvation Army, 2 Overlea Blvd, Toronto ON M4H 1P4. Phone: 416-422-6112; fax: 416-422-6120; e-mail: circulation@can.salvationarmy.org.

Letters to the Editor: We welcome your comments. Letters must include name, postal and e-mail addresses and phone number.

News, Events and Submissions: Editorial lead time is seven weeks prior to an issue’s publication date. No responsibility is assumed to publish, preserve or return unsolicited material. E-mail submissions preferred.

Contact Information: Write to the editor at salvationist@can.salvationarmy.org or Salvationist, 2 Overlea Blvd, Toronto ON M4H 1P4.

Advertising: Enquire by e-mail for rates at circulation@can.salvationarmy.org.

Mission Statements The Salvation Army exists to share the love of Jesus Christ, meet human needs and be a transforming influence in the communities of our world.

Salvationist informs readers about the mission and ministry of The Salvation Army in Canada and Bermuda while engaging them with our biblical mission and purpose.

page 4

7

“Come To Me”

Follow in the disciples’ footsteps and learn from Christ’s teaching at this year’s Newfoundland and Labrador provincial congress

10

A Legacy Worth Celebrating A look back at 125 years of Army mission and ministry in Canada R. Gordon Moyles

14

Heralding the Good News New officers testify to God’s faithfulness as they prepare to move out into ministry Faith & Friends Are you sharing your faith? When you finish reading Faith & Friends in the centre of this issue, pull it out and give it to someone who needs to hear about Christ’s lifechanging power. You’ll both be glad you did.

Faith &

frıends

June 2007

www.faithandfriends.ca

Inspiration for Living

DiXie carter

crash course in faith

God’s Designing Woman

Final Flight: A Father’s Story

INSIDE This Issue

June 2007 No. 14

125 Years Young

T

page 22

20

Exploring The Simple Way How to stop being the church we complain about and start being the church we dream of Interview with Shane Claiborne page 10

17

Preserving the Past—Building For the Future Sale of Montreal Citadel helps address issue of maintaining historic religious sites in Quebec Joel Coppieters

22

A Fine Balance

Living in another country has helped me evaluate what’s truly important John McAlister

27

Resurrection in the Heart of Germany Reflections on a recent visit to Germany’s East Division Major Ron Millar

18

Bright Lights, Big City Salvationists gather at Urban Forum in Atlanta to discuss race and reconciliation Captain Rick Zelinsky page 20

Departments

8 Around the Territory

Did You Know?

24 Celebrate Community Recognition and enrolment, tribute, gazette, calendar

28 Just Between Us

How Much Is Too Much?

Captain Kathie Chiu

29 Wildfire

Heat = Action Clint Houlbrook

30 PrayerZone

2007 Prayer Diary Resources

31 My Perspective

Milestones Colonel Eleanor Shepherd

his year the Canada and Bermuda Territory is celebrating its 125th birthday. It was ordinary Salvationists such as Jack Addie and Joe Ludgate who helped bring William Booth’s Army to our shores. But would they recognize us now?

As world movements go, The Salvation Army is quite young. Many writers suggest that we are mere adolescents when compared to church denominations that span many centuries. If so, when do we get to become young vibrant adults, ready and mature enough to take on the adult responsibilities for which we have been born?

Recent pages of Salvationist, as well as other periodicals, speak of an identity crisis that our Movement is having.

Some would suggest this is why we are only adolescents—we are continuing to discover who we are. Yet as we celebrate this birthday, there is a very real understanding that we know why we exist. It is rooted in the biblical injunction to be a community of Christ’s followers, sharing and building God’s Kingdom in our world, in our neighbourhoods and with the people that we rub shoulders with every day. It is in being a witness to the grace of Christ that we experience and celebrate with others the grace of God in them.

We take heart in acknowledging our age, admitting we are in the prime of life, vigorously engaging with the world to be a transforming catalyst and enjoying the fellowship of likeminded believers.

Join us in Winnipeg June 15-17 for a marvellous birthday celebration. If you can’t be present, the wonders of modern technology will still allow you to participate through live webcasts of key events.

Log on to our website, Salvationist.ca, to experience the excitement, see friends and join in the prayer and commitment to be a part of God’s Army, to live out our future in his strength.

Ray Moulton Lt-Colonel, Editor-in-Chief

Cover: General William Booth arrives at Winnipeg on March 23, 1907, during his last tour of Canada. With him is CommissionerThomas B. Coombs, territorial commander

June 2007 Salvationist

3

Forever Family

In her final interview as territorial commander, Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan recounts the joys and challenges of leadership, and celebrates the lasting bonds of Christian love What were some of the spiritual Can you share one of the lighter others at ease. I have felt a freedom in this highlights of your term as territorial moments on your journey? territory to share the joy of laughter. commander of Canada and Bermuda?

I work with a great team at THQ, and in I get excited whenever I meet with groups four years I’ve developed some deep relaWhat significant lessons have you of people who are seeking God. For examtionships. The ability to share with humour learned in the process of leading? ple, it was wonderful to be at a covenant is a form of affection. Our territorial leaders Our territory is complex and rich. You day with cadets who were giving their lives in Cabinet, in struggling together, have also can never look at a situation or a person to God and to kneel with them as they from just one perspective. As you grapple signed their covenants. Cadets have a freshness, inquisitiveness and passion to serve God that I have always found refreshing.

I also recall the congress in Prince Rupert, B.C., where the Army ordained First Nations auxiliary-captains. The ceremony, in part, acknowledged and celebrated their cultural traditions. I remember holding a beautifully decorated First Nations drum as congress delegates danced around the auditorium.

Booth College graduation, Winnipeg, April 2004 I’ll never forget the night in a Newfoundland outport when a man knelt at the mercy seat. People in that congregation had been praying for him for many years. I nearly got knocked off the pulpit as people rushed to the mercy seat to celebrate with him—the prodigal With General John Larsson and Commissioner Freda Larsson, International son had come home.

Opening of new CFOT, Mosaic, Jackson’s Point, June 2004 Winnipeg, May 2006 There was a sense of tremendous joy.

I n t h e A r m y ’s social-services ministry, I’ve gone out on learned to laugh together. I have a deep with issues, you need to get all points of street runs and seen workers bringing the appreciation for those moments. view. To lead this territory from my desk gospel to the front line. Whether officers As for a specific situation, I remember would have been a great mistake, so I’ve or volunteers, these faithful Salvationists sharing the stage at the Territorial School of maintained a busy travel schedule in order minister in the dark corners of our comMusic and Gospel Arts with a young man to get out and really listen to what people munities where no one sees or dares who had a Mohawk haircut. I told him, are saying. That doesn’t mean that people to travel.

“I’ve finally found a new hairstyle that will are always going to get their own way, but These are moments I don’t always talk keep my hair off my uniform collar,” and one of the reasons I’ve travelled so much about, but I carry them in my heart. I see the whole place burst into laughter. is to hear and see situations firsthand. Our the faces, hear the names and feel the daily Young people told me afterward how territorial vision statement says, “We are struggles of people working in those diffithey appreciated the fact that I’d identified a territory in ongoing conversation.” And cult ministries. My heart leaps for joy when with someone who was different from me. whether we are communicating informally people who ordinarily aren’t acknowledged It made me realize that humour is not just or through official channels, the important receive the recognition they deserve. laughing at situations—it’s a way of putting thing is to keep the dialogue alive.

4

Salvationist June 2007

What was the most important decision made during your term?

Some people will look at the changes over the last four years and see them through the lens of financial challenges we faced.

We were $12 million dollars in debt, and cuts had to be made to balance the budget. For example, there had been ongoing discussion about the possibility of moving to one training college—and we followed through with that plan. However, in all of the decisions, we had to assess the priorities of the territory. We asked, “Where do our resources need to go? What should our

What do you feel are the strengths of the Canada and Bermuda Territory?

Our greatest asset is our people. Our vision in this territory must be more about people than about programs, buildings or budgets.

We believe in participative authority, which in itself creates a challenge to Salvationists.

It doesn’t mean everybody is a territorial commander, but that wherever you are you must maximize your position—in Christ and in The Salvation Army—to the best of your ability. You can’t pass off your hardships to someone else up the line or think you can

That being said, I know I have built lasting relationships with those people that will never go away. The last four years have been an investment in my own life, and I want to keep nurturing it. I don’t think I’m near Heaven yet, but when I think about a “forever family,” I believe the connections I have made with all people in the Canada and Bermuda Territory will be eternal relationships.

I am also going to miss the forward momentum of our common journey

Bermuda congress, October 2006

Territorial School of Music and Gospel Arts, Jackson’s Point, August 2005

Toronto commissioning, June 2004

I nearly got knocked off the pulpit as people rushed to the mercy seat to celebrate with him-the prodigal son had come home training college look like? Where should it be located? What should the nature of training be?” Out of those difficult cost-cutting realities we made decisions that allowed for the best possible solution. It was a heartache for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, but IHQ insisted that we could no longer be the only territory in the world with two training colleges. We had to take history and tradition and re-invent it, using resources in a relevant way to prepare people for ministry today.

solve a problem simply by throwing more money at it. In the process of planning the November 2005 symposium, we invited nearly 1,000 Salvationists to discuss the territory’s priorities. It was an attempt to get people on the bandwagon of creating their own solutions.

What will you miss most about serving in this territory?

The connection to people, especially the Cabinet and the territorial executive, the team with whom I have worked so closely.

together in mission. After four years, when the honeymoon stage is over, you know each other more fully because you have endured hardship and persevered together.

However, I’m grateful that the incoming territorial leaders, Commissioners William and Marilyn Francis, have been the international secretary and zonal secretary for women’s ministries for the Americas and Caribbean, and that they already know Canada and Bermuda so well. They are skilled and knowledgeable, and will capably pick up the torch on that journey.

June 2007 Salvationist

5

What are your hopes for your new position as international director for social justice?

Social justice are two words that are not necessarily well understood. I’m only beginning to learn myself what they mean. But as I reflect on the new challenge and the new appointment, I hope that we develop our team to address the pain of our world with strategic grace.

To those outside our ranks, I suppose we represent the hope of The Salvation Army as we enter into some very dark parts of our world.

My goal is to address the complexity of social-justice issues not just through advocacy or sitting at the table with influential politicians at a body such as the United Nations. Rather, I pray that we can be astute enough to know which issues we need to address, daring enough to enter

in a way that is understood? How do we uphold our standards without appearing judgmental or turning people off?

As I think about the social-justice platform, in some ways I sense a loneliness that leads away from the mainstream of the organization. But I’m also praying that our organization will never be far away from the things that touch the heart of God. If “God so loves the world,” then the Army’s eyes must also be focused on the world. We must be bold in discovering and undertaking new strategies in the fight against sin and despair.

How can Salvationists contribute to social justice?

As The Salvation Army, we must first understand social justice for ourselves, within the

using methods that allow people to participate in their own solutions, something we call “integrated mission.”

My hope is that Salvationists will come to the table with their thinking and even their consternation about what it means to be the Church today in a society that often does not live up to its potential.

As you depart, what key message do you want to leave with Salvationists?

Perhaps what I’m feeling now is characteristic of coming to the end of a journey and entering into a new stage. My leaving comes not only with a touch of sadness but also with an overwhelming sense of appreciation and love.

When you think of your own mission,

Ottawa Grace Manor, March 2005 Newfoundland and Labrador Congress and Commissioning, Gander, June 2005— International Year for Children and Youth

I pray that our organization will never be far away from the things that touch the heart of God those risky areas and wise enough to know what it means to bring Christ without offence but with new hope.

