War Cry 16 April 2022

Professors study the role of Jesus’ female followers

WAR CRY

16 April 2022 50p

‘It’s a story about love’ Kate Bottley explains the real meaning of Easter

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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.

LET’S be honest – at the beginning of 2022, not many of us would have known when Easter would fall this year without consulting our diaries. The four-day bank holiday weekend can take us by surprise as its date changes.

Easter is not like Christmas, for which the date of 25 December is rigidly set. It’s also not like Christmas in that it doesn’t seem to generate the same excitement, familiar songs or traditional food. Easter also doesn’t burn such a hole in the bank balance.

In many ways, it seems a far more low-key festival than the one celebrated at the end of each year. So the Rev Canon Kate Bottley’s comments in an interview in this week’s War Cry may come as a bit of a surprise.

‘I love Christmas, but Easter is more important to me,’ the TV and radio presenter tells us. ‘Easter is the central message of Christianity. It’s a story about love.’

The love that is shown in the Easter story is a love that led Jesus to die on a cross, where he took the punishment for all the things that people had done wrong and would do wrong. The miracle of Easter is that, after Jesus had died and been placed in a tomb, he rose to life so that his followers could know with certainty that they would experience an eternal life with him.

The events remembered at Easter give Christians hope. They also motivate them to display God’s love to others. It’s a motivation that leads The Salvation Army to help more than 3,000 people experiencing homelessness every single night. As we report this week, the church and charity not only helps with accommodation but also offers them the support they need to move forward in life.

The events of almost 2,000 years ago that are commemorated at Easter continue to impact ad the War C people’s lives throughout the world. That is why e re ry u’v Easter means so much to Christians and why it’s a date worth noting.

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.

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CONTENTS

Tel: 0845 634 0101 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

FEATURES

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in TV drama

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Women of the word

Authors explore the Bible’s accounts of Jesus’ female disciples 7

An expression of love

Broadcaster Kate Bottley on why

INFO

Easter matters

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Dying to be reborn Life gives Ursula another chance

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The Salvation Army’s support for vulnerable people REGULARS 12 Team Talk 13 Now, There’s a Thought!

14 Puzzles 15 War Cry Kitchen Front-page picture: JOHN MANNELL

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Sister Pamela (Hope Delany) and father Hugh (James McArdle) welcome baby Ursula into the family

A matter of life and life The story of a girl who is reborn every time she dies raises questions TV preview by Sarah Olowofoyeku

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YOUNG girl has died several times, but somehow she keeps getting another chance at living. The mystery of the many lives of Ursula Todd unfolds in new drama Life after Life, which begins on BBC Two on Tuesday (19 April).

As the time-shifting series opens, a grown-up Ursula (Thomasin McKenzie) is saying goodbye to her younger brother, Teddy (Sean Delaney), who is heading off to fight in the Second World War. They are chatting before he leaves, musing about the possibility of living their lives again. ‘If I could come back again, I’d be a baker,’ he says wistfully. ‘I love cake.’

When he asks, ‘What if we could come back and live it all over again … and again?’, she responds: ‘They’re the two best words in the English language when you put them together aren’t they? What if?’

Rewind some 30 years, and it’s the night of Ursula’s birth, 11 February 1910.

The weather is bad and heavy snow has prevented the doctor from making it to her mother’s side in time. The maid is on hand to help, but when baby Ursula emerges, the umbilical cord is wrapped round her neck, and she dies. Her mother, Sylvie (Sian Clifford), is distraught. But then, in a

Can Ursula live a perfect life?

blink, the night begins again.

Once more it’s 11 February 1910. The doctor makes it just in time. He is able to cut the cord wrapped round Ursula’s neck, and she lives. She has a happy childhood, with her two, soon to be three, then four siblings. But her mother notices that she is slightly anxious.

As the years go on, Ursula continues to meet with death. But each time she dies, her timeline begins again with her birth on 11 February 1910 and she is given another chance at life. Though she doesn’t exactly know that she has been reborn, the older she gets, the more her past lives stay with her in the form of instincts – giving her the opportunity to change her circumstances and protect her loved ones.

Her strange situation raises questions: to what extent can she control her future; what is it she needs to stay alive for; and can her past experiences enable her to live a perfect life?

Young Ursula (Eliza Riley) – a girl who keeps getting another chance at life

While the story of Ursula Todd is fictional, an adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s novel of the same name, the concepts of a perfect life and living after dying have been a true feature in one story of faith for many people across time.

They believe that Jesus, the central figure in Christianity, was the Son of God and lived a perfect life. They also believe that when he was killed, he took the punishment for everyone’s imperfect lives and reconciled them to God. But after dying, he was raised to life again.

