War Cry 1 June 2019

1 June 2019 20p/25c

‘CLIMATE CHANGE WILL AFFECT US ALL’ Scientist explains the impact of global warming

DRIVEN TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE How volunteers are joining the battle against modern slavery

TACKLING THE CHALLENGE Women’s World Cup kicks off

Virtual reality WILL JOSEPH DISCOVER THE TRUTH IN ‘THE VIRTUES’?

2 COMMENT AND CONTENTS • WAR CRY • 1 June 2019

What is The Salvation Army?

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

From the editor’s desk EVERY month almost 12 million people in the UK volunteer at least once through a group, club or other organisation. That’s according to the most recent statistics published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), which also disclosed that almost half of all Brits informally volunteered their time to help people who were not related to them.

To say thank you to those volunteers, the NCVO starts Volunteers’ Week today (Saturday 1 June) and intends to use the seven days to recognise the positive contribution volunteers make to life in the country.

Hundreds of events and celebrations will be held to reward those who freely give up their time for others. But the week’s other objective is to encourage other people to do the same.

In this week’s War Cry we interview one of the numerous people who volunteer for The Salvation Army. Jean Metcalfe is a member of the organisation’s Bradford Idle church and she also volunteers with The Salvation Army’s work supporting people who have escaped the horrors of modern slavery.

With her husband, Frank, Jean has transported more than 220 victims of human trafficking away from the place of their abuse to one of safety.

‘They’ve all been cheated, lied to and damaged,’ she says of those people she has helped. ‘Sometimes you come home in pieces, thinking: “How could anyone be so cruel?”’

But, despite some of the distressing situations she encounters, Jean encourages other people to volunteer.

‘Go for it! Don’t hesitate,’ is her message to other would-be volunteers.

There are so many good things that happen within our communities only because people are willing to give up their time. Those people deserve to have a week given over to them to acknowledge the difference they make – 12 million thank-yous to you all.

What is the War Cry? The Salvation Army first published a newspaper called the War Cry in London in December 1879, and we have continued to appear every week since then. Our name refers to our battle for people’s hearts and souls as we promote the positive impact of the Christian faith and The Salvation Army’s fight for greater social justice.

WAR CRY Issue No 7425

Editor: Andrew Stone, Major Deputy Editor: Philip Halcrow Production Editor: Stephen Pearson Assistant Editor: Claire Brine Assistant Editor: Sarah Olowofoyeku Staff Writer: Emily Bright Editorial Assistant: Linda McTurk Graphic Designer: Rodney Kingston Graphic Designer: Mark Knight War Cry office: 020 7367 4900 Email: warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk The Salvation Army UK Territory with the Republic of Ireland 101 Newington Causeway London SE1 6BN Tel: 0845 634 0101 Helpline: 020 7367 4888

Contents

Subscriptions: 01933 445445 (option 1, option 1) or email: subscriptions@sp-s.co.uk Founder: William Booth General: Brian Peddle Territorial Commander: Commissioner Anthony Cotterill Secretary for Communications: Lieut-Colonel Dean Pallant

Published weekly by The Salvation Army ©The Salvation Army United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland ISSN 0043-0226 The Salvation Army Trust is a registered charity.

The charity number in England and Wales is 214779, in Scotland SC009359 and in the Republic of Ireland CHY6399.

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

Your local Salvation Army centre

FEATURES 3

Virtually complete TV series The Virtues reaches its conclusion

5

Team talk Which side will win the Women’s World Cup?

6

A driving force for good Volunteers rescue human trafficking victims

8

‘Climate change is a real phenomenon’ Scientist on the impact of global warming

REGULARS 4

News and media

12

Browsing the Bible

6

8

13 Expressions 14 Puzzles 15

What’s cooking?

Front-page picture: DEAN ROGERS

15

DEAN ROGERS

1 June 2019 • WAR CRY • TELEVISION 3

Past redemption?

Philip Halcrow sees a man set out to make sense of his childhood pain in The Virtues

W

HO does he think he is? Joseph, the emotionally scarred Scouser at the centre of Channel 4’s drama series The Virtues, which reaches its finale next Wednesday (5 June), has crossed the sea to Ireland and tracked down his long-lost sister. But back in the town where he spent his early days, he is still ill at ease.

After his ex moved to Australia, taking their young son with her, Joseph lost his grip. The recovering alcoholic fell off the wagon and went on a drink and drugs binge.

When he came round, lying on the floor of his flat, he decided to set about working out what had been haunting him in flashbacks.

His sister, Anna, was amazed to see him. He moved in with her and her husband, Michael, who gave him work in his building business.

Wanting to confront his past, he broke into the nowderelict children’s home from which he ran away as a nine-year-old. It disturbed him.

Joseph is not the only tortured soul. His new workmate Craigy was seemingly caught up in the same traumatic events as him.

