What is The Salvation Army?
2 COMMENT AND CONTENTS • WAR CRY • 13 July 2019
The Salvation Army is a Christian church and registered 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 NO one needs an ‘ology’ to work out that communications have changed since British Telecom was suggesting that ‘a phone call says a lot’ and Royal Mail was claiming that ‘nothing gets through like a letter’. Countless communications now take place via SMS and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. And many of those communications feature emojis. The little images are used so widely that in 2015 an emoji became the first pictograph to be declared Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year. Next Wednesday – 17 July – people will be celebrating the symbols on World Emoji Day. This issue of the War Cry notes the smiley side of digital communications but also contains hints that they can go wrong. We report how the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, has launched some social media guidelines, which ask people who engage with the Church of England’s social media accounts to be respectful, kind and honest. Alongside the guidelines, the church is inviting Christians to sign up to a digital charter and commit themselves to safeguarding vulnerable people, showing kindness and posting the truth, ensuring it is ‘fair and factual’. Online or offline, the truth is not always easy to hear. Sometimes it can make us feel uncomfortable. It can also, as TV comedy writer James Cary says in this week’s issue, make us laugh. And sometimes it can do both. He says: ‘People tend to be upset by what comedians have said, not because it is false … Comedians are funny about things that are actually true.’ Sometimes we need to convey or hear the truth – about others or ourselves – even when it hurts. But at such times, whatever the means of communication, we should keep in mind a truth that goes back way before emojis. Translating a saying of Jesus, the church’s digital charter advises, ‘Treat others how you wish to be treated’ – to which perhaps it could be added that we should tweet others how we wish to be tweeted.
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.
SINCE 1879
140 YEARS
OF THE WAR CRY Issue No 7431
Editor: Andrew Stone, Major Deputy Editor: Philip Halcrow Production Editor: Ivan Radford 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
Contents
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 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 Image-conscious World Emoji Day celebrates symbols 5
Going out for a meal The appeal of picnics
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‘I forgave my serial killer father’ Kerri Rawson tells her story
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Save the Children’s Christian beginnings Playwright on charity pioneer’s life
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James Cary TV comedy writer on humour and truth
REGULARS 4
News and media
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Browsing the Bible
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Expressions and Quick Quiz
14 Puzzles 15
What’s cooking? Front-page picture: Shutterstock.com
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