Because of the sacrifice Jesus made in giving up his life, everyone can have a second chance at life here and now – that is, their past mistakes can be forgiven and they can be given a clean slate.

More than that, Jesus’ resurrection means that people who believe in him will never die, but live for ever after their life on Earth. It’s the meaning of the story of Easter, marked at this time of year by millions of people. And if we choose to follow Jesus, we too can experience the gift of eternal life it celebrates.

16 April 2022 • WAR CRY • 3

A WOMAN

A WOMA Although most women’s lives were constrained in the ancient world, some ‘could get out and do things’, say Professors HELEN BOND and JOAN TAYLOR. The two historians describe how, contrary to popular imagery, many women chose to become Jesus’ disciples, staying by his side in his darkest moments – and becoming the first witnesses to his empty tomb Interview by Philip Halcrow

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N the road while making their TV documentary, Helen Bond and Joan Taylor began thinking of the huge amount of material they had. They discussed what they had seen. And they scribbled notes for a book, which has just been published and which reflects their view that, if assessed for historical accuracy, many scenes from TV and cinema would be consigned to the cutting room floor.

‘The same images come up time and again in film and art,’ Joan tells me. ‘We see Jesus surrounded by a bunch of men. But we have to push back against that.’

Helen agrees that ‘the mental picture we have of Jesus walking the hills with 12 men – and occasionally Mary Magdalene too nowadays – is completely wrong.’

Four years after their documentary Jesus’ Female Disciples was broadcast on Channel 4, Helen Bond, professor of Christian origins at the University of

Edinburgh, and Joan Taylor, professor of Christian origins and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London, have published Women Remembered, which focuses on an often-overlooked cast of characters.

Helen and Joan explain that they wrote the book because they wanted to shine a light on the women who are mentioned in the New Testament.

‘One of the core texts for us comes in Mark’s Gospel right near the end, at the Crucifixion,’ says Helen. ‘When all the male disciples have run away, Jesus dies on the cross, and then suddenly Mark says that there were women standing there who had accompanied Jesus from his time in Galilee. In fact, he says that there were many women, and he names three of them.

‘Clearly there is a large group of women that have been with him from the early part of his ministry, and then they’ve made

They needed women to get the message out to half of humanity

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the long trek with him to Jerusalem. So, the people following Jesus are a mixed group.’

It is difficult to know, says Helen, how usual or unusual it was for a teacher such as Jesus to have female followers.

‘There are cases of other female disciples in the ancient world,’ she says.

‘Other philosophers certainly did have female disciples. So, it was not completely uncommon.

‘The striking thing about Jesus and the early Christian movement, though, was that they believed that God was going to intervene and establish the Kingdom of God very soon. The aim was to reach everybody, and everybody had to help out. The Jesus movement wanted to get the message spread around the Mediterranean and, because of the deeply patriarchal times, they needed women in order to go to other women. You couldn’t have had men going and talking to women who were washing their clothes by the riverbank or going into women’s homes and speaking unchaperoned with them.

‘They needed women to get the

N’S PLACE ANNA COX

AN’S PLAC MAURICE SAVAGE/ALAMY

Joan Taylor and Helen Bond

message out to half of humanity, and the early Church seems to have deliberately used men and women as missionary pairs. They may have been married couples or sometimes not married but kind of spiritual brothers and sisters.

‘All this was happening in a Jewish context – at least initially – and these are clearly ways in which Jewish women could behave. I think they are still surprising ways.

Most women had fairly constrained lives, but if you had a certain amount of wealth, if you weren’t looking after a husband or small children or elderly relatives, you could get out and do things.’

The Gospels record that many women The resurrected Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene in David Wynne’s sculpture ‘Noli Me Tangere’ in Ely Cathedral

got out and did things. Some of those who followed Jesus are named in the texts, though often without much more information being given about them. Joan is intrigued by a disciple named Salome, who appears in later Church traditions but is mentioned only briefly in the Gospels.

‘You wonder why the text just names her and then passes on so quickly. But we think that some of these names – especially in the earliest material – are simply given as names because people already knew their backstory.’

Helen is fascinated by Joanna, who is named only twice in one of the Gospels but is identified as being married to a steward of local ruler Herod.

‘That’s all we’re told about her really. She seems to have been healed from some disease, but she must be from Herod’s city, Tiberias, right on Lake Galilee. Although we don’t know much about her, I try to imagine what’s happening at Herod’s court. We get these little references now and then

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INDEPENDENT PHOTO AGENCY SRL/ALAMY

From page 5 to Herod taking an interest in Jesus and people in Herod’s court being interested in or converted to Christianity.