And Michael’s sister, Dinah, is regretting that she gave in to her mother’s pressure and gave up the son she had as an unmarried teenager.

They have all been hurt. And, because the past is painfully present, they still have to decide how to react.

Jack Thorne, who co-wrote The Virtues with Shane Meadows, says that the drama’s title highlights ‘the relationship between virtues and sin’ and ‘the way that goodness and badness comes out of a certain situation’.

And religion makes its fair share of appearances in the series.

The title graphics turn the ‘T’ of Virtues into an image of Jesus on the cross. The photograph that advertised the series showed Joseph cruciform on the floor – an image of suffering.

And as the series comes to a climax, a scene from the first episode may come back into the mind of viewers.

Joseph (Stephen Graham) is haunted by flashbacks

As he wandered Joseph and the the streets on his wild night, Joseph heard a preacher agreed preacher’s voice, calling that everyone out: ‘When Jesus says “come to me”, he means needed peace everyone. Sometimes we’re filled with despair. Jesus says: “Come to me and I will forgive you of all your sins. And when you come to me, this is what I will give you instead.” Jesus talks about the virtues.’

Joseph responded: ‘The virtues of what?’

‘Forgiveness,’ the unseen preacher said.

Joseph asked, ‘Forgiving what sins?’ before answering his own question with the traditional seven deadly ones: ‘Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride.’

‘Every single one of them.’

Joseph and the preacher agreed that everyone needed peace in their lives.

‘Give him a chance,’ the preacher urged Joseph. ‘He’ll never turn you away.’

‘Not ready for that yet,’ said Joseph.

‘No problem,’ said the preacher, adding: ‘God loves you unconditionally.’

‘I know,’ said Joseph.

Joseph lives in a world – as we all do – where goodness and badness can come out of a variety of situations and where badness sometimes even dresses itself up as goodness.

Should anyone show forgiveness? Can anyone know forgiveness?

The street preacher’s assurance echoes something Jesus said: ‘I will never turn away anyone who comes to me’ (John 6:37 Good News Bible).

People who follow those words say that forgiveness for us is a possibility – by virtue of what Jesus did on the cross.

4 NEWS AND MEDIA • WAR CRY • 1 June 2019

Glimmers of hope appear after Cyclone Idai devastation THE Salvation Army has assisted 1,500 families in Mozambique since parts of the country were devastated by Cyclone Idai in March.

The families have received food packages containing 20kg of rice or maize, 10kg of beans and two litres of cooking oil. Assistance has also extended to non-food items, with the distribution of 500 family packs containing mosquito nets, blankets, water purification liquid, soaps, cooking utensils and pots.

‘There is still a lot of destruction but we can also see evidence of rebuilding,’ said Captain Heather Rossouw, who has been deployed by the church and charity’s international emergency services to assist with the relief efforts around the coastal city of Beira.

‘The homes that were destroyed by Cyclone Idai are slowly being rebuilt.

‘The people are very creative,’ she continued.

‘As you drive along the sand roads, you come across bicycles that are loaded with tree cuttings – branches, stumps – anything that can be used to rebuild lost houses.’

Almost three months on from the flooding in Malawi and Zimbabwe, which were also and destruction Idai caused in the region, the affected by the cyclone. relief phase is slowly coming to an end. But Heather explained that the need for support will continue for the foreseeable future.

‘The needs are still great,’ she added. ‘But we can see some glimmers of hope. We are grateful for the assistance given to this part of Mozambique and will continue to build relationships with our communities.’

In addition to the work in Mozambique, the church and charSalvation Army personnel ity is providing relief distribute family packs items to communities

THE Guardian has highlighted the work of a New Zealand Salvation Army shopping initiative that offers affordable n Veteran will ‘think of mates’ when goods to poorer communities.

Mobile shopping service Good Shop is a purple van that

tours Auckland neighbourhoods to sell furniture, electronics, baby equipment, linen and heating items on credit to those who struggle to leave their homes.

Interest-free repayments are scheduled to make the loan affordable to those on limited incomes.

Items are chosen on the basis of price, quality and ability to boost living standards and encourage social inclusion. All proceeds go towards the running costs of the programme.

The initiative is designed to combat unscrupulous lenders who take advantage of those in debt by going door-to-door offering credit loans with high-interest repayments.

‘Not a lot of people have cars or transport round here,’ said Good Shop customer Larayne, a single mother. ‘A single mum with kids that doesn’t have transport will find it difficult to get to a shop, so it’s much easier.

‘I have been turned away from a lot of places … If The Salvation Army wouldn’t take me, no one else would.’

PA

PA

jumping for D-Day anniversary

RETIRED Salvation Army minister and Second World War veteran Harry Read is parachuting into Normandy to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings next week.

He will participate in a tandem jump from a Dakota plane with the Red Devils parachute display team, marking the anniversary of his parachute jump on D-Day as a 20-year-old wireless operator.

