War Cry 2 October 2021

Author draws inspiration from real-life superheroes

WAR CRY

2 October 2021 50p

The treasure islands hold Ben Fogle visits the isles of Scotland Pam Rhodes on 60 years of Songs of Praise

The Salvation Army is a Christian church and registered charity seeking to share the good news of Jesus and nurture committed followers of him. We also serve people without discrimination, care for creation and seek justice and reconciliation. We offer practical support and services in more than 700 centres throughout the UK. Go to salvationarmy.org.uk/find-a-church to find your nearest centre.

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 7545

WHAT does it take to be a superhero? Is it having an alter ego, special powers or the ability to wear your pants over your tights?

According to Sophia Thakur, author of the book Superheroes, to reach those dizzy heights you need to have made an impact in your specialist field and be someone others can look up to.

In an interview in this week’s War Cry, Sophia tells us how she has written about people of colour who children can relate to and aspire to be like. She describes them as ‘someone that can cook, can run fast, that’s intelligent or that loves photography’, adding that she wants to present them as ‘superheroes’ to open ‘the door for children to be inspired’.

It is not only children who are inspired by the actions of others.

To mark the 60th anniversary of Songs of Praise, we speak to the programme’s longest-serving presenter, Pam Rhodes. In her interview, Pam describes the impact some of the people she has met on the programme have made on her – such as Vincent Uzomah, a supply teacher who forgave the student who almost killed him in a racially motivated attack. Vincent told Pam that he was led to forgive by his Christian faith.

‘Faith and what it can mean in ordinary people’s lives is compelling and important to hear,’ Pam tells us as she reflects on the hundreds of people she has interviewed.

Many of us like to see people who inspire us. Perhaps that is why Songs of Praise still attracts more than a million viewers every week.

But many of the people on that programme, and those who appear in this magazine, receive their inspiration from God. They know that he is the greatest hero of all. ad the War C e re ry v ’ u

Email: warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk The Salvation Army United Kingdom and Ireland Territory 101 Newington Causeway London SE1 6BN Tel: 0845 634 0101 Helpline: 020 7367 4888 Subscriptions: 01933 445445 (option 1, option 1) or email: subscriptions@satcol.org Founder: William Booth General: Brian Peddle Territorial Commander: Commissioner Anthony Cotterill Editor-in-Chief: Major Mal Davies Published weekly by The Salvation Army © The Salvation Army United Kingdom and Ireland Territory ISSN 0043-0226 The Salvation Army Trust is a registered charity. The charity number in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 214779, in Scotland SC009359 and in the Republic of Ireland CHY6399.

Printed by CKN Print, Northampton, on sustainably sourced paper

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Editor: Andrew Stone, Major Deputy Editor: Philip Halcrow Production Editor: Ivan Radford Assistant Editor: Sarah Olowofoyeku Staff Writer: Emily Bright Staff Writer: Claire Brine Editorial Assistant: Linda McTurk Graphic Designer: Rodney Kingston Graphic Designer: Mark Knight

From the editor’s desk

When yo

What is The Salvation Army?

CONTENTS 5

FEATURES

3

Castaway returns on sacred quest

Ben Fogle explores faith on Scotland’s

islands 5

All together now

Songs of Praise celebrates 60 years of

hymn-singing 8

Heroes welcome

Book identifies people to look up to

10 Antisocial media?

8

Assessing the impact of Scroll Free

September

REGULARS

4

War Cry World

12 Team Talk 13 Past Times

15

14 Puzzles 15 War Cry Kitchen Front-page picture: TERN TV/BBC SCOTLAND

TERN TV/BBC SCOTLAND

Isle be back

Two decades after being a castaway, Ben Fogle is returning to the Scottish islands TV preview by Philip Halcrow

I

N the 20 years since reality TV show Castaway 2000 carried out its millennial monitoring of 36 people to see if they could create a new society on a remote island, one of the participants, Ben Fogle, has made a career in TV. ‘Castaway changed me in so many ways,’ he says, although he reflects: ‘I was not the star of Castaway – the island of Taransay was, the Outer Hebrides was, Scotland was. I’m still fascinated by Scotland’s islands.’

So he has returned to the area to make Scotland’s Sacred Islands with Ben Fogle, scheduled to begin on BBC Scotland on Tuesday (5 October) before being repeated on BBC One. Others have felt the islands’ lure. The people he meets speak about the special qualities of the remote places where they have chosen to live; but Ben also wants to know why this ‘awe-inspiring landscape has been a sacred destination for over 1600 years’.