I want to bring The Salvation Army with me, but I’m also challenged to think about our world rather than just our own Army culture. How do we shape The Salvation Army to respond to social-justice issues 6

Salvationist June 2007

Saskatchewan Wildfire Congress, Saskatoon, October 2003

hallways of our own organization. I am trusting with this territory, as with others, that we will not just point a telescope at the world, but also focus a microscope on our own behaviour.

I pray that this territory will continue to have a heart for self-denial through partners-in-mission opportunities and discover how to resource social justice in a practical, hands-on response. Of course, those acts of kindness need to be delivered

don’t simply concentrate on the “organization” that is The Salvation Army. We are human and we make mistakes, but love can cover a multitude of sins. Instead of focusing on our faults, let’s continue to pursue our love for God and for others. As we celebrate 125 years of Army ministry in this territory, let’s celebrate the potential that God holds for the future, which is far greater and far deeper than we will ever know.

I share with you a verse that became my verse as I knelt and signed my covenant as a Salvation Army officer: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined himself unto me, and heard the cry of my heart” (see Psalm 40:1). There will always be cries from the heart as we long to see God’s Kingdom established through The Salvation Army. But we can take comfort that God is listening and he is with us. Let’s continue the journey with him.

“Come To Me” Follow in the disciples’ footsteps and learn from Christ’s teaching at this year’s Newfoundland and Labrador provincial congress

by Major Brian Wheeler Divisional Secretary for Program, Newfoundland and Labrador West Division

E

very June, Salvationists from all over Newfoundland and Labrador gather in one location for a provincial congress. In fact, recently I was reading some old corps history books in an attempt to piece together the ministry of my grandfather, Brigadier George Wheeler, and there it was: “I am leaving for congress this week.”

I can remember as a child being ushered out the door much earlier than normal on a Sunday morning so we could get a parking place at Memorial Stadium in St. John’s. As we walked from our car, it always amazed me to see the people … the uniforms … more officers than I ever knew existed! Inside the stadium, the air would be filled with excitement and anticipation.

Having been stationed outside the province, I haven’t been to a Newfoundland and Labrador congress in 18 years, but through the miracle of Army appointments, I now find myself in a divisional appointment in Gander.

Not only will I get to attend congress this year, I now sit on the steering committee.

At our last planning meeting, the question was asked, “Why are we still having congress?” Part of me wanted to answer, “Because we always have,” but I know it must be far more than that.

I reflected back on the mental picture of my youth, of hundreds of people from different backgrounds coming to one

On Parade: The Army colours take their place alongside national and provincial flags for the congress march

place. It was as if there was a great call to “come”—not an audible voice, but one just as real. It was more than tradition, more than fellowship, more than a weekend excursion.

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened … ” As I think about this passage, I no longer see it as a limited invitation to the physically worn or those experiencing a difficult life, but as a general call to disciples. Surely it is a call to all who are tired of sin in their lives and burdened by

also movements of repentance. When the call is sincerely heeded, people are sensitive to sin and turn from it. They turn to Jesus, who can teach true discipleship.

In verse 29, Jesus continues, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.…”

When he called disciples to follow him, Jesus was asking them to walk behind him, to follow in his footsteps on life’s path. When he challenged his disciples to learn from him, he was describing a kind of school in which he was both the teacher and the subject. The original 12 disciples walked in sandalled feet all over the Holy Land through an interactive school of learning.

This year’s congress theme is Discipleship—From Sandals to Cyberspace. We all recognize that we live in a very different world than that of the original disciples, even that of our Salvationist ancestors. Our methods have had to change.

Congresses have even changed over the years. But the foundational message of the gospel has not changed. Jesus is still calling, “Come to me.”

The sanctuary doors in every Salvation Army building open every week across this territory. This month they will open at the congress in Corner Brook. And the same plea resounds: “Come! Come to the school of discipleship and learn from Jesus.” Are we listening?

Congresses have changed over the years. But the foundational message of the gospel has not changed the needs they witness around them.

This is made clear from the context of the chapter.

In verse 25, Jesus says, “I praise you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” Children are simple in their self-evaluation and in their faith. They recognize their need of a Saviour and are willing to abandon themselves to Christ.

This is why great periods of renewal are

June 2007 Salvationist

7

Around the Territory

Generations Connecting in

Grand Falls

by Captain Wanda Vincent, Corps Officer, Grand Falls Citadel, N.L.

G

od has designed church life so that all generations can minister, worship and connect together. When we arrived at Grand Falls Citadel last year, we were delighted to discover an active teen cell group being led by a young adult from the corps. She had taken the teens into her home for weekly Bible study and relationship building. Great connections were being made through discussions on spiritual principles and life issues. When she moved in October, the group was taken over by a couple in their 50s, Keith and Karen Hickman, who related well with teens and were anxious for this ministry to continue. They were soon joined by Mary Booth as they began working through the youth Alpha program. One of the teens recently shared with our congregation how Alpha had helped her learn so much

about Christianity.

Each week the young people also enjoy refreshments while listening to pop music from the older generation. Believe it or not, the group has discovered a common love for groups like the Eagles and Simon and Garfunkel. They even spent a whole day together enjoying a Star Wars marathon. And when Keith and Karen were renovating their house, they allowed the young people to spray-paint their old basement walls before they were removed. The teens unleashed a full range of artistic expression, painting a host of symbols that reflect things they love and believe in, such as the cross and phrases such as “Crown of Thornz” and “God Strong.” It was a great idea to help the young people feel loved and accepted, and some of the teen’s artistry is being kept and placed in the youth room at the church. It’s proof that generations can connect. We’re in this together!

Did you know … … the Canada and Bermuda Territory has introduced a cadetlieutenant training program for individuals who exceed CFOT age restrictions? For more information, visit Salvationist.ca/2007/ cadet-lieutenant-training … Botwood Corps, N.L., is hosting the Kitchener-Waterloo Police Chorus from Ontario on July 26, as part of a fundraising effort for their new building? … four soldiers of Oshawa Temple, Ont., have given a total of 195 years service as Salvation Army bandsmen? Gordon Oliver (recently promoted to Glory), Murray Whitehead and Robert Young have each given 50 years, and George Reid 45 years … Toronto Star editor-in-chief and Salvation Army advisory board member Fred Kuntz was honoured for community leadership by the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce? ... the Warriors Session is holding a 60th anniversary reunion at Scarborough Citadel, Toronto, on Saturday, June 16? Contact Lt-Col Bob Chapman at 306-764-6520 for more information … six coaches from the Celtic Football Club will be helping The Salvation Army run soccer clinics this summer in Vancouver, Victoria and Chilliwack, B.C.? … next month marks the beginning of our 10th year of publishing Faith & Friends? Read the story on page 22 of this month’s issue to see how this significant change in direction for the territory impacted one man’s life for Christ

Volunteer Firefighters Honoured

M

embers of Park Street Citadel, Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., showed their appreciation for local volunteer firefighters by hosting them to a dinner at the corps.

Guest speakers were Mayor Rex Barnes, Fire Chief Vince MacKenzie and Major Brian Wheeler, divisional secretary for program, Newfoundland and Labrador West Division. Captain Randy Hale, corps officer, writes: “Ironically, the appreciation dinner was delayed due to the fire department responding to a local fire!”

8

Salvationist June 2007

Around the Territory

CSB Project Aids Beginners’ Band Programs

O

ne of the purposes of the Canadian Staff Band (CSB) is to support and encourage Army banding, both senior and junior, throughout the territory. To that end, the CSB has launched a new program that was put into action earlier this year. Through the generous support of a corporate sponsor and Yamaha Music Canada, the band has been able to invest over $25,000 to purchase 46 instruments that have now been donated to beginners’ band programs in almost every region.

The instruments were shared equitably across the territory according to the size of each division. Each divisional headquarters was contacted and asked to identify the corps to which their allotment of instruments should be sent.

Every division responded and all of the

instruments have now been sent out to the designated corps.

In some cases, the instruments went to new corps plants where a youth band was being started for the very first time.

In other cases, the instruments went to corps that were restarting their band program after several years of inactivity. In still other cases, the instruments went to corps that were experiencing huge growth in the number of young people wanting to be part of viable youth band programs.

In each case, the instruments helped meet a need that, left unanswered, would have seen young people unable to participate in this worthwhile ministry.

On November 3, 2006, Oshawa Temple Band hosted the CSB in a joint concert to raise funds for this unique program.

Proceeds were used to purchase and distribute two additional instruments.

A similar concert is planned for November 17, 2007. Along with the CSB, it will also feature two bands from Toronto’s Agincourt Community Church and Scarborough Citadel, again with all proceeds going to support this venture.

The CSB intends to make this an ongoing project. Interested donors can contact Staff Bandmaster Brian Burditt by phone at 416-422-6212 or by e-mail at Brian_ Burditt@can.salvationarmy.org.

Basketball Tournament Helps

Army Food Bank

W

hen Leanne De Souza, a student of the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus, was volunteering at Erin Mills Corps, Mississauga, Ont., she noticed that food donations from the public tended to drop off after Christmas. Inspired by the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots and Shoots program, Leanne and her sister, Darlene, founded their own chapter to inspire young people to make a difference in their community. In response to the Army’s need, they organized a basketball tournament food drive called Baskets for Charity. Eight teams paid $20 each to participate and spectators contributed one canned good or $2 for admission. Ten boxes of canned food and more than $250 was given to Erin Mills Corps as a result.

A similar event is being planned for next year.

June 2007 Salvationist

9

A Legacy Worth A look back at 125 years of Army mission and ministry in Canada

S

by R. Gordon Moyles, Army historian and author of The Blood and Fire in Canada

alvation by contagion.” There is perhaps no better phrase to describe the astounding success of The Salvation Army in its “glory years” (1878-1890). Hundreds of thousands of people joined its ranks, attracted by its military style, its aggressive openair ministry and its red-hot revivalism. They had indeed caught the “salvation” fever—a fever that compelled them to spread the gospel any way and anywhere they could. And they rarely waited to be told to do so.

Certainly Eliza Shirley did not wait for official approval before she stepped into the streets of Philadelphia and opened the Army in America.

Nor did Charles Saunders and John Gore when they started the work in Adelaide, Australia. And, like them, new immigrants to Canada— William Freer, Jack Addie and

1 10

Joe Ludgate—were equally impetuous in their desire to bring The Salvation Army to this country.

So it was that, in May and June of 1882, they began holding impromptu Armystyled meetings on the streets of Toronto and London, Ont. While their heads told them they must write to General William Booth, asking him to send seasoned officers, their hearts told them to go ahead on their own and evangelize the nation. And this they did.

Evangelistic Fervour Soon, of course, the General did send an “official delegation” to set the Army on a firm foundation (making instant officers of Freer, Addie and Ludgate). But it had been individual daring and initiative—a Spirit-filled, spontaneous evangelism—that had

2 Salvationist June 2007

gotten the Army started in Canada and that would remain the hallmark of its progress for much of its history.

It was, in fact, that kind of individual daring and faithinspired effort that saw the Army, in just a few short years, spread across Canada—from Halifax to Victoria. It saw Emma Churchill-Dawson, with her new husband, Charles, conducting meetings in St. John’s in late 1885 (Newfoundland was then still a British colony), several months before the official party arrived.

It saw Captain Arthur Young tramping across the prairies in 1887, scouting the barren territory in search of likely places to plant the Army flag.