The plane takes off from the Imperial War Museum’s preserved Second World War airfield at Duxford in Cambridgeshire, and flies over Sannerville, Normandy, alongside 30 other Dakota planes as part of a wider celebration of D-Day. ‘There is a delight in jumping,’ said Harry, who made his first tandem jump last year. ‘But I resonate more with the sacrifice than I do with the celebration. The sacrifice enabled the celebration to take place, of course. And I will think of my mates who died.’

4 NEWS AND MEDIA • WAR CRY • 1 June 2019

Glimmers of hope appear after Cyclone Idai devastation THE Salvation Army has assisted 1,500 families in Mozambique since parts of the country were devastated by Cyclone Idai in March.

The families have received food packages containing 20kg of rice or maize, 10kg of beans and two litres of cooking oil. Assistance has also extended to non-food items, with the distribution of 500 family packs containing mosquito nets, blankets, water purification liquid, soaps, cooking utensils and pots.

‘There is still a lot of destruction but we can also see evidence of rebuilding,’ said Captain Heather Rossouw, who has been deployed by the church and charity’s international emergency services to assist with the relief efforts around the coastal city of Beira.

‘The homes that were destroyed by Cyclone Idai are slowly being rebuilt.

‘The people are very creative,’ she continued.

‘As you drive along the sand roads, you come across bicycles that are loaded with tree cuttings – branches, stumps – anything that can be used to rebuild lost houses.’

Almost three months on from the flooding in Malawi and Zimbabwe, which were also and destruction Idai caused in the region, the affected by the cyclone. relief phase is slowly coming to an end. But Heather explained that the need for support will continue for the foreseeable future.

‘The needs are still great,’ she added. ‘But we can see some glimmers of hope. We are grateful for the assistance given to this part of Mozambique and will continue to build relationships with our communities.’

In addition to the work in Mozambique, the church and charSalvation Army personnel ity is providing relief distribute family packs items to communities

THE Guardian has highlighted the work of a New Zealand Salvation Army shopping initiative that offers affordable n Veteran will ‘think of mates’ when goods to poorer communities.

Mobile shopping service Good Shop is a purple van that

tours Auckland neighbourhoods to sell furniture, electronics, baby equipment, linen and heating items on credit to those who struggle to leave their homes.

Interest-free repayments are scheduled to make the loan affordable to those on limited incomes.

Items are chosen on the basis of price, quality and ability to boost living standards and encourage social inclusion. All proceeds go towards the running costs of the programme.

The initiative is designed to combat unscrupulous lenders who take advantage of those in debt by going door-to-door offering credit loans with high-interest repayments.

‘Not a lot of people have cars or transport round here,’ said Good Shop customer Larayne, a single mother. ‘A single mum with kids that doesn’t have transport will find it difficult to get to a shop, so it’s much easier.

‘I have been turned away from a lot of places … If The Salvation Army wouldn’t take me, no one else would.’

PA

PA

jumping for D-Day anniversary

RETIRED Salvation Army minister and Second World War veteran Harry Read is parachuting into Normandy to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings next week.

He will participate in a tandem jump from a Dakota plane with the Red Devils parachute display team, marking the anniversary of his parachute jump on D-Day as a 20-year-old wireless operator.

The plane takes off from the Imperial War Museum’s preserved Second World War airfield at Duxford in Cambridgeshire, and flies over Sannerville, Normandy, alongside 30 other Dakota planes as part of a wider celebration of D-Day. ‘There is a delight in jumping,’ said Harry, who made his first tandem jump last year. ‘But I resonate more with the sacrifice than I do with the celebration. The sacrifice enabled the celebration to take place, of course. And I will think of my mates who died.’

6 INTERVIEW • WAR CRY • 1 June 2019

During Volunteers’ Week, which begins today (Saturday 1 June), groups and organisations will be holding events to say thank you to the people who make a contribution to life in the UK. Salvation Army volunteer JEAN METCALFE tells Emily Bright how she helps people escape the horrors of modern slavery

Y

OUNG Mara loved poetry, classical music and playing the violin at her church in Latvia. Highly intelligent, she could speak many languages. But then she lost her dad, and her life came crashing down around her. She sought solace in the arms of a man who told her that he loved her and wanted to marry her. They set off for Cardiff together. But within 48 hours, he had handed her over to be repeatedly abused by countless men, and she was trapped in slavery for almost two years.

Jean and Frank Metcalfe, volunteer drivers for The Salvation Army’s modern slavery team, were assigned to transport Mara to safety. Jean was shocked at what she saw.

‘She was the most injured and damaged girl I’ve ever seen in my life,’ she explains. ‘She had scars from knives and a broken plate. She had

They’ve been cheated, lied to and damaged a fractured eye socket, and she had been punched and beaten.’