Why did Christian missionaries such as Columba arrive on the islands ‘establishing a new faith over a century before it took hold across the Scottish mainland’?

Mulling over such questions on the Isle of Tiree, he meets Rhoda, a crofter who also works remotely – very remotely – in tech. As she looks over the landscape, she says: ‘It’s hard to sit somewhere like this and not get a sense of being quite small, that there’s something bigger than you.’

Ishbel, another island resident, was born while her family was living on Tiree and returned after studying in Glasgow.

A member of the Baptist congregation, she tells Ben that she appreciates the ‘tranquillity and peace and time to think’, and she talks about how being out in ‘the vastness of the skies and the landscape … helps me appreciate my Creator’.

On Iona, Ben learns more about the islands’ modern Christian presence when he visits a rebuilt abbey where the Iona Community, founded in the 1930s by church minister the Rev George MacLeod,

worships and welcomes tens of thousands of pilgrims every year. Ben drops into a service just as the congregation are echoing the appreciation of God’s creation found in one of the Bible’s psalms, saying: ‘The world belongs to God – the earth and all its people.’

He also talks with Iona Community warden Catriona, who explains that they offer people a ‘radical hospitality’. She says: ‘We go out of our way to make sure that we understand and listen to the people who come.’

The islands may be remote, but more than once during the programme the inhabitants talk of being connected to something, whether that be history, nature, other people or God. And Catriona says that the Iona Community, where people worship and eat together, aim to offer an ‘engaged spirituality’, making a commitment to ‘live the gospel’ in their interactions with others.

To the people everywhere in the world who follow the same faith that has made those Scottish islands a ‘sacred destination’, God is not pie in the sky. They believe that he may be sensed in silence and in tranquil places, but also that he is not remote from us and our everyday lives, wherever we are in his creation.

They see him – in the words of another psalm – as ‘an ever-present help’ (Psalm 46:1 New International Version). It’s a truth they keep returning to.

Ishbel talks about ‘the vastness of the skies’

Ben Fogle is exploring the lure of Scotland’s remote islands 2 October 2021 • WAR CRY • 3

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Long-running efforts raise thousands for charity MORE than 30 people are running the London Marathon for The Salvation Army tomorrow (Sunday 3 October). The runners come from all over the country and have passions for running and supporting the work of the church and charity.

One participant is Cameron Dockerill, the great-great-grandson of William and Catherine Booth, who founded The Salvation Army in 1865.

Cameron says that he personally owes a lot to The Salvation Army, where he has learnt ‘valuable lessons about life, music, relationships and the church family’. However, he is aware that not everyone has the same opportunities he has had, so he is raising money to support its work with vulnerable people and to continue ‘the selfless legacy’ his family members have left behind.

Each of the runners has been raising funds to donate to The Salvation Army. Some are members of the church itself, including David Orr, who is particularly motivated to raise money for its anti-trafficking work.

Others have been prompted to support the Army after encountering its outreach in their community. Jo Ball says that families connected to the primary school where she works have been provided with a ‘wealth of support’.

Many runners talk of The Salvation Army having helped them or their family members. Vanessa Street describes how her family became homeless a few years ago.

She says: ‘Without the help and support from The Salvation Army, my parents would not have been able to remain positive and hopeful in the kindness of strangers to keep pushing through such a hard time.’

Angela Carlucci, from The Salvation Army’s fundraising team, says: ‘Our London Marathon runners are a true inspiration and without them our important work would not be possible. We anticipate that they will collectively raise a total of £70,000. We are very, very proud of them all.’

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A BAT sponsorship appeal set up by a medieval church in Cornwall has raised more than £2,000 for the building’s renovation.

The Church Times reports that St Sampson’s, a grade I listed church near Saltash, planned to conduct emergency roof repairs early this year.

However, in May, just as the £30,000 renovation programme was about to get under way, two families of breeding bats were discovered in the roof.

Work was suspended and alterations at a cost of £6,000 had to be made to the renovation plans to accommodate the animals, who enjoy legal protection. To recover its costs, the church set up a sponsora-bat appeal, with options to pledge £10 for echo-location hearing, £20 for a leg and £50 for a wing. People could sponsor a whole bat for £200 and have naming rights.