It saw Captains Bella Nunn and Tessie Hall spend time in jail because they dared to defy the local by-law which prohibited them from marching in the streets of London, Ont. It saw “Happy” Bill Cooper and Abby Thompson employ extravagant, seemingly bizarre open-air tactics (“hallelujah runaways” and the like) to entice sinners into their barracks.

3

Much later, in 1898, this same audacious spirit saw Evangeline Booth make a bold move to send officers to the Klondike gold rush. And, in 1949, it saw then-Captain Arnold Brown begin a series of radio broadcasts called This is My Story, which was picked up by 67 radio stations across Canada. Even today, that same sense of individual daring and evangelistic fervour is manifest in the attempts of officers to retake the inner city and bring the gospel again to the “submerged” members of our society.

Compassionate Care Those were, and are, the ventures of faith that have made The Salvation Army so successful as an evangelistic force in Canada. And it was largely by such ventures, as well, that the Army became one of Canada’s major social-welfare agencies.

Around 1886, female officers took the initiative in providing accommodation for young prostitutes who came under their influence, thus establishing a “rescue” service that, by the turn of the century, offered

Photos: Territorial Archives

Celebrating 4 a dozen rescue homes for such women.

Twenty years later, with an increased public demand for maternity care, these homes gave rise to yet another ambitious social service, the muchloved Grace Hospitals. The first of these was opened in Winnipeg in 1906 and, by 1927, nine Canadian cities could offer the kind of quality care for which Grace Hospitals became noted.

In a similar manner, with equal personal initiative, the Army undertook to meet the

needs of socially disenfranchised men. Its first effort in this regard, and the first of its kind in Canada, was to provide care for men newly released from jail. In 1891, officers waited outside Toronto’s main prison with a horse-drawn Red Maria, ready to escort willing men to the first of its many prison-gate refuge centres.

By 1898, that program had become so well-accepted by prison officials that Salvation Army officers were allowed access to many jails across Canada, to conduct religious

ser vices and interview prisoners with a view to effec5 tive after-care. In that year, as well, the first Canadian Parole Act was passed by Parliament. So impressed was the government by the Army’s work (under the supervision of Brigadier W. P. Archibald), that its officers were called upon to supervise Canada’s first parolees.

Charting New Paths On several other social fronts

The Salvation Army emerged as Canada’s foremost socialreform agency. Its many hostels of the 1890s, providing a meal and a bed to transient men, eventually became some of Canada’s best rehabilitative centres, specializing in the re-training of such men on a long-term basis. Some years later, in the 1950s, another social problem, alcoholism, also became the target of intensive treatment at newly established Harbour Light centres.

Under the inspired supervision of men like David Hammond and Bill Leslie, and with even1. The pioneers: Jack Addie and Joe Ludgate 2. Evangeline Booth 3. & 6. Tragedy struck the Army in 1914 with the sinking of the Empress of Ireland

6

4. & 5.Salvationists have always gone where the need is greatest, whether it was the Prairies in the 1880s or the Klondike in 1898

June 2007 Salvationist

11

7 tual long-term facilities at places like Miracle Valley, B.C., Harbour Light became a distinctive trademark of Salvation Army social service.

Two other avenues of social service rounded out a comprehensive program. In 1905, acting as an official immigration agency, The Salvation Army sent its first shipload of new

8 settlers to Canada. Chartering the ship, arranging passage, and sending officers to look after shipboard needs and to see the immigrants fully settled, the Army eventually sponsored more than 200,000 British men, women and children as new settlers. Later in the century, during the Second World War, the Army became

9

Timeline of Important Historical Events

1829 Births of Catherine and William Booth (January 17 and April 10, respectively) 1855 William and Catherine marry 1865 William Booth preaches in Mile End Waste, in East London, England. Christian Mission founded 1878 Name of Christian Mission changed to The Salvation Army 1880 The Salvation Army starts work in Australia, Ireland and the U.S.A. George Scott Railton’s two-week stay in Halifax constitutes Canada’s first exposure to The Salvation Army 1882 The Salvation Army comes to Canada 1884 William Booth declares Canada an independent territory (May). Thomas Bales Coombs appointed Canada’s first territorial commander (June). First issue of the Canadian War Cry published (November) 12

Salvationist June 2007

an auxiliary of the Canadian military, sending its volunteers right into the front lines to help our soldiers keep in touch with home, as well as provide spare-time recreation and offer spiritual counselling. Thousands of veterans still fondly remember the kindness of the “Sally Ann” during those horrendous days.

Obstacles and Challenges Lest we leave the impression that ours has been a smoothsailing history, we hasten to remind readers that there have been, along the way, obstacles, setbacks and reefs upon which the Army ship has sometimes become briefly stranded.

In the early 1890s, for example, the Army almost foundered on the rock of rebellion when disaffected officers, not fully understanding William Booth’s plans and unhappy with British domination, caused a great deal of negative publicity, alienating from the Army many soldiers, officers and public supporters. But the experience, like so many other times of testing throughout its history, revealed yet another hallmark of Salvationism—resilience and a decided ability to turn seeming defeat into victory. Army leaders learned from their mis-

1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act raises the age of consent in England from 13 to 16. Purity Crusade: the Army campaigns against the white-slave trade 1886 William Booth’s first visit to Canada (November) 1889 First Canadian Staff Band formed 1890 Death of Catherine Booth (October 4) 1890 William Booth’s In Darkest England and the Way Out published, giving theological expression to the necessity of social salvation 1892 League of Mercy instituted 1894 William Booth’s second visit to Canada (October) 1898 William Booth’s third visit to Canada (January) 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. Salvationist teams are sent to render spiritual aid 1902 William Booth’s fourth visit to Canada (October)

11

10 takes and, instead of retreating, advanced with renewed energy and resolve.

A similar resilience manifested itself much later when the Empress of Ireland disaster threatened to demoralize the territory. On May 29, 1914, as some 150 Salvationists were sailing on the Empress to the international congress in England, the ship was struck by a Norwegian collier in the lower St. Lawrence River and, in just 14 minutes, sent more than 1,000 passengers and crew to their deaths. Among them were 130 Salvationists, the bulk of the headquarters staff, including Commissioner

and Mrs. David Rees, and many members of the Canadian Staff Band. The tragedy cast a pall over the Army. The rupture in administration seemed irreparable. But once again, with a firm faith in divine providence, Canadian Salvationists turned tragedy into triumph, demonstrating to an astonished public the efficacy of God’s grace.

Heroes of the Faith Such are the hallmarks of Canadian Salvationism, so evident throughout its history.

Each reflects the passion, faith and dedication of numerous Salvationists, soldiers and officers.

1903 First Salvation Army Christmas kettles appear on the streets of Toronto 1906 Grace Hospital opens in Winnipeg 1907 William Booth’s fifth and final visit to Canada 1909 The Salvation Army in Canada officially incorporated by an Act of Parliament 1912 Death of William Booth (August 20) 1914 Empress of Ireland sinks. 130 Salvationists are lost (May 29) 1914-1918 First World War 1917 The Salvation Army plays a major role in the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion (December) 1918 Red Shield symbol used for the first time during campaign for war fund appeals 1939-1945 Second World War

Recall, if you will, the energy and devotion of those early female Salvationists, many in their late teens and early 20s—Minnie Milliken, Tessie Hall, Maggie Barker, Annie Teagle, Hattie Calhoun—who, in an age of restrictive Victorian propriety, dared to be different, invading the secluded coves of Newfoundland or the frontier towns of Manitoba to bring the message of salvation.

Think of such men as Captain George Arkett, a member of the Army’s “Mountaineer Brigade,” who (in the 1890s) rode horseback through the mountains of British Columbia, braving mosquitoes and rattlesnakes, to bring that same message to lonely settlers and ranchers.

Consider Frank Morris and Tom McGill, who struggled up the Chilkoot Pass and rafted down the Yukon River to minister to the beleaguered

Klondike gold-seekers. And don’t forget the many missionaries—Solomon Smith in India, Hal Beckett in China, and many, many others—who spent the best years of their lives serving the people of other nations.

Finally, let us give thanks for the many able leaders, from Thomas Coombs and Herbert Booth through to Clarence Wiseman and M. Christine MacMillan, who have set the example of passionate Salvationism throughout our history. Theirs is a legacy well worth celebrating and emulating.

7. The Army’s immigration program helped bring thousands of new immigrants to Canada 8. ,10. & 11. During the Second World War, Salvationists brought aid and comfort to our troops overseas 9. Winnipeg Grace Hospital

1949 This Is My Story half-hour radio program debuts 1956 Salvationists play a major role in the rescue and relief operations at the Springhill, N.S., mine disaster 1974 Clarence D. Wiseman first Canadian elected General of The Salvation Army 1977 Arnold Brown second Canadian elected General 1991 The Salvation Army returns to the former Soviet Union, where it was expelled following the Russian Revolution 1993 Bramwell Tillsley third Canadian elected General 1997 Salvationists play a major role in rescue and relief in the wake of the Red River Flood in Manitoba 2001 World Trade Center attack. Within hours, Salvation Army units are on the scene rendering aid

June 2007 Salvationist

13

Heralding the Good

T

his month, 23 new captains of the Heralds of the Good News Session will be commissioned during the Celebration OneTwoFive weekend in Winnipeg.

Salvationist asked them to share a favourite Scripture passage and their personal ministry aspirations as they prepare to move out into their first appointments.

Captain Mark Braye Isaiah 48:17 Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is here now, among us. I have chosen to serve the Lord and people, to help bring about God’s Kingdom on earth.

Captain Nancy Braye Jeremiah 29:11 Through these last two years of training, I’ve felt God’s hand guiding me and reassuring me. I know that he has wonderful plans for my future and am so excited to be serving him.

Captain George Katchanov John 1:14 I praise God for his faithfulness and guidance during the training process and look forward to the ministry that lies ahead.

14

Salvationist June 2007

Captain Ashley Bungay Jeremiah 17:7-8 I am excited to live in community and build relationships that honour God’s Kingdom.

As he continues to transform my life, I wait in anticipation of new dreams concerning the future.

Captain Sheldon Bungay Job 19:25-27 I go in the strength of the Lord, knowing that, because my Redeemer lives, I too can live and do my best to help expand God’s Kingdom.

Captain Mark Crabb Jeremiah 29:11 God has taught me a lot about servant leadership. I want to continue learning, growing and serving him, by living out God’s message of hope through relationships with those I am called to serve.

Captain Wendy Crabb Philippians 4:13 God has proved that I can trust him to help me through anything. As he continues to shape and mould my life, I look forward to the next road in my journey.

News

New officers testify to God’s faithfulness as they prepare to move out into ministry around the territory Captain Karen Holland Philippians 4:6-7 During the past two years, God has always put the right people in the right place at the right time to encourage me and help me through. I am excited about what he has in store for my future.

Captain Jodi Dunstan Ephesians 3:16-19 With God’s help and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, I pray that I may be used to connect people with God and with each other.

Captain Mark Dunstan Isaiah 40:31 I look forward to encouraging and enabling people for ministry. I thank God for the opportunity to share life with others and grow with them as I continue to build my life on Jesus, my Rock.

Captain Anita Pearce Galatians 5:14 My desire is to participate in God’s Kingdom by loving people well.

Captain Stephen Holland Matthew 9:37-38 As I enter God’s fields of harvest, I know that he will be with me and help me face any challenges that come my way. I will trust him and give him all the honour and glory for what he does in my life.