Mara told them that she never slept more than 20 minutes at a time, as she was haunted by memories of the men who hurt her. Once safely in the car

‘Their only crime

Frank and Jean Metcalfe

and wrapped in a blanket, she said that she finally felt safe and wanted to stay there for ever.

The couple dropped her off at a safe house run by a Christian organisation, promising that she would receive all the help she needed.

In July 2011, The Salvation Army was awarded a governmental contract as the official provider of anti-trafficking support in England and Wales. Since then, it has helped more than 7,000 victims of modern slavery, offering specialist services for victims including counselling, financial advice and housing support.

Two such victims helped by Jean and Frank were a Polish husband and wife. The couple, who spoke excellent English, saw an advertisement offering work in a big house for a handyman and a domestic helper.

But, as Jean explains, life quickly unravelled for them.

‘From the minute they arrived with three huge suitcases, they were locked in. He was taken in the back of a van to do hard labour, while she cleaned, cooked and washed for the whole house until her husband became seriously ill.’

Over time, his illness became increasingly critical. ‘The husband

was vomiting blood, and he was so weak. She kept begging them to call a doctor. One day, he wasn’t well enough to work, so they were turned out onto the streets with none of their belongings.’

The couple had nowhere to go, and slept in a bus shelter until a member of the public encouraged them to visit the police station. The two victims were referred to the modern slavery team and were later driven to safety.

Jean and Frank have transported more than 220 victims since they started volunteering five years ago.

Jean says that over that time, she has come across victims from all backgrounds who were similarly deceived with false promises. ‘They’ve

1 June 2019 • WAR CRY • INTERVIEW 7

was to be too trusting’ all been cheated, lied to and damaged.

Their only crime was to be too trusting.

‘Sometimes you come home in pieces, thinking: “How could anyone be so cruel?” But then you’ve got the confidence of knowing that they will get the help they need.’

Now an enthusiastic advocate of the volunteer scheme, Jean first heard about the opportunity when she and her husband attended a service at their Salvation Army church in Idle, Bradford. A visiting speaker told the congregation about the work of The Salvation Army’s anti-trafficking team and explained that it was looking for volunteers.

‘We thought we’d send in the application forms, and that if we were

accepted it was meant to be. We started almost straightaway, as soon as we’d had our police checks. We feel that it is something we’re called to do.’

She acts as a chaperone, while Frank drives the car. Their role is to pick up rescued victims from police stations, hospitals, social workers and charities, and then transport them to a safe house.

‘Frank’s a capable driver, and he can easily cope with the long journeys, which sometimes involve a round trip of about 340 miles. I do the nurturing bit, and we move them as kindly, gently and lovingly as we can.’

One of the aims of Volunteers’ Week is to encourage people to

We move them as kindly, gently and lovingly as we can

offer their services to groups and organisations that make a contribution to society. Jean has a message for those considering joining the ranks of Salvation Army volunteers. ‘Go for it!

Don’t hesitate; you’ll be given all the help you require.’

Reflecting on her own experience of volunteering, Jean says that her Christian faith plays a vital role in sustaining her.

‘I can only do my work by the grace of God. If he wants me to do the work, he will continue giving me the strength and ability to do it.’ l For more information visit salvationarmy.org.uk/volunteering

‘Everybody will be affected by climate change in some way’

NIGEL BOVEY

8 INTERVIEW • WAR CRY • 1 June 2019

Next Wednesday (5 June) is World Environment Day, which was established by the United Nations to encourage action for the protection of the environment. In 2009, Professor Mike Hulme MIKE HULME found himself at the centre of a media storm known as Climategate when a leak of some scientists’ emails led to the integrity of research into climate change being questioned.

Ten years on, the professor of human geography at the University of Cambridge talks to Nigel Bovey about that time and the present scientific research into the impact people have on their physical environment

1 June 2019 • WAR CRY • INTERVIEW 9

Professor Hulme, what was Climategate?

Climategate was a controversy that erupted in November 2009 just before the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. It involved the publication of professional email exchanges between a group of climate scientists, including several who worked with me at the time at the University of East Anglia. The controversy was concerned with whether this particular group of scientists were being unethical in the reporting of their findings and, more broadly, the claim that all climate scientists – and science – were tainted.

The emails revealed the very human way in which scientists talk with each other. Scientists are humans. They’re not automata.

Science itself is a human social practice and so it displays pretty much all the characteristics of social life.

Scientists express opinions in casual words. Some of the language you

use with trusted colleagues in casual emails or conversation is not guarded language.

So when people talk about ‘the trick’, there was a widely reported phrase: ‘We will use Mike’s trick in Nature to hide the decline.’ At face value, that sounds suspicious. What is this trick? What is this nefarious practice? What decline of temperature are they trying to hide?

So you’ve got to deconstruct that to understand what was going on. There was no trickery in terms of deceit.

But Climategate changed the public perception of climate science.

knowledge is not pure; it gets tainted by human fallibilities.