Among the sponsors are conservationist Chris Packham, who named his bat Botham, in reference to cricketing batter Ian Botham.

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Cameron Dockerill

Vanessa Street

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@TheWarCryUK

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Church leaders unite over climate IN an unprecedented joint declaration, three global Christian leaders have warned of the danger of climate change.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, joined together to make a statement saying that the world faces a critical moment as the climate crisis threatens the planet’s future.

‘Today we are paying the price [of the climate emergency] … Tomorrow could be worse,’ the statement said.

Their ‘joint message for the protection of creation’ highlighted the impact of climate change on people living with poverty and the ‘profound injustice’ that ‘the people bearing the most catastrophic consequences of these abuses are the poorest on the planet and have been the least responsible for causing them’.

The three faith leaders encouraged people to pray for world leaders as they prepare to meet for the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November, and to ‘think of humanity as a family and work together towards a future based on the common good’.

HOMER SYKES/ALAMY

‘Songs of Praise’ has broadcast the singing of hymns throughout its 60 years

It’s karaoke with hymns Songs of Praise celebrates its 60th anniversary with a special programme tomorrow (Sunday 3 October). To mark the occasion, long-serving presenter PAM RHODES looks back on her time on the hymn-singing series Interview by Emily Bright

A

Pam Rhodes

S supply teacher Vincent Uzomah began writing on the board during a chemistry lesson at a school in Bradford in 2015, a 14-year-old student walked up and stabbed him. Vincent slumped to the floor, bleeding.

He thought he was going to die, he told presenter Pam Rhodes during a Songs of Praise interview six months after the racially motivated attack.

‘When I spoke to Vincent, he was still suffering from the after-effects of it,’ recalls Pam. ‘Yet in the court case just a month before we spoke, he declared outside the courtroom: “I forgive him because I can’t live with myself as a Christian unless I let this go. I just hope that he’ll meet the right people in prison who will help him to take a better route in life.”

‘When you meet people like that, it’s so touching.’

Pam marks her 35th year on Songs of Praise this year. She is the show’s longest-serving presenter and has featured in 386 episodes. But when I ask her about her highlights, meeting prominent figures such as members of the royal family and the Pope isn’t the first thing that comes to her mind. Rather, her most memorable moments are of ordinary people candidly sharing their emotive stories of how faith has overcome misfortune. She sees her role as facilitating conversations about belief with everyday people.

‘I’ve always thought of myself as an enabler,’ she says. ‘My job is to help my ordinary, yet extraordinary, interviewees share

Turn to page 6 f

2 October 2021 • WAR CRY • 5

From page 5 the most moving and personal accounts of how faith has changed their lives and how God has been with them in difficult times.

‘They share all sorts of things, including their doubts about faith. I’ve always thought that Songs of Praise was absolutely the place for people to ask questions and express their doubts.

Isn’t that how we find out what we really believe?’

Pam presented her first Songs of Praise in 1987.

She covered the story of some 2,000 young people going on a pilgrimage to St Albans Cathedral to mark Easter Monday.

‘The producers rang me up to ask if I’d do one programme,’ she says. ‘I did that, and then they just kept ringing!’

I ask how her Christian faith has affected the way she approaches her presenting role. Her answer, polite but matter of fact, prompts me to re-evaluate my question. ‘It’s very difficult isn’t it,’ she says. ‘It’s like saying: “How much does the fact you’re a woman influence you?” The thing is, I’ve never been anything else. I

just am a Christian.’

She pauses to reflect on what her faith means to her.

‘Jesus is a friend and companion. I find myself talking to him as if he was walking alongside me. On the other hand, there is this sort of magnificence, the almighty element of God. My faith is on my mind all the time, a constant presence for me, and I pray quite comfortably many times a day.’

In addition to her role as a Songs of Praise presenter, Pam also regularly hosts eight programmes a week on Premier Christian Radio, including an hour-long online television magazine programme called Sunday Night Live, which features, in her words, ‘music, worship, reflection, fun and drama’.

She says: ‘We’ve featured the faith of fishermen in Scotland, talked about depression and the environment and offered prayers for hope. We have also had the Dean of Salisbury Cathedral talking about the fact they’re giving Covid jabs in church. So it’s a complete mixed bag.’