Captain Michael Ramsay John 3:16 I want to seek the Lord through continual prayer and serve him as he directs.

Captain Bramwell Pearce John 14:15-29 Like Christ’s disciples on the eve of his crucifixion, I too am unsure about the days that are ahead. Yet I know that God is with me, and as I go to serve his people, I can’t think of anything I want to do more.

Captain Susan Ramsay Song of Solomon 6:3 I am amazed that God calls me his beloved and longs for me to do the same. As I become Christ’s hands and feet, I want to show people the beauty they have in God’s eyes and the beautiful future he has planned.

June 2007 Salvationist

15

Captain Jason Sabourin Galatians 2:20-21 I pray that God uses me in a real and tangible manner to effect positive change in the lives of people that he has chosen for me to serve.

Captain Tammy Sabourin Jeremiah 29:11 I want my life to be a living testimony to those around me, so that others will recognize God’s power and faithfulness through the daily opportunities and conversations in which he allows me to take part.

Captain Barbara Stanley Romans 1:16-17 I want to be obedient to God’s calling, attentive to his speaking and joyful in the tasks he sets before me to do.

Captain Mark Stanley Ephesians 4:15-16 I want “to do without thought of reward or triumph; to serve without hope of gratitude or recognition; to accept the task and the opportunity of the day, and ask only for strength to do it well; to complain of nothing; to live openly and self-containedly a life of moderation, free from ambition” (Rev. James Lumsden).

16

Salvationist June 2007

Captain (Dr.) Paul Thistle Ephesians 3:20-21 God has called me to provide spiritual, social and medical care in an underprivileged corner of his Kingdom. He is now leading me to enlarge these ministries for his glory and honour. Goodness can spring forth on the most dark and difficult days.

Joy does find a way.

Captain Pedrinah Thistle Lamentations 3:22-23 I want to instill the love of God in others and show them his faithfulness—every day and in every situation, through the healing ministry to which God has called me. My prayer is that I will continue to serve him wholeheartedly.

Captain Debbie VanderHeyden Ephesians 4:11-13 As I continue in my journey of faith, I look forward to meeting new people and shepherding those who God will place on my path, that together we might grow in faith and in love for the good of Christ’s Kingdom.

Captain Jim VanderHeyden Jeremiah 29:11 All you can take with you is that which you give away—the love of Christ. I want to introduce people to Jesus, who loves them and has always loved them. He is our brother, our Saviour and the King of kings.

Quebec correspondent, ChristianWeek

T

his month, the Montreal Citadel congregation will hold its last meeting in that historic building before relocating to new premises in the city. Preferring to redirect its resources to frontline people ministries, the Quebec Division announced in January that it had sold the property, including its own headquarters offices.

The citadel, located on a prime piece of real estate in downtown Montreal, has been home to an English-speaking corps since its purchase in 1948. The administrative centre was built by Alcan, who has already taken over the offices as part of their own Montreal head office complex surrounding the corps building.

Describing the sale as a strategic move, Major Pierre Croteau, divisional secretary, commented, “It’s not that we needed the cash from the sale.

It’s simply that we were sitting on a significant amount of unused resources and wanted to redirect them to our more important front-line ministries where our work with people really happens. While we like the building, the convenience of the indoor underground parking and the cachet of the downtown site, we are only using about 30 percent of it.

As our efficiency has increased, we simply found ourselves needing less administrative staff and space.”

With dozens of empty church buildings dotting the Montreal area landscape, the local media played up the angle of a fire sale because

Preserving the Past

Building For the Future Sale of Montreal Citadel helps address issue of maintaining historic religious sites in Quebec of a dwindling congregation, but there is still a church family of over 130 that meets at the citadel every Sunday—a respectable size in a province where the average Sunday morning church attendance is well below 100. While the division has separate plans to consolidate three English congregations into two, and two French congregations into a single unit, the sale of the citadel was not driven by that process.

The sale will generate significant resources that will be invested in an endowment fund to support ongoing street-level ministries. The agreement allows the congregation to continue meeting on

ing to growing concerns about the destruction and redevelopment of historic religious sites, Quebec’s minister of culture and communications, Line Beauchamps, recommended implementing various protective measures. A legal moratorium was not imposed, but churches were asked to voluntarily comply with the recommendations.

However, negotiations between Alcan and The Salvation Army had begun several years before. In fact, the relationship between them went back to the early 1980s, when they made their first real-estate partnership. The citadel—the focal point of the site that for decades served as the main

The transaction with Alcan has guaranteed the preservation of this historic site for future generations the premises until June 30, while the administrative centre had to vacate their offices by the end of April.

The sale announcement came as a surprise, since there is a provincial moratorium on the sale of historic religious buildings. In 2006, respond-

of Alcan in the late 1970s as they were planning to build their new head office. The aluminum company bought the surrounding site, and in exchange for considerations, which included some cash, erected a small building for the Army’s administrative offices next to its own. The arrangement was an earlier version of the redevelopment plan that eventually linked Montreal’s Christ Church Cathedral with a commercial real-estate developer in the early 1990s.

While a compulsory moratorium might have saved other sites, it is not clear whether it would have blocked the deal between The Salvation Army and Alcan. As it is, the

Photo: Joel Coppieters

by Joel Coppieters

Montreal Citadel

sanctuary for the corps— was saved from demolition once before when the Army first purchased the unused building from Emmanuel Congregational Church. It came with ample parking and several surrounding vacant lots, all of which peaked the interest

transaction has respected the spirit of the moratorium by guaranteeing the preservation of a historic site for the future.

Perhaps more importantly, it has made a clear statement about The Salvation Army’s commitment to people over real estate.

June 2007 Salvationist

17

by Captain Rick Zelinsky Director of Field Education, College for Officer Training

O

Bright Lights,

n January 9-12, Salvationists met at The Salvation Army’s Continuing Education Center in Atlanta for the second bi-annual North American Urban Forum. The forum was hosted by the 614 network of Army corps in partnership with the U.S.A. Southern Territory.

Delegates explored the theme of Race and Reconciliation: Melting Pot or Mosaic? through dynamic speakers, insightful presentations, corporate worship and engagement with culture and community. It was a week of learning as some of the Church’s “brightest lights” talked about the challenges of ministry in the “big city.”

Embracing the Poor Questions about race and social class can cause great discomfort for many Christians.

Rather than confronting the problem, we often choose to ignore it or pretend it doesn’t exist. But racism and classism are not just matters of personal morality, they are also the result of systemic problems in our society. As a case in point, Robert Lupton, president of FCS Urban Ministries, challenged delegates to consider the effects of gentrification on the poor.

Gentrification is the upgrading of deteriorated urban property by affluent people, often displacing those with lower incomes. Where once our urban landscapes were littered with the effects of neglect and the exodus to the suburbs, many wealthy people are now returning to major urban centres because of the proximity to employment and income opportunity through property “flipping.”

Lupton cautioned that gentrification without justice will result in a “diaspora (scattering) of the poor.” He told the story of a woman in Atlanta whose property value rose as a result of gentrification.

Unfortunately so did her taxes—so much so that she could not afford to live in her house of 40 years. Justice prevailed as Lupton’s faith-based ministry lobbied the city to change its policies and establish a baseline income for property tax increases.

At the forum, Lupton called for new relationships to be cultivated between church leaders and gifted community developers, bankers and “deal-makers,”

18

Salvationist June 2007

many of whom sit in our own church pews. By aligning “our theology with our geography,” suggested Lupton, we can use their spiritual gifts to mete out justice for the urban poor.

The other big challenge to the church, noted Lupton, is the scattering of the poor.

To adjust to this new reality, we must become a mobile church that follows the poor to their new locations. Often that includes the suburbs where rent in 20year-old buildings is affordable compared to escalating costs in the inner city. Many suburban Salvation Army corps are perfectly positioned to open their doors and invite in the poor who have drifted to the fringes of the city.

At the forum, delegates used Lupton’s journal, For Theirs is the Kingdom, to pray through issues of racism and how they affect communities. Other presenters screened clips from films and music videos

Mother Teresa, started two organizations built on justice and mercy, and been appointed to the board of directors for the Christian Community Development Association.

Claiborne lives out his faith in radical and uncompromising ways. He has spent time in jail for publicly protesting the ousting of a single mom and her family from an abandoned church. When his case was heard in a Philadelphia courtroom, he was defended by a homeless man. For Claiborne, standing in solidarity with the poor is the Christian thing to do: “How can we worship with a homeless man on Sunday and kick him out of the church on Monday?”

Claiborne’s presence at the Urban Forum attracted an energetic group of young adults anxious to change the world by working among the marginalized. (I couldn’t help but wonder if some were

Ray Aldred: Missionaries taught First Nations that the gospel is something you do to people, not with people

Robert Lupton’s faith-based ministry lobbied the city of Atlanta for a change to the property tax policies

to explore the influence of media on race and relationship. Imaginations were also stirred as Canadian officers Major Kevin Metcalf and Major Bruce Power offered papers on race issues.

secretly concealing red guernseys, emblazoned with traditional Army slogans such as “Happy Harry” and “Happy, saved and free.”) Their friends and neighbours are people of various colours, faiths, dietary distinctions and sexual orientations. Their home is a microcosm of diversity, expressing a commitment to respect and encouragement on the faith journey.

Claiborne’s approach to peacemaking doesn’t involve worrying about the risk to property or self. During the recent hostilities in Iraq, Shane spent three weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team (a project of Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams) taking daily trips to bomb sites, visiting hospitals

Passionate about Peace Keynote speaker Shane Claiborne (see interview on pages 20-21) shared how he left the back hills of Tennessee for the urban environs of north Philadelphia.

Claiborne is the founder of The Simple Way, a monastic community of sojourners trying to live like Jesus and bring the Kingdom of God to the inner city. At age 30, Claiborne has already written a bestselling book, visited Calcutta to work with

Big City and Iraqi families, and attending worship services. At the forum, he challenged Christians to use their own resources to the fullest to bring about God’s Kingdom on earth. “Let’s stop complaining about the church we experienced in the past,” he urged, “and become the church we always dreamed of.”

Preaching Incarnation Continuing with the theme of race and reconciliation, First Nations speaker Ray Aldred spoke of the difficult history between the Church and Aboriginal peoples. Hailing from Winnipeg, Aldred is a pastor, evangelist and itinerant speaker who teaches at the Army’s William and Catherine Booth College.

With dry humour, Aldred reminded delegates, “Indians cannot resolve the racism problem because it’s not their problem.

They’re not the racists.” First Nations are

Shane Claiborne: “How can we worship with a homeless man on Sunday and kick him out of the church on Monday?”

often marginalized in the Church because they are not entrusted with the gospel.

They have been taught by the example of missionaries that the gospel is something you do to people, not with people.

“In wanting to uphold the sacredness of the Bible, the Church cut Aboriginal people off, leaving the interpretation of Scripture to experts and angels,” he said.

To better relate to First Nations, Aldred noted that we would do well to preach the Incarnation, to emphasize that God came in flesh to relate in story to them. More importantly, we must see First Nations as people made in the image of the Creator, bearing his glory, and trust them to tell the gospel story in their own words. Aldred

Salvationists gather at Urban Forum in Atlanta to discuss race and reconciliation

spurred us on to “make life known to Indians and Indian life known.”

Salvationists have a long history of “doing things for people” rather than empowering people to do things for themselves or others. I remember battling my own convictions when we invited an elder from the Chilcotin First Nation in British Columbia to speak to our congregation.