Your emails were among those hacked and published. What did that feel like?

I wasn’t accused in the way that three or four of my colleagues were, but it was uncomfortable to see ten years’ worth of emails appear in public. It was also instructive. It showed that the pursuit of scientific

The emails revealed the very human way scientists talk with each other

That sounds a bit suspicious. What do you mean?

There is a public perception of science that is a bit like a Ladybird Book understanding of science.

Somehow, there is this perfect machine of objective inquiry that moves inextricably towards the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Science is not like that.

Personalities, personal ambition, glory, jealousies and vendettas get in

the way of objective scientific truthseeking. These things are everywhere; why wouldn’t they be within the scientific community?

Climategate opened the lid on the rough and tumble of science politics.

The reason it was a controversy was because so much had been staked on climate change. This was in the runup to Copenhagen, the conference advertised to ‘save the world’.

The politics of climate change had been based on claims of scientific truth and integrity. If you take the rug

Turn to page 10

➥

10 INTERVIEW • WAR CRY • 1 June 2019

From page 9 of truth and integrity away, the politics take a completely different turn.

To what extent did Climategate make the world sceptical about global warming?

The very word suggests that climate scientists were involved in malpractice.

For some observers, it showed that the whole machinery of climate science had been corrupted for the sake of zealous environmentalists who would let nothing stand in the way of their own ideology.

Ten years on, the heat has gone out of the crude argument that humans do not change the climate system. The fact of global warming due to human activity is more widely accepted. These days, the argument is not so much whether our use of fossil carbon is affecting the climate, but to what extent it is doing so.

The range of warming could be between 1C and 4C. The rise of sea level could be between 20cm and 2m.

Science cannot easily narrow that down.

The debate is now about how big a priority governments regard the tackling of climate change.

How seriously should we take the idea that the climate is changing because of human activity?

Some of the early scientific work pointed to the ways in which human activity was altering the climate system.

In the past 30 years, that knowledge has increased. Climate change is a real, physical phenomenon that we should take very seriously as it raises some difficult questions about the future quality of life.

Everybody will be affected in some way. Climate change is more challenging for developing countries. Some of the changes will bring new opportunities.

For example, a warming climate in northern Canada opens the way for new agriculture on land that was previously too cold to cultivate. The melting of Arctic sea ice is changing the maritime trading routes.

There is no foreseeable horizon when we can reverse global warming

So there are some benefits to raised temperatures?

Yes. For example, melting ice around the fringes of Greenland is revealing new possibilities for mineral extraction. Many of those rare minerals are essential for energy and electronic technologies. But any benefits will be unequally divided.

The challenge will be how society responds to those inequalities.

Can global warming be reversed, or is it too late?

There is no foreseeable horizon when we can stabilise rising sea levels or reverse global warming.

The 2016 Paris agreement set out a goal of no more than 2C rise in global temperature above the pre-industrial levels. Within the next 50 years, we will likely reach that limit. But for much of the next two or three centuries the planet will continue to warm.

The question is how rapid the rate of that change will be. That’s where science is still a bit hazy.

The idea that ‘science is a bit hazy’ fuels the argument of critics who claim that the science is false. How do you respond to such accusations?

The science is reasonably robust to suggest that there clearly is a significant warming influence through human activities. Sometimes scientists and commentators have ‘over-claimed’ the finding of climate models. But scientific models are tools; they are not truth machines.

A lot of my earlier work was spent working with the output of models and figuring out the usefulness of the information and how to capture the uncertainties. If, for example, we

tell a coastal defence planner in the Netherlands that in 50 years sea levels will likely rise between 10cm and 60cm, how do they respond? How high should they build their defences and where?

The big challenge in climate change science is not eradicating – or even reducing – uncertainty; it is how to make the right decision in the face of uncertainty. That’s why we find different sectors of the economy and different countries dealing with climate risk in different ways.

So, the Dutch will defend against

1 June 2019 • WAR CRY • INTERVIEW 11

rising sea levels because they have the technology, experience and wealth to do so.

In the likes of Bangladesh, it is much harder.

Consequently, they have to find other ways of responding.

To what extent does your work interact with your faith?

My science and career are inseparable from who I am. My faith is similarly integral to who I am. I am a Christian.

My understanding of Christian teaching and ethics shapes the way I think about everything.

Was the Christian idea that the world is God’s creation a factor in your career choice?

No, it was more serendipitous. I liked geography and the way in which climate and weather interact with societies.

When I started, climate change was not a big deal. As it has moved more to the forefront, my faith has caused

me to investigate some of the deeper, metaphysical questions, such as: What do we mean by progress? How do ethics develop? What is the point of humans living on this planet?

You can’t have a credible approach to dealing with climate change without articulating some answers to those bigger questions, because it isn’t just a neat, clean, technical incision that’s needed to stop climate change.

What are the guiding principles that lead you into those concerns beyond temperatures and timescales?

