INSIDE THIS WEEK Territories celebrate 90 years of Salvation Army ministry Kenya PAGE 4 Speaker praises Army for turning words to deeds Westminster Hall PAGE 5 PLUS LOTS MORE! PAGES 12 and 13 PAPERS THE Est 1879 War CryyNo 7044 Q CHRISTMAS 171 DecEMBERMBER 201101101 KIDSSA ALIVE! – formerly The Young Soldier – Issuessue No 6776 www.salvationarmy.org.uk/kids Q CHECK OUT THE FIGHTING FOR HEARTS AND SOULS STAMPS DELIVER 17 December 2011 salvationarmy.org.uk/warcry 20p/25c CHIPMUNKS IN THE MESSAGE THEIR NEW FILM Q CAMBRIDGE Q LEARN HOW UNITED CHAPLAIN KEEP TO MAKE YUMMY DESCRIBES LIFE AT CHRISTMAS DANCING! THE NON-LEAGUE COOKIES CLUB © T TW TWE TWE T WE WENT WEN ENT EN NT NTIET NTIE TIETH TIE TIET CENT ETH ET E T TH CE H CENT CENT ENT T URY FOX. ALL RI A R RIG FOX.FOX A ALL RIG AL Y FOX FO FOX. ALL RIG FOX. ALL R X. ALL R Q TAKE A THEY’VE waltzed, jived and quick-stepped Q MAJOR CATHERINE A their way into the final. Tonight Waterloo RI R Road’s Chelsee Healey, Neighbours HTSHT H R TS legend Jason Donovan and McFly SRES S SRE R RE R ESE ES ESERVE drummer Harry Judd hope to set the S SERVESERV ERVEDERVEER R RV ‘SEASONAL ELF Blackpool Tower Ballroom alight. VE VED ED ED. WYLES CONSIDERS D. D . IS IT TIME TO MAKE A MOVE? – page 3 BBC NATIVITY SCENES KA! JAM – The Worshipping Wise Men CHECK’ THIS WEEK’S QUOTES FROM THE PAPERS COUNCIL PRAYER COURT FOLLOW THE STAR: NOW JOSEPH TELLS STORY OF MARY’S LITTLE CHALLENGE SURPRISE IN HIS TWITTER UPDATE The National Secular Society’s bid to Thanks to Twitter we now know that 7 December was a really tough prevent a town council from including day for Joseph of Nazareth. prayers at the beginning of its The humble carpenter who took to the instant messaging meetings reached the High Court… The NSS argued that the practice service… spent the whole day agonising publicly over his girlfriend’s of conducting prayers at Bideford mysterious pregnancy… Town Council… is unlawful because The anonymous German who calls himself ‘Joseph Von Nazareth’ it amounts to indirect discrimination has attracted thousands of followers… of people with no religion and is Joseph… started tweeting because Mary told him ‘that’s what incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights… people do these days’… The council’s defence is being On names [for Mary’s baby], there is this from @dea [a follower]: supported by the Christian Institute. ‘For a girl I like Andrea. For a boy, hmm… difficult.’ The Baptist Times The Times BRAND NEW CHRISTMAS? IT’S THE WINTER FESTIVE SEASON The comedian Jo Brand is backing a new In her role as a vicar, this time Church of England website to help people of year means spreading the message about the real meaning of to find a Christmas service near them… Christmas… services will be listed by many of the CofE’s It came as a disappointment, therefore, when Canon Marilyn 16,000 places of worship… Sharland discovered that the Liberal Ms Brand said that she was ‘not really a Democrats… did not appear to be sending out the same message. churchy person’ but that services could She has spoken of her annoyance be ‘a great attraction for families at to see Christmas referred to as ‘the winter festive season’ in her local Christmas-time’. newsletter. Church Times The Daily Telegraph TERRITORIAL HEADQUARTERS Tel: 0845 634 0101 SALVATIONIST 101 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BN Tel: 020 7367 4890 Fax: 020 7367 4691 Email: [email protected] Web: www.salvationarmy.org.uk/salvationist A registered newspaper published weekly by The Salvation Army (United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland) on behalf of the General of The Salvation Army and printed by benhamgoodheadprint Limited, Bicester, Oxon. © Linda Bond, General of The Salvation Army, 2011. The Salvation Army Trust is a registered charity. The charity number in England and Wales is 214779, in Scotland SC009359 and in the Republic of Ireland CHY6399. EDITOR Major Stephen Poxon Tel: 020 7367 4901 MANAGING EDITOR Stephen Pearson Tel: 020 7367 4891 ASSISTANT EDITOR Major Jane Kimberley Tel: 020 7367 4892 ASSISTANT EDITOR Claire Anderson Tel: 020 7367 4894 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Laura Barker Tel: 020 7367 4893 DTP DESIGNER Colin Potter Tel: 020 7367 4895 DTP OPERATOR Denise D’Souza Tel: 020 7367 4896 GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jonathan Carmichael Tel: 020 7367 4883 ADMINISTRATOR Stella Merino Tel: 020 7367 4881 ADVERTISING Tel: 020 7367 4883 Email: [email protected] DISTRIBUTION Salvationist Publishing and Supplies (Periodicals), 66-78 Denington Road, Denington Industrial Estate, Wellingborough NN8 2QH Tel: 01933 445451 Fax: 01933 445415 Email: [email protected] THE SALVATION ARMY FOUNDER William Booth GENERAL Linda Bond TERRITORIAL COMMANDER Commissioner John Matear EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND PUBLISHING SECRETARY Major Leanne Ruthven 2 17 December 2011 SALVATIONIST www.salvationarmy.org.uk/salvationist COMMENT hopes and fears of all the years’ without sensing his personal concern for hopes and fears that might not have belonged to his own denomination or even himself, Of bands and but which were real to friends – and colleagues – wrestling with loves and doubts, faith and theology. His magnanimous approach to such matters enabled him to remember that one person’s route to Christ is as valid as Bethlehem anyone else’s. I warm to that, for it echoes the spirit of Mark 9:37–39. That particular carol will be one of many played by Salvation Army bands in little towns, big cities and all manner of venues in the Christmas period. To that end, I commend to you Graham Wallis’s article on pages 12 and 13, sitting nicely alongside the feature on Stockport Citadel’s electronic efforts on page 14. My personal contribution to Salvation Army carolling over the years has been as a collector of money – despite astonishingly altruistic offers on my part to support Army bands as far apart as Harpenden and Paisley by tooting on my cornet. ‘No thanks, Leff/Captain/Major,’ has been the consistent seasonal rebuff, along with ‘Can you play “Over The Hills And Far Away”?’ and ‘You’d be better off persuading people to part with their F ever you were stumped by the cash.’ Taking the hint, I have done as question of who might have been one advised and even managed to raise a I of the greatest proponents of positive few quid in the process – strangely ecumenical relationships in the 1800s, enough, by standing as often as then I would be happy to put you out of possible next to a shop selling hot your misery. sausage rolls. The answer is Phillips Brooks, a bishop Cruel rejection notwithstanding, it never in the American Episcopalian Church, ceases to amaze me how The Salvation who did more than most, through force Army almost effortlessly crosses of personality, deep charm and a denominational borders in a way that gracious, sympathetic understanding of would delight Phillips Brooks. Clutching ways of thought and religious traditions my oxymoron of a plastic tin, I chat to ‘Was Bethlehem truly wrapped in “deep other than his own, to foster a spirit of people of all faiths and of none and, as and dreamless sleep”? Or was not harmony akin to that for which Jesus they drop in their coins, do my best to the overcrowded inn on the eve of the prayed. drop in a word about Jesus. We shoot census shrill with the laughter of women ourselves in the collective foot if ever we and coarsened by the rough talk of My guess is that the Rev Brooks was men?... Christmas declares that God has hinting along ecumenical lines when he underestimate God’s ability to use us as not forgotten the world, much less does wrote ‘O Little Town Of Bethlehem’. To the denomination of the whosoever. he despair of it.’ know the man is to know his writing and (General Frederick Coutts) it is not difficult to read his lyric ‘The MAJOR STEPHEN POXON, EDITOR NEWS LETTERS TOOLBOX FEATURE NEW COMMITMENTS Pages 4 – 9 & 19 Page 10 The e-‘open air’ Pages 16 & 17 KenyaTheNetherlandsWestminsterHall StreetTHQSleafordReadingWestLurgan Page 14 SkewenSouthseaBoscombeWrexham MINDING HIS ANNOUNCEMENTS ChathamDinningtonBristolCitadelConsett SherburnHillSalisburyWillenhallLeigh-on-Sea BUSINESS BIBLE STUDY Army people, engagements NottinghamWilliamBoothMemorialHalls Three French hens Advent of peace and tributes HarpendenPooleSouthamptonShirley StocktonDouglasMaestegHarlowInverness Page 11 Page 15 Pages 18 & 19 IpswichCitadelLetchworthSheringham GainsboroughWilliamBoothCollegeParkhead SpainLeadgate FEATURE ADVERTS E-mmanuel and Pages 20 – 23 e-vangelism Pages 12 & 13 Front-page picture courtesy of: GARETH OWEN [email protected] SALVATIONIST 17 December 2011 3 INTERNATIONAL NEWS Territories Saturday night into Sunday morning, jeopardising the celebrate commissioning meeting which 90 years of was also scheduled to take place in the open air in Nyayo Salvation Army Stadium. However, around an hour and a half before the ministry commissioning of the 51 cadets Kenya of the Friends of Christ Session, SALVATIONISTS from around the rains stopped and there were the territory and beyond gath- hints of sunshine. ered in Nairobi, Kenya East, to After the Bible message, 70 celebrate the 90th anniversary people responded to the chal- of Salvation Army work and lenge to make themselves worship in the East African available for officership. country. Chief of the Staff The four-day celebrations Commissioner Barry Swanson began with a grand welcome to and World President of the Chief of the Staff and Women’s Ministries Commis- Commissioner Sue Swanson at sioner Sue Swanson led Salva- the Jomo Kenyatta International tionists and friends in giving Airport, Nairobi.