As she told the story of the gospel from a new perspective, I was humbled and God’s

and hope in our land. Our challenge is to find ways of encouraging open dialogue and fostering graceful relationships outside the walls of our corps buildings.

Consider these four questions: 1. Does my congregation reflect the community profile?

2. How can I be welcoming or remove things that would deter participation?

3. Do my staff and leadership reflect the community?

Spirit spoke to my spirit.

If we are going to advance the gospel among Aboriginal people we need to rethink our roles and methods. Do we have the courage to trust First Nations to tell the story? Are our corps welcoming places of grace? Do we have the courage to admit that we may sometimes reflect racist attitudes?

4. Who do I consider my friends and family in community?

A Prophetic Voice As we consider the ministry of reconciliation, The Salvation Army has a responsibility to be a prophetic voice, calling people to mercy and justice for those living on the margins. We are well positioned to welcome the poor who have been scattered and displaced. We have the opportunity to greet newcomers from a plurality of cultures and faiths who are seeking refuge

Questions of race and reconciliation are not easily resolved, but we need to start in our own backyards. The Urban Forum provided content and context for the discussion, but these discussions need to take place in all of our communities. True reconciliation will only take place when we reach out in love to our neighbours, learn from each other and put ourselves in the way of God’s abundant grace.

For more on the Urban Forum, visit www. therubicon.org, or see speaker websites: Robert Lupton www.fcsministries.org; Shane Claiborne www.thesimpleway.org, www.relationaltithe.com, www.ccda.org; Ray Aldred www.mypeoplecanada.com June 2007 Salvationist

19

W

ith tears and laughter, Shane Claiborne is an author, activist and peacemaker who unveils the tragic messes we’ve made of our world and the tangible hope that another world is possible.

Claiborne is a founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia that has helped connect radical faith communities around the world, many of whom have become known as a “new monasticism.” These communities seek to follow Jesus, to rediscover the spirit of the early Church, and to incarnate the “Kingdom of God.” At The Simple Way, their revolution is lived out locally, as days are spent feeding the hungry, doing collaborative arts with children, running a community store, hanging out with neighbours and reclaiming trashstrewn lots by planting gardens.

Claiborne graduated from Eastern University and did graduate work at Princeton Seminary. His ministry experience is varied, from a 10-week stint working alongside Mother Teresa in Calcutta to a year spent serving at Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago.

During the most recent war in Iraq, Claiborne spent three weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team.

At The Salvation Army’s Urban Forum in Atlanta last January, Claiborne was a guest speaker on the topic of “scandalous grace.” In an interview for Salvationist, Major Geoff Ryan sat down with him to discuss his ministry.

Ryan: Did The Simple Way come about because you felt something lacking in your faith and at your home church?

Claiborne: There’s a danger that older, religious forms of Christianity can inoculate us against the real thing. The experience I had with Christianity growing up was so belief-based. I thought that was all there is to Christianity and so I wasn’t really interested in it. When I met people in Philadelphia who were more than just “believers,” but actually disciples and followers, I was drawn to it. And that’s what gave birth to The Simple Way, this sense that we wanted to be the church that we dreamed about. When we started, we had

20

Salvationist June 2007

Exploring The Simple Way

Shane Claiborne urges us to stop being the church we complain about and start being the church we dream of

a lot of pretension—somehow we had this idea that we were the first people to do this in hundreds of years—and then we saw people doing it everywhere, which was really refreshing.

Ryan: The Simple Way pulls together elements of Roman Catholicism and Catholic orders, yet remains Evangelical and very biblically Protestant. In some ways you have created a hybrid, a sort of reconciliation movement between different Christian tribes. Was that intentional?

Claiborne: Yes, that is very intentional.

People used to ask me if I was Protestant or Catholic and I would say no. Yet now I would say yes, because the more I look at the traditions of our faith and all the

different streams, there exists a continuity—they come together and I can see both of them in our community.

Catholics feel that what we are doing is refreshing, sort of humble renewal, and that makes it different from most of the “emerging church” stuff that tends to split off. We are very parish-minded, for example—we go to mass in our neighbourhood. I actually like going to mass in the morning and then attending the Baptist service at night so that I get the best of both worlds. It feels pretty good!

Ryan: Would you say categorically that Christians should be pacifists?

Claibourne: I’m careful about the words we use, whether “pacifist,” “evangelical”

or any label. I would like to make sure what we mean by that. I would say, along with theologian Walter Wink, that Jesus abhors passivity and violence, and that he teaches us a third way that is neither fight nor flight and that is able to deal with evil in a way that does not mirror it. For me, when I look at Jesus it is impossible to hold both the cross and a sword.

Most of the time we lack imagination in how to deal with violence and we aren’t willing to face it. It’s not that we’ve tried non-violence and it’s failed, but we haven’t tried non-violence with the same willing-

ness to die and risk it and put resources forth for non-violent alternatives. I would say I’m a peacemaker because Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) This means that I’m actively non-violent and I try to interrupt violence wherever I see it and be consistently pro-life from conception to the grave.

Ryan: Much of your way of doing ministry also describes The Salvation Army, certainly the early Salvation Army. We sign a Soldiers’ Covenant that contains our doctrines and beliefs. This, in turn, leads to a certain lifestyle. In many ways The Salvation Army is a Protestant order, yet our main metaphor is one of war and violence. Now that I live in an area where violence is common, I’m finding

the dichotomy increasingly difficult to resolve. So many things that you do are so similar to The Salvation Army, except in form. How do you handle the militarism of The Salvation Army?

Claiborne: The thing I love about The Salvation Army is that it is peculiar. There is something about it that is set apart so that it becomes a “contrast culture.” I’m not familiar with the exact theology around peacemaking within The Salvation Army and how it gets worked out. The first time I came to a Salvation Army event, my friend and I were looking around and there were uniforms everywhere.

We thought it was awesome—as long as everyone understands the reasons why!

Jesus and Paul were always doing this, using military language and spinning it on its head.

Jesus regularly drew images from the imperial lexicon. Even words we use commonly today—such as evangelical, evangelion or gospel—come from the idiom of the Roman Empire. So I love it! The word we use for the Kingdom of God—basilica—is the same word that was used for the empire and its realms. So in this sense I get it.

The tricky thing is that rather than transforming culture, language can become infected by culture again. For example, Constantine and others have used that same language to do horrific things in the name of Christianity, so we need to be careful. I don’t know how this has worked itself out within the denominational tradition of The Salvation Army, but we are writing a book right now with a chapter called “A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief,” referring to Jesus. It provokes the imagination with language that we identify with, but it also doesn’t compromise the peculiarity and absurdity of that notion—like the image of the Amish running America’s department of homeland security or the war on terror. We see the integrity within that paradox and its inherent possibility to make a safer, more sustainable world.

Ryan: Is there a parable or Gospel snapshot that is seminal to your ministry?

Claiborne: I like the Sermon on the Mount.

I read and reflect on it all the time. This was Jesus’ “State of The Union” address, his proclamation. If we can get that down,

we will be in pretty good shape. I love the prophet Hosea because of his image of a romance with God, which I think is what we were created for. And I enjoy Isaiah 58, which speaks about the kind of fast we have chosen and how we are to spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry, as well as using imagery of rebuilding the ancient ruins.

As far as a specific parable or story, I love the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. I can see myself in the Pharisee, first as a conservative Christian that used to say, “Thank God, I’m not like those people,” and more recently as one with a more “progressive” self-righteousness that says, “Thank you that I only eat organic food, unlike this chemical-consuming carnivore!” I’m still very self-righteous, and I love that image that we are to beat our chest and join the groaning of other people and of creation, not separating ourselves from people who are struggling.

Ryan: Have you projected much into the future? What will you be doing 10 years from now? Will The Simple Way still exist in the same way?

Claiborne: I hope that 10 years from now we are still hanging out with homeless people, playing with kids and doing all the things that sparked that energy and passion within us. I hope we are still clinging to our first love. Revelation is beautiful when it talks about not forgetting our first love and the innocence of our faith (see Revelation 2:4). I hope we don’t fall in love with anything big to the point that we forget the small things.

There is a lot of shifting happening within the Church, the culture and Evangelicalism. It’s a gift to be alive and be one voice in a harmony of voices that are creating a healthier dialogue in the Church. I hope that we are still doing stuff in our neighbourhood and that we are able to connect the dots between other faith communities. I think we are getting better at that and at reminding each other that we are not alone. That’s what we are spending a lot of energy doing right now.

I see more and more fruit coming out of those connections.

Shane Claiborne writes and travels extensively, speaking about peacemaking, social justice and Jesus. He is featured in the DVD series Another World Is Possible and is the author of the book The Irresistible Revolution. Visit www. thesimpleway.org.

June 2007 Salvationist

21

A fine BALANCE Living in another country has helped me evaluate what’s truly important

by John McAlister Literary Secretary, Harare, Zimbabwe

John finds his balance hundreds of feet above the Zambezi River before plunging headfirst into the gorge

A

s I ride in the back of the pickup truck, I watch the sun set over the Zimbabwean landscape and reflect on how fortunate I am to be here.

Thirty minutes later, I try counting the millions of stars that have emerged in the sky, unadulterated by city lights or smog.

Two hours later I am shivering from the cold wind and my back is sore from the bumpy ride. Blinded by the headlights of an approaching vehicle, I lean toward the territorial youth secretary sitting beside me and ask how much farther we have to go. Another two hours. I can’t imagine my father-in-law, the territorial youth secretary for Canada and Bermuda, hitchhiking like this to speak at a Salvation Army youth event. But I’m not in Canada anymore.

My wife, Rochelle, and I have been serving as Salvation Army reinforcement personnel in Zimbabwe for nearly a year.

We will be here for at least two more. On

22

Salvationist June 2007

most days I’m pleased with this prospect.

But I do have occasional moments when I wonder how I can escape to Canada, where people travel in relative comfort.

Highly Respected Army Zimbabwe is the second-largest Salvation Army territory in the world and boasts hundreds of thousands of Salvationists.

When Rochelle and I walk along the street, complete strangers give us the Army salute.

The first few times it caught me off guard, so I waved back at them. Zimbabwean Salvationists proudly wear their uniforms (grey in winter and beige in summer), so it’s not uncommon to see people throughout the week in full Army regalia. Even the vice-president of the country wears her uniform to religious functions.

Officers are highly respected here. At special meetings and events, they receive priority seating and eat separately from soldiers. I find this segregation uncomfortable

and unbiblical, but try to understand the importance of showing respect, especially given the hardships that most officers face.

In Canada, we sometimes treat our officers as inferior or irrelevant, so it’s nice to see them valued.

As the third-largest denomination following the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions, The Salvation Army is primarily recognized as a church here. This is quite different than in Canada, where most people view us more as a charitable organization.

Growing up as an officers’ child, I used to cringe at the thought of my school friends seeing my parents pick me up in a Salvation Army vehicle. I still remember the day my father came to collect food donations from my public school and my friends asking me if I was poor. “The Salvation Army is a church,” I used to say.

“We’re just like every other church, we just have special outfits. But we’re not poor.

We help the poor, but they’re not part of our church. There are doctors and lawyers and business people at my church.”

I spent years trying to justify the respectability of my church to my society. Those were wasted and misguided years.

Corps Activities When I arrived in Zimbabwe, I felt like I had come to the mecca of The Salvation Army. In my official role in territorial communications, I frequently travel around the country to attend special events and visit corps. Let me tell you, Zimbabwean Salvationists know how to worship hard and long. I’ve been to many six-hour services that, for the first five hours at least, were full of passion and excitement. It’s not a sin to dance in church here, but it sometimes feels like a sin not to.