One is the question around the limits of human agency and the ethical responsibilities we have to the nonhuman. At one level, Christian teaching says that God is sovereign. On another level, God has endowed creation with degrees of freedom. With this God-given openness, independence and autonomy, humankind has a responsibility to act ethically. And it must do so in the context of there being a sovereign God who not only has an overview of how the whole universe operates but also works within the greater scales of time and eternity.

My Christian world view also asks questions about the nature of the relationships that we have with people of other cultures. For example, some peoples don’t talk about climate change in terms of temperatures but in terms of a dislocation between humankind and the physical world.

That resonates with the way I see Christian ethics – there are moral

Humankind has a responsibility to act ethically relationships that are wired into how the world is and how we should react to it. That holistic understanding of connectivity is something that science doesn’t do very well but indigenous cosmologies and the Christian world view do.

What convinces you about the veracity and credibility of Jesus?

Jesus as a historical character is incontrovertible. There’s evidence in the Christian Scriptures and in contemporary writings about this charismatic figure in Palestine and his interactions with Jewish and Roman authorities. The resurrection of Jesus is the crunch point for Christians. The whole Christian faith hinges on this and the claim that Jesus is divine.

I grew up in a Christian family and absorbed some of these beliefs intuitively or unquestioningly. As a student, I interrogated the evidence by trying to figure out what other credible explanations there could be for the phenomenon of the early Christian movement.

I looked at the Resurrection. If Jesus didn’t come back to life, as the early believers claimed, then something else must have happened. I measured those alternatives against the claim that he rose from the dead. I concluded that what was most credible was that he did, indeed, rise from the dead.

The other possibilities just do not give an adequate explanation for the emergence of this new religious community in a hostile environment, where it would have been easy to have been crushed if the Jewish authorities and the Romans could have proved the Resurrection was false.

I might be delusional. Well, possibly.

But that’s not my intellectual conviction.

Nor is it my personal conviction or experience. As I move through life, I have found that there is a more powerful spiritual dimension to the claims of Christianity. They transcend the idea that Jesus was merely a person of history.

12 INNER LIFE • WAR CRY • 1 June 2019

Prayerlink YOUR prayers are requested for Helen Ann, who has had MS for many years and recently fractured her arm.

The War Cry invites readers to send in requests for prayer, including the first names of individuals and details of their ­circumstances. Send your requests to Prayerlink, War Cry, 101 Newington Causeway, Lon­don SE1 6BN. Mark your envelope ‘Confidential’.

Becoming a Christian There is no set formula to becoming a Christian, but many people have found saying this prayer to be a helpful first step to a relationship with God Lord Jesus Christ, I am truly sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. Please forgive me. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong.

Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free.

Thank you that you offer me forgiveness and the gift of your Holy Spirit.

Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me for ever.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

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

Ecclesiastes

Nigel Bovey gives chapter and verse on each book in the Scriptures

CCLESIASTES is the Old Testament’s E third book of wisdom offering philosophical insight into issues of the time.

The question under consideration is how to find a satisfying life.

The account is narrated by ‘the Teacher’ – the meaning of the word ‘Ecclesiastes’. He is traditionally identified as King Solomon.

If so, this is the world view of a man who knows what power, prestige, wealth, pleasure and popularity are like.

The foundational premise is that within everyone there is a deep-seated yearning to find purpose and meaning in life. God has ‘set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end’ (3:11).

The reason for such dismissal of God is because, although God made everything beautiful (3:11), humankind is fallen (7:29) and sinful – no one is righteous (7:20).

The Teacher considers some of the ways people try to make sense of, and find satisfaction in, life. He considers some of the ways by which people define themselves – education (1:13), drinking (2:3), sexual pleasure (2:8), career building (2:23), wealth chasing (5:16) and family (6:3) – and, from personal experience, declares them to be ultimately ‘meaningless’.

Life, he says, is short. There is more to life than this world. Death – dust to dust (3:20) – comes to everyone. Ultimate meaning is to be found beyond this life. It is found in the way of wisdom.

Wisdom, says Proverbs 3:19, is

the mechanism by which God created the universe. Divine wisdom, says the Teacher, is a shelter that ‘preserves those who have it’ (7:12).

It’s the world view of a man who knows what power, prestige, wealth, pleasure and popularity are like Wisdom means there are ultimate moral values. There is wickedness; there is righteousness (7:15). The Teacher observes oppression (4:1), extortion and bribery (7:7).

Such actions – all actions – have consequences. God will judge everyone (3:17).

Life’s meaning is found by connecting with the God-placed ‘eternity in the heart’.

Throughout the book, the teacher encourages the reader to stand in awe of God (5:1–7), remember God (12:1) and to ‘fear God and keep his commandments’ (12:13).