My faith is on my mind all the time

NEIL McALLISTER/ALAMY

A recording of ‘Songs of Praise’ in Eastbourne

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One of her radio shows, All Together Now, originated in an idea she had at the start of lockdown last year.

‘I knew that quite a lot of our listeners would be on their own at home,’ Pam remembers. ‘I suggested to the boss at Premier that I do a 10-minute section of hymns at lunchtime that people know well enough to sing without a hymn book. It’s ended up being almost an hour six days a week.’

In addition, Pam has presented Hearts and Hymns on Premier for about 20 years.

‘I’m a real anorak about hymns old and new,’ she says. ‘I love the words and knowing the story of the person who wrote them, because I think the human connection speaks down the years. Their worries and needs that they express in their hymns touch us at times in our lives.

They so often speak of the almighty power of God.’ As the interview progresses, we circle back to Songs of Praise, which marks its 60th anniversary this weekend and has had more than 250 presenters in its time. The current team includes former Blue Peter presenter Radzi Chinyanganya, singers

BBC/AVANTI/NINE LIVES MEDIA/JAY BROOKS

JB Gill and Katherine Jenkins and the latest member of the clergy to join the team, the Rev Kate Bottley. Just as the presenting line-up features well-known faces from an array of backgrounds, the programme also seeks to highlight stories from people from all walks of life.

‘That accessible face of the faith and what it can mean in ordinary people’s lives is compelling and important to hear,’ says Pam. She adds that another key to the show’s success is ‘that people love singing together. I think of it as the biggest karaoke in the world’.

W

hile the show is a long-running staple of the TV schedule, Pam adds that it is conscious of the need to keep up with the times.

‘Songs of Praise is evolving, and I think it’s very aware of the fact that it’s the only Christian programme that’s reliably on mainstream television and has been for 60 years. They quite rightly try to make it a watchable and enjoyable programme on many levels.’

With a background in news journalism, Pam is keen to cover the key issues.

‘I always try to ask questions that I think people are probably shrieking at the television, saying: “Why don’t you ask that?” I don’t think it should ever be a holy huddle, where we’re formed to talk to the converted. You need to ask the difficult questions.’

Indeed, in recent years, Songs of Praise has not shied away from controversial topics. It has run segments on the Calais migrant camp and gay marriage. Pam feels covering contentious issues is important.

‘Shouldn’t Christianity be a presence in all walks of life and in every situation? I think we should absolutely talk about hotly debated, emotive issues. We should always talk and discuss and listen and learn and allow people to decide for themselves what feels right for them.’

Such a faith platform has proved to be particularly precious to parishioners over the past year. As part of coronavirus restrictions, Christians weren’t able to attend church in the way they would normally. Pam says that Songs of Praise and online services have therefore

Pam is part of a line-up of presenters that includes the Rev Kate Bottley, Katherine Jenkins, Aled Jones, JB Gill and Laura Wright

become very important.

‘Online services are a powerful tool to be able to speak to people directly at home,’ she says. ‘More people are engaging and connecting with worship online through their local church service who never turned up on a Sunday morning in church.

‘Equally, Songs of Praise is the epitome of allowing you to worship where you are. The programme comes into people’s

homes, on their television screens. And I think it’s a special part of their lives.

‘Vicars have told me that at funerals, people will say to them, “Mum never went to church, but she always watched Songs of Praise.” There’s that wish to stay connected with faith. I’ve always felt the programme sows seeds. And when people watch, the seeds of faith might grow in their own lives.’

2 October 2021 • WAR CRY • 7

Book draws heroic inspiration A new comic-style children’s book features British figures who have turned their skill into their ‘superpower’. SOPHIA THAKUR, who has written the words for Superheroes, talks about the importance of presenting heroes young people can relate to Interview by Sarah Olowofoyeku

S

OME of the world’s best-loved superheroes defy human limitations. They can fly, jump across buildings and run at the speed of light. While their stories may entertain, #Merky Books – a publishing house set up by musician Stormzy – was more interested in telling children the stories of the real-life heroes all around them, especially the ones who looked like them. So, Superheroes was born.

The comic-style book, with illustrations

by Denzell Dankwah, explores the lives of modern-day humans who have used their passion or skill and turned it into their ‘superpower’. The 51 stories are about British people of colour, such as Ian Wright, Reggie Yates and Riz Ahmed, who have made a splash in the fields of sport, the arts, activism, science and more.