‘As for Joanna, she’s clearly a woman of some status, so she’s coming from a very different place from most of these women from the fishing industry and the rest of Jesus’ disciples. We tend to think of Christianity as something that was connected with the poor, and I think largely it was, but it’s interesting to think that it did also attract people from some higher levels of society.’

As well as following Jesus during his popular ministry, Jesus’ female disciples stuck by him Tourists view Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ in Milan during his darkest hours.

Helen suggests that – despite the imagery of Leonardo da Vinci – there would probably of the Resurrection, the women are have been some of Jesus’ female a constant. It is the women who first followers present at the Last Supper. discover the empty tomb and encounter Whoever was with Jesus when he ate the the resurrected Jesus – and particularly last meal before his crucifixion, it seems to be Mary the Gospel writers explicitly Magdalene. state that women were still on Joan explains: ‘It is the scene after his arrest. absolutely significant.

Joan says: ‘The male And that’s one of the disciples have gone. They problems for the early abandon Jesus in Gethsemane.

Church. We know that one Even the one who does hang of the criticisms was that around – Peter – is in the Christianity was founded on courtyard of the high priest only to deny the testimony of a delirious woman. That Jesus three times and feel terrible. After is what the philosopher Celsus says in the which, he is also gone. second century.

‘It’s really only the women who are ‘For us today, when we see the women there by the cross. It’s only the women at the cross, at the burial of Jesus and at who would have been able to report all the the Resurrection, that’s a fantastic thing. important things that happened in terms We think how wonderful it is that there of Jesus’ death on Golgotha.’ were these women who were faithful to What is more, in all the varied accounts Jesus. But in the wider patriarchal world

Christianity was founded on women’s testimony

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of the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean, that was not a good thing. It was actually an indication that the movement was very suspect indeed.

‘Christianity was founded on women’s testimony. It gave a high place to women and what they reported. We have diverse stories of Jesus’ resurrection, but in those diverse stories the women are playing a very important role – particularly Mary Magdalene.

‘At that point, the message about Jesus is absolutely a woman’s story.’

l Women Remembered is published by Hodder & Stoughton

‘To me, Easter is bigger than Christmas’ Songs of Praise presenter the Rev Canon KATE BOTTLEY reveals how she plans to celebrate Easter and explains why it’s a story about love Interview by Claire Brine

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FTER spending the past two Easters at home during Covid-19 lockdowns, the Rev Canon Kate Bottley can’t wait to celebrate Easter Day in church once more. The Church of England priest, who co-presents Radio 2’s Good Morning Sunday programme and pops up regularly on BBC One’s Songs of Praise and Sunday Morning Live, is expecting a busy Holy Week.

‘The build-up to Easter Sunday is a big week in the Church calendar,’ she says. ‘And when there are lots of services that need covering, I usually get drafted in. I don’t run a church of my own these days, but I work a bit like a supply vicar. I’m the Robin to a parish priest’s Batman. So I’m often called in to take services for vicars who are away or poorly.

‘This year my Easter Sunday will start in Salford with my usual Radio 2 show, which runs from 6am till 9am. Once I’ve finished in the studio, I’ll drive back home to Retford, getting to my local church for about 11am. I’m off duty, so I’ll sneak in at the back, halfway through the service. It’ll be my first Easter back in church for two years, so it should be good.’

In 2020, when the outbreak of

BBC/LEIGH KEILY

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From page 7 Covid-19 resulted in a national lockdown, forcing thousands of churches to close their doors and move worship services online, Kate looked for a way to celebrate Easter at home with her family.

‘That first year, my kids and I made miniature Easter gardens on Good Friday, then we celebrated on Easter Sunday with Communion at our kitchen table,’ she says. ‘Last year, we did the same thing and my parents came to join us.

Graham, my husband, played the Easter hymn “Thine Be the Glory” on the piano – because it isn’t Easter without “Thine Be the Glory”. And we had Communion on the kitchen counter. It was lovely. You can sing hymns as loud as you like when you’re at home. And you can wear what you like. Communion in pyjamas is a great thing.’

Although the past couple of Easters have been solely family affairs, Kate explains that vicars are usually busy with church services every night of Holy Week. On Maundy Thursday, many congregations gather together to reflect on the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus shared with his disciples before his death. After he washed their feet – a courtesy usually performed for house guests by servants – Jesus was betrayed by the disciple Judas, who handed him over to the authorities.