Key verse

God does ‘I know that everything siastes cle (Ec ’ will endure for ever on) rsi Ve l 3:14 New Internationa

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1 June 2019 • WAR CRY • EXPRESSIONS 13

QUERIES, DOUBTS AND HONEST PRAYERS

Bite-sized questions raise doubts

M

WAR CRY annual subscription Call 01933 445445 email subscriptions@sp-s.co.uk visit sps-shop.com or contact your local Salvation Army centre

OSQUITOES are the carriers of all sorts of diseases, which they pick up when they draw blood from various hosts. Consequently, as far as some people are concerned, mosquitoes are the most dangerous creatures in the world.

So did God make mosquitoes or are they just some ongoing evolution of life that has discovered a special form of survival? I want to believe that everything God has given us to enjoy is good, but mosquitoes, black mambas, box jellyfish, scorpions and pufferfish put doubts in my mind.

There is I recognise that there is a natural life cycle and a natural food chain in nature. I appreciate that there are and prey, and that each predator may lifecycle and predators itself become prey to another species. It is true food chain in not just of carnivores, but also of herbivores, which digest insect life, while omnivores do the nature same on land, in the ocean and even in the sky.

I am overawed by the wonders of God’s creation, and the more I learn, the more amazed I am at the complexity and variety of life on Earth.

But when I see the struggle for survival in every region I confess it can seem heartless.

Yet pondering on the devotion and selfsacrifice of many animal parents in the wild, I sense a care that reminds me of God. I pray that he will help me to appreciate all that he has made.

by Peter Mylechreest

BOOK REVIEW Human Errors Nathan H. Lents Orion

CBAD a warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk Twitter: @TheWarCryUK Facebook.com/TheWarCryUK

B www.salvationarmy.org.uk/warcry

BIOLOGY professor Nathan H. Lents is an expert in his field, and in his latest book, Human Errors, he surveys the defects in the human body.

He approaches the complex topics with light-heartedness and with a gift for conveying scientific concepts in an easy-to-understand way.

However, the book can be quite repetitive and long-winded, which becomes tedious at times.

There is an element of humour to Lents’s writing, but targeting the human body for a joke won’t be to everyone’s taste. The same can be said about Lents’s scientific view about how humans came to be here.

But while his focus on all the negatives of the human body may sound pessimistic, there is a positive side to what Lents is sharing. Ultimately he is detailing how resilient and adaptable humans are, and how humans rise to challenges time after time, even if it is at the most basic level.

Samantha Jones

14 PUZZLES • WAR CRY • 1 June 2019

QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Fleshy part of fruit (4) 3. Supply with

weapons (3) 5. Hare’s home (4) 7. Riposte (9) 9. Insult (4) 10. Relate (4) 11. Sword (5) 14. Monarch’s rule (5) 15. Cornish city (5) 17. Era (5) 18. Rub (5) 19. Constellation (5) 20. Romulus’s brother (5) 23. Ship’s prison (4) 25. Stalk (4) 27. First Archbishop

of Canterbury (9)

HONEYCOMB

by CHRIS HORNE

8. Shun (9) 11. Mock (5) 12. Flower (5) 13. Character of community (5) 14. Mythical bird (3) 16. Possess (3) 21. Supply (5) 22. Total (5) 23. Foundation (4) 24. Seabird (4) 25. Drawback (4) 26. Brother (4)

28. Wicked (4) 29. For each (3) 30. Slime (4) DOWN 1. Col (4) 2. Aristocrat (4) 3. Odour (5) 4. Lesser (5) 5. Worry (4) 6. Post (4) 7. Fictional country of The Prisoner of Zenda (9)

SUDOKU

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

7

8

4

1

3

5

6

2

9

2

3

5

8

6

9

4

7

1

9

1

6

2

4

7

8

5

3

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

3

6

2

5

9

4

1

8

7

4

9

8

7

1

6

5

3

2

1. Scattered rubbish 2. Footprints 3. Played at Wimbledon 4. Physically powerful 5. Large vegetable 6. Break free

1

5

7

3

2

8

9

4

6

8

7

1

9

5

2

3

6

4

5

4

3

6

7

1

2

9

8

6

2

9

4

8

3

7

1

5

WORDSEARCH

ANSWERS

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS BLACKADDER DAD’S ARMY FATHER TED FAWLTY TOWERS GAVIN AND STACEY GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME I’M ALAN PARTRIDGE KEEPING UP APPEARANCES LITTLE BRITAIN MIRANDA NOT GOING OUT ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES OUTNUMBERED PORRIDGE RED DWARF THE INBETWEENERS THE OFFICE

Look up, down, forwards, backwards and diagonally on the grid to find these classic TV comedies

