The Salvation Army

is a Protestant denomination of the Christian Church with over 1.6 million members in 109 countries. In the UK there are over 800 Salvation Army parishes (known as corps), over 1,500 ordained ministers (known as officers) and 54,000 members (including senior soldiers, adherents and junior soldiers).

Salvation Army officers wear a military-style uniform, though some officers may wear a more informal uniform when undertaking certain duties. Members of the church often choose to wear a uniform, but are not required to do so. Salvation Army halls are registered as places of worship. Salvation Army officers are ordained ministers of religion, and can conduct weddings and funerals.

The Salvation Army is famous for its work with people who have fallen on hard times: it offers help to the elderly, the young, offenders, drug addicts and blind and disabled people; it provides food and shelter for the homeless and operates food distribution centres.

The Salvation Army was founded in 1865, in the East End of London, by William Booth. Booth was an evangelist who wanted to offer practical help to the poor and destitute as well as preaching the Gospel to them. It was originally called the Christian Mission, but changed its name to the Salvation Army in 1878. Booth had his first real religious experiences with the Wesleyan Methodists in his early teens. He was converted to Christianity in 1844, and gave his first sermons at the age of seventeen in Nottingham in 1846. By the 1850s he was working as an evangelist amongst the poor and uneducated.

Booth was something of a maverick and didn’t fit easily in the ranks of existing religious institutions. After falling out with several churches he decided to strike out alone and launched the ‘Christian Mission to the Heathen of our Own Country’ in 1865 from a tent in Whitechapel, a poor district of London. Booth believed that instead of standing at the door of the church saying “why don’t you come in?” Christians must go out and meet the world on its own terms. Booth felt that the mainstream churches in Britain were too middle-class to be successful in bringing God to the masses. The Salvation Army was not middle-class. Booth’s followers and those who joined him in the work were drawn from the poor. As a result, most Salvationists understood working-class people and values and could speak to them on their terms. This greatly helped Booth’s mission to succeed.

The movement grew rapidly but by 1877 it became clear to Booth that it would only succeed if it was directed by a single strong hand – his own. He took control of the Army saying, “I am determined that Evangelists in this Mission must hold my views and work on my lines,” and he ran the Army as a dictatorship, taking personal authority over everything. The modern Army is no longer run like this – its leadership is consultative rather than autocratic.

Since Booth saw his movement as engaged in a spiritual battle against the forces of sin it was logical that he should adopt a military metaphor that had a long history in Christianity. In 1878 the mission adopted the title of ‘Salvation Army’, seeing itself as: “a Salvation Army to carry the Blood of Christ and the Fire of the Holy Ghost into every corner of the world” It adopted a quasi-military structure the same year and Booth ceased to be the General Superintendent and became simply ‘The General’.  y corner of the world

Like secular soldiers, the Salvation Army had to go to the most dangerous places to attack the enemy. To save the souls of the poor they carried their battle into the roughest and toughest places of British cities. Their only weapon was the word of God, backed up by music. They were not always welcome – in 1882 over 600 Salvationists were physically assaulted in the UK, including women and children

Booth’s first aim was to save fallen human beings from sin by converting them to Christianity, but he wanted to do more; to turn them into saints. They wouldn’t be saints because they were morally perfect; they would be saints because they were God’s chosen, because Christ was alive in them, and because they would dedicate their lives to building God’s kingdom on earth. Their mission was quite simple – to save other souls for Christ. They had been ‘saved to save’.

Despite Booth’s early experiences with the poor of Nottingham, the Army was not created to be an instrument of social change. Apart from a few minor projects, the early Army concentrated on pure evangelism – on prayer and preaching – to win converts. In the middle of the 1880s senior Army officers realised that poverty was a serious obstacle to their mission – people found it hard to think about the state of their souls if they were worrying about where the next meal was coming from. So the Army began to set up centres where people could find food and shelter. This initiative gave them a new access to people living in extreme poverty, and there were many of those in Victorian England.

The Army did not try to convert people to Christianity by using logic to convince them that Christianity was true. The Army’s great engine of conversion was prayer. As Booth put it, “Argument never opened the eyes of the blind. Do not argue, but pray.” An Army catch-phrase is “prayer at the centre of our mission and mission at the centre of our prayer.” The Army believes that the behaviour and lifestyle of Salvationists comprise another powerful weapon of conversion. They seek to set an example by living in love and unity in a world of separateness and conflict and loving people who are hard to love.