Poet and author Sophia Thakur, who wrote the words for Superheroes, researched each of the people who had been selected and came up with an imaginative origin story for them.

‘I wanted to think about what it was that first gave them their “power”,’ she says. ‘There are two brothers in the book who are cooks, so I created an origin story where they would smell their grandma’s cooking and it would make everyone else really hungry, but it transported them back to the Caribbean. There they would collect recipes and rich stories, then return to create these dishes.

‘For sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, the story I created was that when her feet would slide into her spikes, it would activate fear in her body, but she had a

Sophia Thakur

transposer inside her leg that would turn fear into power.

‘Finding the origin stories was fun. It forced me to think creatively.’

Sophia believes that featuring people’s ordinary skills and interests is what makes the book inspirational for children.

‘We grow up and we idolise superheroes,’ she says. ‘But we’re removed from them. A guy swinging from a web can’t inspire someone who can’t swing from a web. So taking these everyday people – someone that can cook, can run fast, that’s intelligent or that loves photography – and presenting them as superheroes opens the door for children to be inspired, which is a really important part of growing up.’

Representation is also important for children, and Superheroes addresses that issue by featuring black people and those from other ethnic minorities.

‘I remember growing up and reading about people that seemed so far away from me,’ says Sophia. ‘They never looked like me or came from a similar world. Even on the one day that we

I remember reading about people that didn’t look like me

8 • WAR CRY • 2 October 2021

studied black people, it was linked to slavery.

So black people were painted from a position of weakness and white people from a position of strength. I know what that does to young black students in school. They have to get used to seeing black people as “less than” and then go about their whole life with that being the perpetuated idea. It can do a lot of harm to their confidence.

‘With the Superheroes book, instead of only hearing about blackness when it’s linked to slavery, we hear about these amazing black people that have gone on to change the world we live in today.’

She describes two of those people whose stories particularly resonated with her.

‘Professor Frank Chinwegwundoh was a researcher who realised that, because there weren’t any other black doctors around him, there was probably a world of black-specific

DENZEL DANKWAH/#MERKY BOOKS

‘Superheroes’ features well-known people of colour, including the England women’s football team and (left) Riz Ahmed

Ian Wright’s superpower is football and his tools are his boots

illnesses that wouldn’t be addressed.

So he took himself to Africa to study, and came back to Britain with the discovery that black men are three times more likely to get prostate cancer than white men.

‘I am often the only female or black person in a space, and I feel a responsibility to share the side of our story that takes people’s ignorance away – not through violence or judgement, but through empathy.’

The second person is boxer Joshua Buatsi, whose ‘whole profile is about God’, says Sophia.

‘He makes it a point to talk about God a lot and make it known that it’s through God’s power and strength that he’s able to fight.’

Sophia says: ‘Faith is my bedrock too.

‘My walk with God is

the biggest luxury in my life. I always remember that there is someone out there who, despite how scared or worried I can get, has my best interests at heart. That peace inspires my confidence.’

Sophia believes that her faith has been the secret strength behind her writing career, which took off when her debut book Somebody Give This Heart a Pen was published and was longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Kate Greenaway medal. Her poetry about identity, faith and personal relationships has received endorsements from MTV and Stylist magazine.

‘I know that it’s not with my backing or people’s backing that I do poetry; it’s because God said to me from a very young age that poetry was my thing,’ she says. ‘All my success and achievements are

by God and not my own hands.’

l Superheroes is published by #Merky Books

2 October 2021 • WAR CRY• 9

On no account ‘S

CROLL Free September is coming up,’ I said to my editor back in August. ‘It’s the perfect opportunity for all those people hooked on social media to log off for a while and take a little break. It might even make a good article.’

Before I knew it, I was volunteering not only to give up my own social media accounts for a month, but also offering to write about the experience. What was I thinking?

I’ve never taken part in Scroll Free September before. I am a Facebook user (daily) and an Instagram and Twitter user (only occasionally), but I didn’t feel that my social media habits were excessive. I convinced myself that Scroll Free September clearly wasn’t aimed at me. But the relief I’d felt in the past at not having to give up my Facebook account niggled me. And I knew that it niggled me because I had been logging on a little too much. Time to re-evaluate my screen time.