‘When I was a vicar running a church, we’d have a service on Maundy Thursday, and I’d wash the feet of the people in my congregation,’ Kate says. ‘After that, we’d strip the altar, taking away all the fancy cloth and leaving the church completely bare. That was always a poignant moment for me, highlighting the reality of Good Friday to come.’

The day of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion – known by Christians as Good Friday – is part of the Easter story that Kate admits to finding ‘really difficult’.

‘When people think about the kind of person I am, many of them imagine that I’m laughs and giggles all the time, but I’m not.

I’m serious about my faith. Holy Week is a tough week. Good Friday is a hard day.

‘On past Good Fridays I’ve run kids’ clubs where we’ve had hot cross buns

or I’ve taken part in a walk of witness, joining other Christians to walk through the village with a large cross. I’ve also led afternoon services of reflection at church, reading the crucifixion narrative from one of the Gospels. Usually I’d be in floods of tears, then at the end, people would leave the church quietly. Good Friday isn’t a day for having coffee after the service. It’s about solemn reflection.’

By the time Easter Day arrives, Kate is

Good Friday is about solemn reflection

8 • WAR CRY • 16 April 2022

always ready to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. She refers to him as the ‘Light of the world’.

‘Being a vicar with my own church meant that I was always up at the crack of dawn on Easter Sunday, ready to light the Easter fire,’ she says. ‘It symbolises that the darkness of Good Friday has gone and the light has come. At my church, everyone was given a candle and, after watching the sun rise together, we carried the light of the candles into the church.

‘The church always looked beautiful on Easter Sunday because the flower

BBC STUDIOS/JAMES SHARROCK

more. It has been defeated. Death holds no power or fear for me, because Jesus was raised to life.’

Though the events of Easter took place almost 2,000 years ago, Kate believes it’s a story that continues to change the lives of the people who hear and believe it.

‘When people look at the broken world around them, they might think: “I don’t get it”,’ she says. ‘I don’t get it either. We’ve seen war and a pandemic. There is suffering.

But there’s also a hope which comes out of Easter that cannot be rivalled. A hope of life after death. A hope of new beginnings. Easter reminds us that we are held in love. We are loved by the author of love – by the one who came up with the idea of love in the first place.’

It’s a message that believers cling on to. But there are others who struggle to accept the Christian story, claiming that the Resurrection requires too big a leap of faith.

‘I believe in the Resurrection,’ Kate says.

‘But I know it’s weird. I know that believing in a man who was raised from the dead makes no sense. I’m a Christian, not an idiot. But Jesus has changed my life.

‘When it comes to faith, I don’t think a person needs to believe everything straightaway. Some people won’t come into faith spaces because they say, “I can’t believe it all.” Well, I struggle to believe it all too. I have a difficult time with the ascension story, when Jesus’ body went up into Heaven. But I think that’s OK. Faith is not a destination you arrive at, then, when you get off the train, you’re suddenly religious.

‘With faith, you’re always learning and it always changes. It’s OK to wobble.

When it comes to Christianity, you’re loved, so you’re in – even though we are all completely messed up. That’s what makes it revolutionary.’

Easter brings hope of life after death

Kate is part of the presenting team for BBC One’s ‘Sunday Morning Live’, along with Sean Fletcher arrangers had been squirrelling away the day before, getting everything ready. You’d open the door and smell the lilies. It was such a contrast to Good Friday, when there were no flowers or fancy things in the building. But on Easter Sunday, churches always look different – because things are different. That’s the whole message.’

I ask Kate why the Easter story – which so often gets lost among the chocolate eggs and bunnies of the season – is so important to her. Isn’t Christmas the biggie for Christians?

‘I love Christmas, but Easter is more

important to me,’ she explains. ‘The hope of my faith is found on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Easter is the central message of Christianity. It’s a story about love. On the cross, Jesus is holding his arms wide out to embrace the whole of humanity.

‘The cross represents to me that God knows what suffering is like – because Jesus was both God and man. So when we suffer, we know that God is in it with us.

That expression of love on the cross and the empty tomb afterwards means that we don’t need to be frightened of death any

16 April 2022 • WAR CRY • 9

‘I had totally

Every night, The Salvation Army accommodates more than 3,000 people experiencing homelessness, and offers them the support they need to move forward in life. Gemma was one of those people Feature by Sarah Olowofoyeku

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EMMA’S mother was addicted to drugs, and her father left home when she was little. Having grown up in a chaotic home, Gemma wanted to leave as soon as possible.

So she did.

But because of her upbringing, she was vulnerable. Consequently, she ended up getting into bad relationships. At the age of 18, she had a child, and in her early 20s, she had another.