Most corps have two lengthy Sunday services (a holiness meeting and a salvation meeting) and Salvationists attend multiple corps activities throughout the week. It’s not unusual for young people to spend most evenings at their corps.

Brass bands, timbrels, songsters, home leagues and other relics from the Western Army’s past are still found in their glory here.

In my first couple of months, I got caught up in the excitement. I even played in the corps band, after promising myself six years ago that I would never pick up a cornet again. This was the Army I dreamed of when I was a child—the biggest church on the block that everyone wants to belong to and where it’s cool to wear the uniform.

rate in the world—nearly 2,000 percent (estimated to hit 5,000 next year). We watch the prices of goods and services increase on a daily basis. The economy is in shambles. We experience frequent power outages, water cuts and shortages of goods. I’ve just spent my lunch hour roaming the city to find milk—fresh, sterilized or powdered—but without success. I did the same thing yesterday. A few weeks ago we couldn’t find bread or flour.

As prices continue to soar, people fall into greater poverty as salaries and incomes fail to keep up. Worst hit are those on pensions. We live beside some pensioners who receive $2,000 a month. A loaf of bread costs over $300, so I wonder how they survive. Parents struggle to afford the escalating school fees and many children wear their mandatory school uniforms

people in the market or street kids begging in the street?

A Balanced Life What I’m learning is the need for balance, both in my Christian life and the Movement I belong to. James 1:27 tells us that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” The challenge for Salvationists, whether they live in Canada, Zimbabwe or Timbuktu, is to pursue both aspects of this challenge. When we focus on one priority over the other, we lose sight of the abundant life to which God has called us.

It’s a fine balance.

In The Violence of Love, the late Archbishop Oscar Romero says, “Let us not measure the Church by the number of its members or by its material buildings … That doesn’t matter. The material walls here will be left behind in history. What matters is you, the people, your hearts. God’s grace giving you God’s truth and life.

Don’t measure yourselves by your numbers. Measure yourselves by the sincerity of heart with which you follow the truth and light of our divine Redeemer.”

We are privileged to serve in Zimbabwe with The Salvation Army. We have been warmly welcomed into the family here, and have learned much about living with hope and trust in God. While we may never get used to six-hour meetings, we are truly blessed by the unbridled enthusiasm of our Salvationist comrades. My dream is that more Salvationists around the world will be able to say, “Yes, we are a big, exciting church. But let me tell you how we are reaching out to the hurting people in our community.”

We are privileged to serve with the Army in Zimbabwe and have learned much about living with hope and trust in God

Incongruities The Salvation Army is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but as I experience more of Zimbabwe and see the ever-increasing numbers of people suffering under incredible economic and political hardships, I just don’t get as excited about celebrating the opening of a new corps building or the establishment of more divisional administrative structures. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Zimbabwe has the highest inflation

John congratulating students from the first-ever Territorial School for Music and Gospel Arts

until they are completely tattered.

Rochelle and I give away more than half of what meagre resources we have. It’s hard not to help parents send their kids to school with proper shoes or to purchase prescription medication for our elderly neighbours. But it becomes very draining to see so many people suffer.

We have struggled to adjust to living in a Salvation Army ghetto. We work with Salvationists, we live on a Salvation Army compound, our friends are Salvationists and it seems that we are always involved in Salvation Army activities. When are we or other Salvationists expected to find the time to interact with our neighbours,

Rochelle visiting with women at a home for the elderly

June 2007 Salvationist

23

Celebrate Community

Recognition and enrolment From the East and the West new members welcomed across the territory DARTMOUTH, N.S.— Kyle McGrath, Robyn McGrath and Nicholas Lush proudly display their junior soldier pledges following their enrolment by Cpt Sean Furey and Mjr Marilyn Furey, COs, Dartmouth CC HALIFAX—Two soldiers and seven adherents are welcomed during 122nd anniversary celebrations at Halifax Citadel CC. Front row, from left, Rhonda Lee; Vijaya Nakka; Don Gates; Heather Budden; Cpt Sandra Budden, CO. Back row, from left, Cpt Owen Budden, CO; Fraser Baguma; Henry Lee; John Nakka; Ches Mansfield; Rick MacDonald; Nick Jones; Stephen Jones DILDO, N.L.—James Reid (left) and Marguerite Higdon (right) display their Soldiers’ Covenants following their enrolment atTrinity Bay South

KITCHENER, ONT.—Eleven adherents are welcomed at Kitchener CC. Back row, from left, Wayne Kneisel; Mjr Ernie Reid, CO; Karen Heipel; Winnifred Rowe; Katherine Jackman; Paul Jackman; Christy Lederman; Matthew Lederman. Front row, from left, Mjr Sandra Reid, CO; Dorothy Furey; Dorothy Stein; Fay Chang; Doug Proctor; CSM John Vos

VANCOUVER—Kirst en Ivany becomes a soldier at Vancouver 614.

From left, Mjr David Ivany, TYS and Kirsten’s father; Kirsten Ivany; Cpt Stephen Court, former CO

Public Welcome and Installation of MOUNT MORIAH, N.L.—New home league members are welcomed to strengthen women’s ministries. From lef t, HLS Nora Young; Joan E l l s wor t h ; H LT Joy Hunt; Laurie Cooper; Mjr Christine Gray, community chaplain, Corner Brook, N.L. W Div

Commissioners William and Marilyn Francis New Territorial Commander and Territorial President of Women’s Ministries

Thursday, July 12 7:30 p.m.

Divisional Camp Auditorium Jackson’s Point, Ontario

Conducted by Commissioners Max and Lenora Feener Territorial Commander and Territorial President of Women’s Ministries, U.S.A. Southern Territory

OSHAWA, ONT.—New soldiers are enrolled at Oshawa Temple. Front row, from left, Mjr Doreen Sturge, CO; Rachel Downey; KendraThompson; Chris Noel; David Foote; Aaron Patterson; Emily Richards; Rachel Ball.

Back row, from left, RS Kevin Thompson; Charles Long; Alastair Price; Mjr Max Sturge, CO 24

Salvationist June 2007

Supported by Colonels Glen and Eleanor Shepherd Chief Secretary and Territorial Secretary for Women’s Ministries

Celebrate Community

Service Above Self

70 Years and Counting …

CAMBRIDGE, ONT.—Mjr Lorraine Shea, assistant executive director, Cambridge CFS, is presented with the Paul Harris Fellow Award for her outstanding service to the community.

Making the presentation is RitaWestbrook, president of the Rotary Club of Cambridge Sunrise.The award recognizes “service above self” and is the highest honour that a Rotarian can receive

DARTMOUTH, N.S.—Retired CSM Frank Banfield and his wife, Rose, recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.They praise God for their many years together and testify that the secret to their happy marriage is placing Christ first in their home

Dedicated Service SEAL COVE, F.B., N.L.—Following 20 years of faithful service, YPT Joan Loveless receives her retirement certificate from Mjrs Ross and Doreen Grandy, COs

Gazette

TERRITORIAL Promotion to major Cpt Cécile Cantin Promotions to major (Jun 20) Cpts Graham/Barbara Brown, Ed/Kathie Chiu, Grant/Lauren Effer, Mervyn Halvorsen, Edward/Roxzena Hayden, David/Beth Pearo, Shona Pike Promotions to major (Jun 27) Cpts Darlene Anderson, Phillip/Wavey Birt, Stan Higdon,Terry/Bonnie Hopkins, Raymond/Laura Janes, Kelly Rideout Births Cpts BJ/Krista Loder, son, Silas Alexander, Apr 6 Appointments Mjr Donna Barthau, chaplain, Florence Booth House,Toronto, Ont. C Div (additional responsibility); Mjrs Eric/Donna Bond, DC and DDWM, Prairie Div (effective Jun 29); Mjr Beverley Buell, chaplain, Booth Industries, Toronto, Ont. C Div; Mjr Brenda Holnbeck, DC, Ont. N Div (effective Jun 29); Mjrs Larry/Velma Martin, DC and DDWM, Maritime Div (effective Jun 29); Mjrs Kester/KathrynTrim, DC and DDWM, Quebec & Northern Ttys Div (effective Jun 29); Mjr Susan van Duinen, DC and DDWM, Man. & NW Ont Div (effective June 29); Cpt Claudine Croteau, executive director, L’abri d’espoir, Montreal, Quebec Div; Cpt Laverne Fudge, Gravenhurst CC, Ont. N Div; Cpt Jamie Hillier, divisional EDS co-ordinator,

Watch for future issues of

as we explore these themes July—Faith and the Movies August— Summer Reading/ Sports Ministry September— The Influence of Pop Christianity October— The Environment/ Global Warming November— Sacred Cows of Church Ministry December—Multicultural Christmas

Maritime Div (additional responsibility); Cpt Irene LaBranche, special assignment—prayer co-ordinator, family tracing and special projects, Quebec Div; Cpt Penny Lang, associate officer, Agape Hospice, Calgary, Alta. & NorthernTtys Div (additional responsibility); Cpt Catherine Skillin, associate CO for healing and wholeness ministry, MississaugaTemple, Ont. C Div; Lts Ronald/Lynda Farr, COs, The Warehouse Mission,Toronto, Ont. C Div; Lts Felipe/Phyllis Vega, COs, Yorkton, Sask. Div Note: Full details of this year’s annual change of officers are available online at Salvationist.ca Reinforcement personnel Lt-Cols Wayne/Myra Pritchett, secretary and associate secretary for international training and leader development, international personnel department, IHQ (effective Jul 16)

Calendar

Commissioner M. Christine MacMillan Jun 10 CFOT; Jun 15-17 Celebration OneTwoFive, Winnipeg; Jun 22-24 Newfoundland and Labrador provincial congress, Corner Brook, N.L. Colonels Glen and Eleanor Shepherd Jun 15-17 Celebration OneTwoFive, Winnipeg; Jun 22-24 Newfoundland and Labrador provincial congress, Corner Brook, N.L.; Jul 12 welcome and installation of new territorial leaders, Jackson’s Point, Ont. General and Mrs. Bramwell H. Tillsley (Rtd) Jun 8-10 congress and commissioning, Chicago,

New President for Booth College WINNIPEG—Dr. Donald E. Burke has been appointed as the fourth president of William and Catherine Booth College. The appointment, announced by the college’s board of trustees in March, took effect April 1.

In making the announcement, Dr. Marjory Kerr, board chair, acknowledged that the board had worked closely with Dr. Burke while he was interim president and expressed confidence that his leadership will enable Booth College to continue to grow in its mission, impact and influence.

“We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with Dr. Burke as he assumes this role,” she stated.

Donald Burke came to Booth College when it opened in 1982. Since that time he has served in various administrative roles as well as being a member of the faculty.

He was vice-president and academic dean from 2000 to 2006, at which time he became interim president following the departure of Dr. Jonathan Raymond. Originally from Brantford, Ont., he is a lifelong Salvationist and biblical scholar whose studies and teaching have focused on the Hebrew Bible. His broader interests include the NewTestament, Christian history, Wesleyan studies and theology.

U.S.A. CentralTty; Jun 11-13 territorial retired officers’ retreat, Camp Wonderland, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Central Tty Canadian Staff Band Jun 14-17 Celebration OneTwoFive, Winnipeg; Jul 12 welcome and installation of new territorial leaders, Jackson’s Point, Ont.