As 1 September drew closer, I wondered how I would cope without my

The War Cry’s CLAIRE BRINE shares her experiences of signing off social media for Scroll Free September sometimes-hourly Facebook fix. It’s an account I use to keep in touch with loved ones who live far away from me. I enjoy looking at the photos people share and the news articles they post. And because I’m a sentimental old gal, every day I take a look at my Facebook memories, showing me what I was doing on that particular date in previous years. Honestly, I didn’t want to give up any of that.

But I was also curious to see what I might gain from logging off. Would I become a more attentive mum and friend if I wasn’t always absent-mindedly scrolling – or thinking about scrolling?

Would I find more time to read actual books? Would I sleep better? Feel less stressed? I was keen to find out.

Day one dawned, and the first thing I did upon waking was remember that I mustn’t tap on the Facebook app, which remained on my phone. I succeeded in refraining, but throughout the day, I found my thumb continually hovering over the little white ‘f’ on the blue square. I didn’t feel desperate to log on, but clearly my habit of

I wondered how I would cope without my Facebook fix

x

10 • WAR CRY • 2 October 2021

tapping into Facebook when I had a spare minute was going to take some breaking.

On day two, in the evening, I noticed how much free time I had. I watched a programme on TV – and I mean really watched it, rather than watching and scrolling. I read a few chapters of my book. Ha! I don’t miss Facebook at all, I thought, smugly.

By day three, I felt a bit down. I wanted to use social media to distract me from my grumpiness, but I couldn’t. I also felt lonely and forgotten by the friends I would usually be following online. I knew I could phone some pals for a chat, but I felt too lazy to make the effort of actually talking to someone.

‘How interesting,’ I texted a friend later.

‘Social media gives me the feeling of being connected without having to make any effort to connect. But is that a good thing? Shouldn’t I want to make an effort for my friends – and for them to make an effort with me?’

As more days passed, I got used to life without social media. I missed the things I expected to miss, but by the end of the first week, my phone reports showed that my screen time had dropped 25 per cent.

I found I enjoyed living my life without the interruption of notifications. My head felt less cluttered, because I wasn’t always feeling pressured to keep up with people online. A small part of me missed announcing to the world that I had just baked a tasty banana cake – but I could live without it.

I’d like to say that the less time I spent on my phone or tablet, the holier I became because I was reading more of my Bible or praying in a more focused way – but I can’t. In fact, I relished the opportunity of doing nothing. It took me a few weeks to realise that this was, perhaps, where God wanted to meet me – in the nothingness, rather than squeezing him into my busyness.

Maybe, I thought, God wants me to enjoy some space and to notice that he is with me in it. I called to mind the Bible verse, ‘Be still and know that I am God,’

recognising that without social media, I wasn’t distracted from him.

By the time September reached its end, my thumb was completely relaxed and I was in no hurry to log back on to my social media accounts. I knew that, at some point, I would, because Facebook remains a convenient way for me to keep in touch with friends. But my desire to scroll when I have nothing else to do now feels less urgent, less habitual. I know that when I log on, I can also choose to log off.

And it’s important for me and those I love that I do.

Claire has been refraining from logging on to social media 2 October 2021 • WAR CRY • 11

Prayerlink THE War Cry invites readers to send in requests for prayer, including the first names of individuals and details of their ­circumstances, for publication. Send your Prayerlink requests to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk or to War Cry, 101 Newington Causeway, Lon­don SE1 6BN. Mark your correspondence ‘Confidential’.

j

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

talk ‘ ’ Team talk TEAM TALK Faith comes into question

Claire Brine gives her take on a story catching the attention of War Cry reporters

‘ALL this has made me think a lot about religion,’ said Jeremy Paxman in The Sunday Times Magazine, as he reflected on the diagnosis he received of Parkinson’s disease. In an interview conducted by the Rev Richard Coles, the former Newsnight presenter brought up faith, commenting that Richard was ‘the right person to talk to about the subject’.

‘I had chapel every day at school,’ Jeremy said. ‘I’ll tell you what it gives you – hymns. And that is a great thing. I was singing “The Church’s One Foundation” this morning in the cab.

‘I told the cabbie I’m a very lapsed Christian and he said, “God never forgets you.” That was quite something. I wasn’t expecting that.’

Though Jeremy went on to say he couldn’t be a vicar (like Richard) because he lacks ‘the requisite faith’, I found his respect for Christianity fascinating. The hymn he sang at school describes God’s ‘perfect love’. It also sounds as if the cabbie’s words ‘God never forgets you’ had an impact on Jeremy, however lapsed his faith may be.