Music has always been important to the Salvation Army. William Booth famously asked ‘Why should the devil have all the best tunes?’ The Salvation Army’s first band was “recognised” by William Booth in 1879. It consisted of Charles Fry, a local builder in Salisbury, and his three sons. Salvation Army preachers in Salisbury were being attacked by local rowdies at their open air meetings. Fry and his sons offered to act as bodyguards and brought their instruments to accompany the singing. The music turned out to reduce tension, as well as drowning any shouts and abuse. Fry is commemorated by a blue plaque in Salt Street, Salisbury. In 1880 Booth issued a General Order in the War Cry encouraging the development of brass bands. The same year saw the publication of the first book of Salvation Army music; another volume followed in 1883.

One of the secrets of the Army’s musical success was its technique of taking well-known music-hall and the popular songs and giving them a Christian text. Although the Army does use many traditional hymn tunes, this use of unchurchy popular melodies gives a unique sound to Salvation Army worship. The Salvation Army now has approximately 2,500 brass bands worldwide, among other musical styles used in their worship. A Salvation Army brass band is made up of cornets (Eb and Bb), flugelhorn, alto horn, euphonium, baritone, trombone (tenor and bass), tuba (Eb and Bb) and percussion. Other ensembles are also used.

• Worldwide
  • 1.6 million members (including senior soldiers, adherents and junior soldiers)
  • Found in 109 countries
  • 15,339 corps (parishes or church units)
  • 17,346 full time ministers (officers)
  • 1,000 schools and 250 hospitals and clinics worldwide, in impoverished areas
  • 2,500 bands – both brass ensembles and other styles of music
• UK
  • Over 54,000 members (including senior soldiers, adherents and junior soldiers)
  • Over 800 corps (parishes or church units)
  • Over 1500 full time ministers (officers)

“Strawberry Fields Forever” in the Beatles 1966 song by that name, is John Lennon’s nostalgic reference to a Salvation Army orphanage called Strawberry Field in Woolton, England. Lennon is said to have played with childhood friends in the trees behind the orphanage when he was a boy.

The phrase ‘on the wagon’ was coined by men and women receiving the services of The Salvation Army. Former National Commander Evangeline Booth – founder William Booth’s daughter – drove a hay wagon through the streets of New York to encourage alcoholics on board for a ride back to The Salvation Army. Hence, alcoholics in recovery were said to be on the wagon.

The Salvation Army is a mainstream Protestant church. Its beliefs are based entirely on the Bible. There is nothing unusual about the doctrines held by members of the Salvation Army – they are much the same as those of other evangelical protestant groups. What is different is the passion with which Salvationists hold these beliefs, and the way it fills them with a desire to fight the evils of the world and save other people from sin and damnation. Salvationists hold their beliefs with “infectious joy”. They “glorify their Lord by living as rejoicing Christians. The world has gloom and sadness enough of its own. The joy of the Lord is the strength of the Army spirit.” Salvationists don’t retire to the quiet of a religious community to keep themselves pure; they plunge joyously into a sinful world to bring freedom to those in chains.

In the UK alone, the Salvation Army has 50 centres which help people without homes and provide over 3,000 beds. They are full almost every night. The ultimate aim of the programme is to help homeless people to live independently in homes of their own, and all the centres have case workers and resettlement workers to help their clients achieve this. The Army doesn’t just provide beds: many centres distribute blankets and sleeping bags to those without homes, and offer drop-in centres where people can find warmth, food and friendship – as well as help in finding somewhere to live. Other services include lunch clubs, washing and bathing facilities, and food parcels. The Salvation Army also organises soup runs in city areas. In London, the Salvation Army’s Eagle Project co-ordinates an extensive soup run provision and many other volunteer-based activities.

The Salvation Army has 60 social programme centres which provide residential accommodation and rehabilitation for people with substance misuse problems. These are part of the National Addiction Service. The Army has created an integrated, nationwide monitoring scheme providing a unique epidemiological profile of alcohol and drug taking in the UK.

The Salvation Armyhas over 300 Senior and Youth clubs run by Salvation Army corps around the country with many specialist initiatives. They run “The Eden Project” a church based youth project operating in an area where high unemployment leads to high crime, illegal drug use and low morale amongst residents.

They work with the elderly having sheltered flats, residential homes, home care services and over-60s lunch clubs. They are also well known for their work in prisons especially Prisoner’s Families. They also have a family tracing service that was established back in 1885 and receive around 5,000 enquiries every year and approximately 85% end in success. Over 20,000 family members now enjoy restored relationships as a result of enquiries carried out by the Family Tracing Service in the UK.

The International Headquarters of the Salvation Army is located at 101 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4EH. This is a modern building on a site which has been used by the Salvation Army for its headquarters since 1881. Hines UK developed this six-storey building as the Salvation Army’s world headquarters. The building comprises 34,861 square feet of highly functional office space. It was completed in 2004. This project also enabled Hines to undertake the speculative development of neighbouring building, 99 Queen Victoria Street.

SDW

BBC Religion, Wikepedia