Be involved in the Army’s present— Be part of the Army’s future Keep us informed about what’s happening across the territory. Send us your news and photos highlighting the various ways The Salvation Army is living out its mission and values in your community.

In addition to selected items that appear in print, enrolments and recognitions are posted regularly on our website, Salvationist.ca, so please send all your material as soon as possible after the event. Photos are acceptable in JPEG or TIFF format, minimum 300 dpi preferred.

E-mail us at Salvationist@can.salvationarmy. org, or write to us at Salvationist, 2 Overlea Blvd, Toronto ON M4H 1P4.

Help us celebrate what is happening in your corps!

June 2007 Salvationist

25

Celebrate Community

tribute

MISSISSAUGA, Ont.—Born in Toronto in 1941, Arthur John Wilfred Dean was a lifelong Salvationist who loved his Lord and was strongly committed to leadership. He met Marilyn Stephens when they were both teenagers at Earlscourt Citadel, Toronto, and they were married in 1962. On moving to Mississauga, they were instrumental in starting the Army’s work there and Arthur became the founding bandmaster at Mississauga Temple, a position he held for 23 years. He enjoyed a distinguished career as a cornet soloist with both Earlscourt Citadel Band and the Canadian Staff Band, and spent many summers working with young musicians at Army music camps across the country. His lasting influence will never be forgotten. A printer by profession, Arthur retired in 1995 as general manager of the Army’s Triumph Press, responsible for printing all the Army’s publications, including The War Cry. He is missed by his wife, Marilyn; daughters Kimberley, Jacqueline and Laura; brother, Gary; sister, Ruth; eight grandchildren and many other family members and friends.

CARBONEAR, N.L.—The oldest soldier of Carbonear Corps, Bessie Pilgrim was promoted to Glory just a few hours short of her 101st birthday. At 17, she moved from Adam’s Cove, N.L., to Carbonear. There she met her husband, Harold, and together they raised eight children. With her mild and quiet spirit, Bessie served the Lord faithfully for 65 years. A lifetime member of the home league, she served as HLS for several years. She also enjoyed both The War Cry and Salvationist, reading each issue faithfully right up until her death. Bessie is survived by eight children and their families and is greatly missed by all who knew her.

NOTE: In the tribute for Ernie L. Eason in our March issue, his daughter Heather’s name was inadvertently left out. Also, Cheri Wilson, Ernie’s granddaughter, was mistakenly listed as his daughter. The editorial department apologizes to the family for this error

MOUNT PEARL, N.L.—Born in Windsor, N.L., in 1927, Mrs. Aux-Captain Emma Thompson taught in various Salvation Army schools throughout the province. In 1950, she married Lloyd Thompson, and in 1983, they became auxiliary-captains, serving at St. John’sTemple, Green’s Harbour and Pasadena. Following Lloyd’s sudden promotion to Glory, Emma was appointed as assistant at Corner Brook Temple. She then served for six years as assistant administrator at Parkdale House, Sydney, N.S., until her retirement in 1992, when she moved to Mount Pearl. Despite ill health in recent years, she continued to attend Sunday meetings and was actively involved in the retired officers’ fellowship. She is remembered by daughters Juanita (Pete) Banfield, Glenda Curtis, Gail (Jeff) Sexton, Marilyn (Gary) Forward; sons Gary (Lynn), Wayne (Jeanette); 14 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; many brothers and sisters and special friend, Peter Patey.

DARTMOUTH, N.S.—Born in 1935, Major Edith Taylor first encountered The Salvation Army through her nurse’s training at Halifax Grace Hospital, when she was invited by a fellow student to attend the local corps.There she found the Lord and fell in love with the Army. Responding to God’s call to full-time service, Edith entered training and was commissioned as an officer in 1958. Appointments included Grace Haven in Hamilton, Ont., the Bethesda Home in London, Ont., the Evangeline Residence in Saint John, N.B., and the Halifax, Windsor and Ottawa Grace Hospitals, where she eventually became the administrator. In 1982, Edith became executive director of St. John’s Grace General Hospital in Newfoundland, then served as executive director and president of the Winnipeg Grace Hospital until her retirement in 1994. An active soldier of Dartmouth Community Church, Edith’s willingness to be involved in ministry was much appreciated. She is survived by her brother, George; sister-in-law, Sherrilyn; nephew, Jimmie, and a large number of friends.

OWEN SOUND, Ont.—Originally from Saskatoon, Sask., Nellie Boezewinkel (known longer as Nellie Besson) was a lifelong Salvationist. She spent many years working with young people, first as YPSM at Ellice Avenue Corps, Winnipeg, then as CCC at Winnipeg Citadel and Southmount Citadel, Vancouver. In 1963, during the corps cadet congress inToronto, Nellie was presented with the flag for the largest corps cadet brigade in Canada—more than 50, at Winnipeg Citadel. She never lost her ability to encourage others, even as she suffered the frustrations of old age. Nellie was a consistent model of love, faithfulness and sincerity, and is greatly missed by her children Major Connie (Gordon) Armstrong and Herb (Lucette) Besson, 13 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.

DEER LAKE, N.L.—Born in Catalina, N.L., Mary Jean Goodyear committed her life to the Lord at an early age.

Enrolled as a soldier in 1956, she led a very active life within the corps, where she served as HLS, songster, Sunday school teacher and a member of the corps council.

Jean spent most of her time lending a helping hand to the sick and needy in the community. Always ready to talk to the unsaved about the things of God, she had a particularly tender heart for young people. Jean is remembered by sons Merrill (Mona) and Major Ronald (Maisie); daughters Elaine (Bill) Janes and Elizabeth; 14 grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren and many nieces, nephews and other relatives and friends.

26

Salvationist June 2007

NOTE: When submitting pictures with tributes or news reports, they should be sent as photographs to be scanned, or e-mailed to salvationist@can. salvationarmy.org as digital images with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Send images as JPEG or TIFF attachments and avoid including images embedded in Word documents or within e-mail messages. Do not send printouts of digital pictures as these cannot be used. We require the original computer file for processing in order to make your photographs look their best.

residence life @ Booth NeW foR ResideNCe this fall!

all expense paid extreme retreat Spring Break winter escape

four free tickets choose from theatre arts, music or sports Walking distance from campus

free Ym/YWca membership Half a block from campus

BoothCollege.ca Bachelor of Social Work | Bachelor of artS | Youth and familY | univerSitY one 447 Webb Place, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2P2 Canada | admissions@boothcollege.ca

Resurrection in the Heart of

Germany Reflections on a recent visit to Germany’s East Division

A remnant of the Berlin Wall looking into the former East Berlin

by Major Ron Millar Assistant Secretary for Personnel— Leadership Development, THQ

W

e live in a global village.

Though I have known and experienced this most of my life, I was reminded again in January of how small our world is when my wife, Donna, and I were privileged to visit Germany’s East Division, which is partnered in mission with our own territory. We had been invited to conduct an officers’ retreat, present a seminar on lay leadership, lead Sunday meetings and visit ministry units throughout the division.

World events have impacted how The Salvation Army has developed in that part of the world. After the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, for almost three decades free travel between East and West Germany was prohibited, and religious organizations such as the Army had to cease operations.

When the wall came down in 1989, the Army returned to re-commence, and in some ways, commence its work.

Reflecting on our visit, I was struck anew by the impact of what a global village The Salvation Army really is. Officers from around the world are working and ministering to establish the Army’s mission in the former East Germany. The divisional leaders, Majors Beat and Annette Rieder, originally from Switzerland and England, have served in four different countries, including Canada. They lead a divisional team consisting of officers who

are American, Australian, Canadian, Mexican and, of course, German.

The Salvation Army is vibrant in this part of Germany. From the initial introductory handshake to the final farewell embrace, I experienced again the incredible international fraternity and profound covenant connection that links us as Salvationists and as officers. During our visit, I came to realize that I belong to them and they to me. I was reminded that the Army is bigger than any corps, ministry unit, divisional or territorial headquarters, that I am part of something much larger and grander than where I am.

It also hit me just how new the Army is there. As I toured the centres and listened to various officers tell their story, I felt as though I was observing the early-day Army at work. Virtually every ministry unit in the division has come into being, or been resurrected, since the fall of the Berlin Wall 18 years ago. Some buildings were reclaimed and a handful of Salvationists returned, but for all intents and purposes, it is a new Army at work.

We speak much about integrated mission in our territory these days, and we can learn much about that notion from what is happening in Germany. In every centre we visited, the scope of ministry was astounding. There were cafés and drop-in centres, a computer school and small conference facility, thrift stores and day-care centres, community centres and day programs, feeding stations and beds for those without a place to sleep.

In one such place, guests were invited to write prayer requests on the wall next to where they slept that night, and the staff would pray specifically for those needs.

A designated prayer room is part of every ministry unit, and each aspect of mission demonstrates an openly evangelistic purpose to “save souls, grow saints and serve suffering humanity.”

I was also struck by the reality that though “The Wall” is down, walls are still up—walls of suspicion left from a generation of never knowing who you could really trust. And, of course, the wall of sinfulness still stands to separate human beings from their Saviour.

By the power of the Spirit, and through the sensitivity of Salvationists with a passion for the gospel, these walls are tumbling down. Thanks to their patient and persistent ministry, many are experiencing new freedom in Christ, and for that we rejoice.

Mjrs Ron and Donna Millar, left, with officers representing seven different countries of origin

June 2007 Salvationist

27

Just Between Us

How Much Is Too Much?

How to talk to your children about human trafficking

by Captain Kathie Chiu Corps Officer and Executive Director of The Caring Place Ministries, Mountain View Community Church, Maple Ridge, B.C.

T

hat’s just not right!” he exclaimed. “How could people do that? I can’t believe people would do those kinds of things.”

Nine-year-old Nathan was experiencing what all of us felt—a white-hot, righteous anger on behalf of those who have experienced injustice. You see, his world consists of a large, loving family, including parents who serve the Lord in full-time ministry. He attends a Christian school and has a teacher who begins each class with prayer.

For him, hurting another person is unimaginable.

Nathan is my son and he is learning about modern-day slavery—not just far away in developing countries, but right here in Canada, even in his own city. It’s difficult for him to learn that there are people who do bad things to hurt others.

Speaking to your children about crime and other serious issues is not easy. How much you tell them depends on factors such as their age, maturity and intelligence. For instance, preschoolers cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy. A monster in a book or a children’s movie can scare them. Our six-year-old, Evan, was extremely afraid of the A&W Root Bear he saw when we were on holidays one year, and for a long time we couldn’t go any place where there were people dressed in animal costumes. At this age children cannot fathom larger issues.

School-age children, from six to 12, are the most sensitive to what they see on the news and read in the newspaper. Yet they often lack the ability to put it into perspective. You might tell them about a young boy who is taken from his family and kept as a slave to make rugs in a big city in India. This would disturb them and the first thing they’ll want to know is, “Why?” You must be armed with the 28

Salvationist June 2007

For nine-year-old Nathan, hurting another person is unimaginable information to explain as much as you can, even when the explanation is not easy.

It’s important to talk to your children at this age about serious issues. Their maturity and ability to understand must guide you, but this is the age when establishing an open style of communication with them is very crucial. If you’re not talking to your kids, someone else will be. You’d be surprised at what they are picking up from their teachers, their schoolmates, television, newspapers and the Internet.

They need to have the right information—not necessarily all the information, but what is appropriate for their age.