I imagine that quite a few of the millions of people in the world who don’t attend a place of worship or describe themselves as religious sometimes ponder the existence of God. Perhaps, like Jeremy, they face a difficult diagnosis and it makes them consider the big questions of life. Maybe, in times of uncertainty, the familiarity of the ‘perfect love’ they sang about in school feels comforting.

While I grew up learning about a God who loves me, I have to confess that my own Christian faith ebbs and flows. At times, if I’m honest, it’s not as strong as I would like it to be.

But what I love about Christianity is that it has room for doubters. God welcomes the Claires and Jeremys, wherever we stand on the spectrum of belief. With faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains, the Bible says. And it doesn’t matter whether our mustard-seed faith has developed over years of hymn-singing or sprouted from a split-second of wondering ‘what if?’

‘I will never turn away anyone who comes to me,’ says Jesus (John 6:37 Good News Bible). Everyone is welcome. That is quite something.

Christianity has room for doubters

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Or email your details and request to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk 12 • WAR CRY • 2 October 2021

Q

QUICK QUIZ 1

Which 18-year-old British tennis player won the women’s singles title at the US Open last month?

2

In which year did Aretha Franklin have a UK hit with her song

A ‘Respect’?

3

Who wrote the novel The Grapes of Wrath?

4

In which Italian city is the Colosseum?

5

Ricky Gervais played David Brent

6

How many sides does an

in which TV sitcom?

octagon have?

ANSWERS

1. Emma Raducanu. 2. 1967. 3. John Steinbeck.

4. Rome. 5. The Office. 6. Eight.

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Hannah Carr looks back to a notable event that happened during this month in history

Giving thanks can be hard to do FOR our friends in the USA, Thanksgiving is one of the most significant events in the calendar. It’s a chance to celebrate, to spend time with family and to give thanks for all they have – as well as to eat a lot of food!

The tradition began when Pilgrims and Native Americans made peace over a meal after a particularly fruitful harvest in 1621. Although the specific date has been lost over the past 400 years, it is thought that the meal could have taken place in October of that year. What is not in dispute is that in 1863 Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that the last Thursday of that November should be a national day of Thanksgiving, encouraging people to stop and give thanks, even in the midst of a civil war. Since then the holiday has become a day to be thankful for the year that has just passed and optimistic for the year that lies ahead.

I’m quite sad that we don’t have the tradition of Thanksgiving in the UK. I like the idea of being thankful for the good things that happen in our lives. But there are times when being thankful can be difficult. We can go through periods when everything seems to be going wrong, and we face one problem after another.

When we have difficult experiences, encountering people who are grateful for all the good things happening to them can make us feel even worse and more isolated than ever.

However, Christians can be thankful that they don’t face problems alone. They believe that, because God loves them, he is always with them, helping them to deal with the tough times and making the good times even better with his presence.

One Bible writer said that we could ‘give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures for ever’ (Psalm 136:1 New International Version).

Whether we are enjoying days that make us grateful or are facing tough times, God offers us the chance to experience his never-ending love. If we are willing to follow his direction for our lives, then we will always have something to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving is a chance to celebrate

2 October 2021 • WAR CRY • 13

PUZZLES Quick CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Earnest request (4) 3. Acquire (3) 5. Dross (4) 7. Gaiety (9) 9. Teller of untruths (4) 10. Smirk (4) 11. Fire (5) 14. Establish (3, 2) 15. Restore (5) 17. Last letter of Greek alphabet (5) 18. Explode (5) 19. Tooth (5) 20. Inundate (5) 23. Tipster (4) 25. Inflamed eyelid (4) 27. Oil (9) 28. Exist (4) 29. Haul (3) 30. Gone before (4)

DOWN 1. Bucket (4) 2. State (4) 3. Waist measurement (5) 4. Rate of movement (5) 5. Ballad (4) 6. Intend (4) 7. Domineering (9) 8. Interpret (9) 11. Picks out (5)

SUDOKU

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

5 2

9

7 6 5

4

5

8 7 9 2 4 5 8

7 2 9 2 3 6 7 1 6 4 1 3 9 3 1 12. Musical drama (5) 13. Walk noisily (5) 14. Cry (3) 16. Armed conflict (3) 21. Least good (5) 22. Parrot (5) 23. Labour (4) 24. Melody (4) 25. Pace (4) 26. Compass point (4)