7

8

4

1

3

5

6

2

9

2 3 5 8 6 9 4 7 1 L Y W R M Q T M X Y B D Z G R D Q H A Y R K W J Q Y I R F D Y O Y T D L M S E U 9 1 6 2 4 7 8 5 3 E A N Z X R L A F B O M U E I U U C P B 3 6 2 5 9 4 1 8 7 B P Z U A B V R D U T O T M W O I B W Y 4 9 8 7 1 S 6L F M L 5 3 2 P C Z N Z N O Z A H T C G R V I I D L Z W V N Z N E B H U F Y X A O Y 1 5 7 3 2 8 9 4 6 Y A Z Z D P U Y I H V R B O U Z M C R Q 8 7 1 9 5 2 3 6 4 E T X D N M Z O T S B A E I S B E K R N 5 4 3 6 7 1 2 9 8 C I E P B G G A Z B F H I C V R J A I D A R P E J T F B P Y T 6 2 9 Z 4 T A Z D K D D J 8 3 7 1 5 T B R E O I M A L A N P A R T R I D G E S E C N A R A E P P A P U G N I P E E K D L F A W L T Y T O W E R S Y Z C R L S N T W P K U Z T Z P D A D S A R M Y B Z A T Q K L S R E N E E W T E B N I E H T N I X O J V A Y E Z P O X N F U J O A H I L S Q E V K A K X A F Z D R Z B H U Y V B S E S R O H D N A S L O O F Y L N O A S Z Z S W F Z N C P J N O Z J W V O R G G Q D D S K E J T F S N G D K F E F E

HONEYCOMB 1 Debris. 2 Tracks. 3 Tennis.

4 Strong. 5 Marrow. 6 Escape.

QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS: 1 Pulp. 3 Arm. 5 Form.

7 Rejoinder. 9 Slur. 10 Tell. 11 Sabre.

14 Reign. 15 Truro. 17 Epoch. 18 Chafe.

19 Orion. 20 Remus. 23 Brig. 25 Stem.

27 Augustine. 28 Evil. 29 Per. 30 Gunk.

DOWN: 1 Pass. 2 Peer. 3 Aroma.

4 Minor. 5 Fret. 6 Mail. 7 Ruritania.

8 Repudiate. 11 Sneer. 12 Bloom.

13 Ethos. 14 Roc. 16 Own. 21 Equip.

22 Utter. 23 Base. 24 Gull.

25 Snag. 26 Monk.

2

6

4

5

7

8

5

1

9

4

6

3

1

9

3

2

8

7

2

6

4

5

9 3 1 7 8 2 6 5 4

4 6 9 3 7 5 2 8 1

8 7 5 2 1 9 4 6 3

3 1 2 8 6 4 7 9 5

7 2 3 9 5 1 8 4 6

1 9 6 4 3 8 5 7 2

5 8 4 6 2 7 3 1 9

SUDOKU SOLUTION

9 3

4 6

8 7

3 1

7 2

1 9

5 8

1 June 2019 • WAR CRY • WHAT’S COOKING? 15

SUE HISCOE

Almond stuffed courgettes 2 courgettes

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.

10ml olive oil

Partially cook the courgettes in a pan of boiling water. Plunge them in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes and cut in half. Scoop out the centre flesh and set aside.

1 onion, finely chopped 30g ground almonds 50ml vegan cream 60g breadcrumbs from dried ciabatta SERVES

2

Heat the olive oil and sauté the onion in a saucepan.

Add half of the scooped courgette pulp. Simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the almonds, vegan cream, breadcrumbs, salt, yeast flakes and parsley. Mix well.

1tsp salt 1tsp yeast flakes 5g parsley, finely chopped 10ml extra virgin olive oil

Lemon possets with shortbread Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

600g silken tofu

To make the lemon possets, place the zest and juice of 2 lemons along with all the other ingredients, except the raspberries and icing sugar, in a blender, then whizz until smooth. Divide the mixture equally between 4 glasses and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

3 lemons 120ml agave nectar 4tbsp coconut oil, melted 1tsp vanilla extract A few fresh raspberries 1tbsp icing sugar, to serve For the shortbread biscuits 200g vegan margarine 125g icing sugar 310g plain flour

To make the shortbread biscuits, line 2 baking trays with baking paper, then mix the vegan margarine and icing sugar in a large bowl. Add the remaining biscuit ingredients, including the dairyfree milk if the mixture is too stiff.

Transfer the dough to a piping bag with a large star nozzle. Pipe the mixture into small circular spirals on baking paper.

Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes until lightly golden. Leave to cool completely.

2tsp vanilla extract

To serve, top each lemon posset with the raspberries and a sprinkling of icing sugar. Garnish with the grated lemon and serve with the shortbread biscuits.

1tbsp dairy-free milk, as needed

Recipes reprinted, with permission, from the Vegan Society website vegansociety.com

1tbsp cornflour, mixed with 2tbsp cold water

AIMEE RYAN

For the lemon possets

Pack the mixture into the courgette hollows and bake in the oven for 12 minutes. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil.

SERVES

4

Patience is not merely the ability to wait, it is also how we behave while we wait Joyce Meyer