Particularly between eight and 12, chil-

dren want to talk and learn more about tough issues. The more we share with them honestly, the more likely they are to turn to us as they grow into their teens.

Children 11 and up have a better understanding. We must ensure they are given correct information because what they hear from their peers is often distorted.

Nathan is unusually bright for his age. We’ve been talking to him about human trafficking and he’s been listening. So far, we’re giving him the basics and not too many of the details. At nine, he’s not ready to hear about some of the atrocities that occur all too frequently. But one day soon he’ll ask, and I hope we’ll be ready for that conversation.

In Proverbs 22:6 we read, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” It is our responsibility to arm our children with the truth and prepare them for the world.

Introducing some of these topics can bring families together as they pray for those who are suffering.

Help children overcome their sense of powerlessness in the face of difficult issues: • Set up a prayer guide and p ray together daily for people affected by slavery • Help your child write a letter to your local MP, asking them to do something about the issue here in Canada • Think up creative ways to raise money to send to an organization that helps fight human trafficking • For older children, blogging can help them talk about the issues Books and Websites •T alking to Your Kids In Tough Times (Willow Bay, Warner Books, 2003) • talkingwithkids.org • nytimes.com/learning

Wildfire

Heat = Action

B.C. youth enjoy a hero’s holiday as they put their faith into action

by Clint Houlbrook, editor, SendTheFire.ca Youth show God’s love to the community of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Photo: Kirsten Ivany

teamed up with Cariboo Hill Temple to host the young people. Daytime and early evening activities flowed from The Salvation Army X-culture Centre, an offshoot of Vancouver 614. Cariboo Hill Temple was the spot to wash up and catch some much needed sleep.

H

eat is required for fire to ignite, spread and burn with intensity. Without intense heat, the fire will go out.

The same is true of our Christian mission. At SendTheFire.ca, heat equals action.

We’re calling our younger generation to get active, to live out their faith through hands-on ministry, by doing something with their lives that positively impacts people and the planet—locally, nationally and globally.

One of the ways this is happening in our territory is at RAW, a youth initiative that stands for Ready And Willing.

RAW—Ready And Willing While some teens and young adults spent this year’s spring break playing endless hours of Xbox or jetting off to a sunny destination, 120 Salvationist young people in British Columbia chose a different

path. Instead of booking a vacation at some posh resort, they decided to minister amid the slums and rooming houses of North America’s poorest postal code district­—Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Hero Holiday Ultimately this hero holiday was about showing God’s love to the people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in various ways. Whether on prayer walks, in open-air meetings on street corners, during prayer meetings outside strip clubs or by volunteering at a local food bank, the young Salvationists took their faith to the streets.

As a group, the young people also attended a rally to draw attention to the trend of one-room hotels that are evicting residents to make room for new condo developments.

It was an incredible experience for all who participated. Young people saw

It was an incredible experience for all who participated. Young people saw and heard from God as they interacted with local residents Rather than packing sunscreen, shades and swim trunks, they brought Bibles, a small Abackpack with dry clothes and a sleeping bag. Armed with a heart for prayer and a sense of adventure, they heated things up on a three-day “hero holiday.”

Vancouver 614 and The War College

and heard from God as they listened to, interacted with and served local residents.

Their continuing challenge is to live out that passion as they return to their own communities.

Keep it up, guys and girls! Remember … you are the fire!

June 2007 Salvationist

29

Prayer Diary 2007

The 2007 Prayer Diary is available online at Salvationist.ca.

For more information or to receive your copy by e-mail, contact Major Lynda Watt, spiritual life and prayer coordinator, THQ (lynda_watt@can.salvationarmy.org).

June 1-7 Living the Vision: We enable flexible Army structures 1 Pray that leaders will be placed where they are needed most—without reference to hierarchy or status 2 Pray that leaders will be empowered to innovate and take risks for the sake of Kingdom growth 3 Pray that there will be excitement in the territory as God’s people are spiritually renewed 4 Pray that decisions will be guided by our faith-based values and mission effectiveness 5 Pray that we will acknowledge that relationships and people are more important than buildings and programs 6 Thank God for the leaders who have been our role models 7 Pray that we will be innovative and creative, an Army “mobilized by God”

June 8-14 Focus on Women’s Ministries 8 Pray for strengthening of the connection between women’s ministries and social services units in Ont. C Div that assist women in various ways 9 Thank God for the movement of God’s Spirit at recent women’s retreats in the B.C., N.L. West and Ont. C Divisions 10 Pray for women’s fellowship weekends in Ont. N. Div, June 8-10, and at the Quebec divisional camp, June 15-17

11 Pray for the Careforce Lifekeys program in Ont. N Div and the ongoing training in this special healing ministry 12 Pray for the territorial short-term mission team to Monrovia, Liberia, specifically for the mentoring of teen girls at the Catherine Booth Girls’ Hostel that provides training for local women in leadership 13 Pray for this year’s territorial women’s ministries project, that sufficient funds will be made available to support incomegenerating activities, education and safe, clean water for rural women and families in northern Tanzania 14 Pray that the Lord will raise up godly women to respond and be equipped for local leadership in corps throughout the territory

June 15-21 Focus on Celebration OneTwoFive 15 Pray for the spiritual impact of the events in Winnipeg to spread throughout the territory 16 Pray for the newly-commissioned officers 17 Pray for the moving of the Holy Spirit in all the meetings 18 Pray for unsaved family members and friends 19 Pray for all children’s and youth events 20 Pray for the ministry of the Word throughout the weekend 21 Pray for the ministry in music and creative arts

June 22-28 Focus on Maritime Division 22 Pray for God’s continued direction in the restructuring of Sydney Community Ministries, N.S. 23 Pray that campers and staff at Scotian Glen Camp will be refreshed and challenged in their faith 24 Pray for the newly-opened French work in Edmundston, N.B., and pioneer officers Aux-Cpts Serge and Yvette Brunet 25 Pray for the youth and leaders of expanding Pioneer Club programs throughout the division 26 Pray for a smooth transition in divisional leadership 27 Pray for the new direction of CFS ministries in Halifax and the inner-city project in Uniacke Square 28 Pray for success of the capital campaign to raise funds for Spryfield Family Centre, Gottingen Street Complex and Scotian Glen Camp

June 29-30 Focus on Children and Youth at Risk 29 Pray for Viva Network, a global movement of Christians concerned for children at risk. Those at risk include 246 million child labourers, 250,000 children and youth infected every month with HIV/AIDS and 300,000 youth under 18 exploited as child soldiers (for more information visit www. viva.org) 30 Pray for the children being cared for by the organizations, churches and individuals of the Viva Network, which runs projects around the world. Challenges include isolation, lack of resources and training

Resources

Darkest England and the Way Back In

The Dangerous Act of Worship

by Gary Bishop

Living God’s Call to Justice

by Mark Labberton

Through powerful stories, biblical thought and personal reflection, the author takes us on a journey that calls us to hear again the implicit call of Scripture for the Church to spend itself on behalf of the poor. It challenges us to re-imagine how, why and where we engage in mission in the 21st century.

Postmodernism and The Salvation Army

Published by The Salvation Army in the Australa Eastern, Australia Southern and New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga Territories, this anthology addresses issues that confront The Salvation Army in the postmodern age. Authors deal with such subjects as being the Church in the modern world, gender issues, evangelism, Salvation Army symbolism and organizational structure.

30

Salvationist June 2007

What’s at stake in our worship? Everything.

In this prophetic wake-up call for the contemporary Church, Pastor Mark Labberton reconnects Christian worship with social justice. From beginning to end, worship must do justice and seek righteousness, translating into transformed lives that care for the poor and the oppressed.

For these and other great products contact The Salvation Army Christian Book and Supply Centres: 2 Overlea Blvd, Toronto ON M4H 1P4 phone: 416-422-6100; email: orderdesk@can.salvationarmy.org 21 Adams Ave, St. John’s NL A1C 4Z1 phone: 709-579-3291; email: stjtrade@can.salvationarmy.org Taxes, shipping and handling extra

My Perspective

Milestones

Celebrating God’s faithfulness helps us share his love with others

by Colonel Eleanor Shepherd Territorial Secretary for Women’s Ministries, THQ

T

his year is proving to be a year of milestones. For me, it’s marked by the celebration of a significant birthday. Within The Salvation Army, women’s ministries celebrates its centennial internationally and our own territory celebrates its 125th anniversary.

In a recent meeting of my spiritual formation group, we did a life-mapping exercise, identifying profound times, people or events that God has used to mark and shape our lives. I chose to look at each decade of my life, noting milestones such as my first real answer to prayer, joyful events like my marriage and the birth of our children, God’s calling to ministry and our response. I also listed personal challenges such as the time I felt I had failed completely in ministry.

What would it look like if I were to do a life-mapping exercise for the 10 decades of Salvation Army women’s ministries? One significant milestone would be women gaining the right to vote. The women who fought for this were Christians who realized that all God’s children need a voice.

There is also the reality of many women coming into their own as leaders in society. Today, these women are seeking to bring balance in a corporate world that in many ways has lost its soul. The Lord is using them to highlight values that have as much importance as the bottom line on the balance sheet.

Sadly, millions of women in our world have hardly been able to get out of the starting gate, let alone reach a milestone.

It may seem an oxymoron that the theme chosen internationally to celebrate the Army’s women’s ministries is While Women Weep. These words of our Founder, William Booth, come from his passionate speech given during his last public appearance on May 9, 1912, in which he promised that as long as women wept he would fight against the evils that evoked their tears. The milestones that we have reached in women’s ministries prick our con-

sciences. They remind us of women who have yet to reach their first milestone in understanding their great value in the eyes of the One who created them. Slaves to oppression, they have no voice. The future challenges us to offer them our support and encouragement—to help them find their voice.

What would a life map of The Salvation Army in Canada and Bermuda reveal about significant times when God touched our territory in the past 125 years? I think about the God-encounter that happened in London, Ont., where youthful immigrants Jack Addie and Joe Ludgate found each other in a prayer meeting. As the first Canadian Salvationists, they brought the Army’s distinctive ministry to Canada. It is interesting that the Lord chose to use lay Salvationists.

Another milestone was the Klondike gold rush. While people rushed off to seek their fortune, Salvationists went with another agenda.

They were there to bring hope to the prospectors who were caught up in their own greed, yet whose fortunes proved a vain illusion.

How did the Lord speak to Canadian Salvationists through the Empress of Ireland tragedy? The loss to the territory was horrendous—not just the renowned Canadian Staff Band but many top leaders and others who were on their way to the great international congress in England. Was it a reminder to the Canadian Salvation Army that God is there in joy and in sorrow—that he is

enough, and that he alone gives a song in the darkest night?

A more recent milestone for our territory was the bold step of lay Salvationists to take responsibility for the Army’s future direction through the formation of ACSAL, the Advisory Council of Salvation Army Laymen. Though no longer functioning, ACSAL marked a milestone in learning to listen. Once again, the Lord was providing a way to give a voice to all his people.

The territorial symposium in November 2005 was a further step in this direction, as Salvationists gathered both in person and through online participation, as a further demonstration of the Army’s commitment to the priesthood of all believers.

As we look at our life maps, we see the faithfulness of God throughout our journeys. As Salvationists, let us be faithful in using the voice that he’s given us to share his love in new ways as we move toward new milestones.

As we look at our life maps, we see the faithfulness of God throughout our journeys

June 2007 Salvationist

31

For address changes or subscription information contact (416) 422-6112 or circulation@can.salvationarmy.org. Allow 4-6 weeks for changes.