WORDSEARCH

1 4 8 5 2 6 7 9 2 3 7 1 8 9 4 6 Look up, down, forwards, 6 5 backwards 9 4 7and3diagonally 1 8 on the grid to find these London Tube stations 8 6 5 3 1 7 9 2 1 F 4F O H W W N 2 9 5 6 V 3S N L W C O Z K 7R K O E E Z Q D R Q P N Z 9 2 3 6I V F C E U U 4 8 5 7 I G S G F X A Z X F O J Q L G C D F 3 7 2 9 5 4 8 1 T D T Q N V P E K A C T R R R K A N C I M P X A N R T K D Z S A R C M 4 8 1 7 6 I 2 3 5 N R I X J Q E K B S D W C U R A D B 9 6 8 3 I 1E Q N 2 4I U B N J R P E 5J Q Y P Y A

M O HONEYC B

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

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

1. Coconut chocolate bar 2. Scandinavian country 3. Day after Saturday 4. Used with a needle 5. Dairy product 6. Attached to a hand

ANSWERS 1 2 6 8 7 9 3 4 5

4 3 5 6 1 2 7 8 9

8 7 9 5 4 3 2 1 6

9 4

5 1 4 3 2 6 9 7 8

2 8 7 1 9 4 5 6 3

6 9 3 7 5 8 4 2 1

7 4 1 9 6 5 8 3 2

3 1 1

9 6 8 2 3 7 1 5 4

3 5 2 4 8 1 6 9 7

HONEYCOMB 1. Bounty. 2. Norway. 3. Sunday. 4. Thread.

5. Cheese. 6. Finger.

QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS: 1. Plea. 3. Get. 5. Scum. 7. Merriment.

9. Liar. 10. Grin. 11. Shoot. 14. Set up. 15. Renew.

17. Omega. 18. Burst. 19. Molar. 20. Swamp. 23. Tout.

25. Stye. 27. Lubricate. 28. Live. 29. Tow. 30. Past.

DOWN: 1. Pail. 2. Aver. 3. Girth. 4. Tempo. 5. Song.

6. Mean. 7. Masterful. 8. Translate. 11. Spots.

12. Opera. 13. Tramp. 14. Sob. 16. War. 21. Worst.

22. Macaw. 23. Toil. 24. Tune. 25. Step. 26. East.

14 • WAR CRY • 2 October 2021

ALDGATE

LONDON BRIDGE

ANGEL

MARBLE ARCH

CANARY WHARF

NOTTING HILL GATE

ELEPHANT AND CASTLE

PICCADILLY CIRCUS

EUSTON

WATERLOO

FARRINGDON

WESTMINSTER

GREEN PARK

WILLESDEN JUNCTION

HAMPSTEAD

WIMBLEDON

3 5 2 4 8 1 6 9 7

3

Welsh leek rarebit Ingredients 1tsp rapeseed oil 1 large leek, finely chopped 2 slices wholegrain rye bread 1 medium egg 1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard 30g mature cheddar cheese, finely grated

Method Heat the oil in a pan and cook the leek over a low-to-medium heat, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes until soft.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, turn on the grill to high.

Toast one side of both slices of rye bread.

Break the egg into a bowl, add the mustard and beat lightly. Stir in the cooked leek and half the grated cheese.

Spread the mixture evenly over the untoasted sides of the bread. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and continue to grill for 2-3 minutes until golden brown, then serve.

SERVES

2

Mediterranean pasta salad Ingredients 225g dried pasta 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered 10 black olives, sliced ¼ cucumber, chopped ½ red onion, thinly sliced 40g feta cheese, crumbled 1tbsp olive oil

Method Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Toss the pasta together with the remaining ingredients, except for the pine nuts, in a large bowl and set aside.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat. Mix for 2 minutes until starting to brown, then remove from the pan quickly to stop them cooking further.

Add the toasted pine nuts to the pasta bowl and toss again, to serve.

1tbsp balsamic vinegar Handful of basil leaves 15g pine nuts

Recipes reprinted, with permission, from the Diabetes UK website diabetes.org.uk

SERVES

3

2 October 2021 • WAR CRY • 15

When we connect with God, we go from dark to light David Gyasi

WAR CRY