A few years later, Gemma began a relationship that she thought was different. She was 28, and Paul was much older. She thought he might give her and her children a place to live that was safe and secure. But after she moved in with him, their relationship became increasingly abusive. He was addicted to drugs and would beat Gemma in substance-fuelled fits of rage.

10 • WAR CRY • 16 April 2022

He forced her to take drugs too and made her deal them to others.

‘I had totally lost control of my life,’ says Gemma.

But she stayed with Paul for years, just so her children had somewhere to live.

Eventually, though, social services had to take the children into care for their own safety.

That was the final straw for Gemma. Distraught, she considered taking her own life. But she realised that for her misery to end, she had to leave Paul.

‘I knew that if anyone was going to change this, it had to be me,’ she recalls.

So one day, she packed a suitcase and left. She took a train to another town. It was a huge risk. She says: ‘If Paul had

caught me, I’m sure he would have killed me.’

When she arrived in the new town, Gemma had nowhere to stay, so she visited the council, which put her in touch with The Salvation Army. The church and charity found a room for Gemma in one of its Lifehouses – residential centres for people experiencing homelessness. The site had a centre dedicated to caring for women who were victims of abuse.

As a result of years of being forced to take drugs, Gemma had a cocaine addiction and was still dependent on the drug when she arrived at the Lifehouse.

But she was given the treatment that she needed to begin getting clean.

Staying at the Lifehouse was good for

Gemma considered taking her own life

lost control of my life’ LIBRARY PICTURES POSED BY MODELS

The Salvation Army offers friendly support to thousands of people each day

Gemma. The team befriended her, spoke to her about her experiences and helped her to see that her days of being a victim were behind her. ‘They got me thinking positively about my life,’ she says.

Today, Gemma is on track to breaking her addiction. She is in touch again with her two daughters and, with the help of The Salvation Army, is looking forward to finding a job and a permanent home – somewhere she can live with her daughters in the future.

She says: ‘I prayed to God to be free of drugs and to be a mum again. Now I’m on the way to making my dreams come true.’

Captain Daniel Holland, of The Salvation Army’s homelessness services,

says that they want ‘people to find a fullness of life with Jesus’.

He explains: ‘The aim of our work with women experiencing homelessness is to empower them to improve their wellbeing, and this will enable them to transition to independent living.

‘While we support people of all faiths and none, we hope the people we journey with are able to encounter the good news of Jesus as their support programme brings a transformation to their lives.’

Every night, The Salvation Army supports 3,000 people like Gemma in more than 80 Lifehouses across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. These places of accommodation are called Lifehouses because they are more than a place to

Lifehouses are more than a place to stay

stay. They are places where people can get help with their housing problems and with other aspects of their lives such as employment, debt, training, spirituality, loneliness, addiction and mental health.

The services are available to all sorts of people. This includes those who are are young, vulnerable women, families, ex-service personnel and people who are sleeping rough. The Salvation Army also helps people with physical and mental health problems and drug and alcohol issues, as well as those involved with the criminal justice system.

Daniel adds: ‘We do this work because we know there is always hope available for everyone.’

l Some names have been changed

16 April 2022 • 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.

talk ‘ ’ Team talk TEAM TALK Catch my drift?

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

MANY adults are up a ‘career creek’, according to mental health author Josh Roberts. They don’t know what they want from life. There’s no longer one dream job to which they aspire. As a result, adults in their 20s and 30s are stumbling through their working years, rather than relishing them.

In a Stylist magazine article, writer Amy Beecham got on board with some of the ideas included in Josh’s book Generation Drift.

‘Roberts coined the phrase “Generation Drift” to describe the swathes of millennials and Gen Zs meandering … through life as a working adult,’ she said. Among this group of people, there’s a sense of ‘not knowing exactly what you want from your career, not having a clear idea of what success means and feeling like you’ve constantly made terrible career choices’.

The article went on to say that this ‘generational pivot’ of adults – the shift of focus from ‘settling’ to ‘chasing satisfaction’ – often attracts criticism from older age groups. (Surely we’ve all heard millennials being branded as flaky for their inability to commit?)

As someone who loves to make a plan and stick to it, I suppose I can understand the exasperation many people feel towards the drifters of this world. Life is short, so shouldn’t they be setting goals, achieving them, then setting some more? I used to think so.

Then, several years ago, I began to think differently. I felt that I was drifting.

I hated not knowing where I was going or what I was doing with my life. And when I asked God for guidance, I felt I didn’t get any. But then I came across a quote by the monk Thomas Merton, which changed my perspective.

He wrote: ‘You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognise the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.’

While the world may tell us otherwise, not every moment of our life needs to be mapped out for us to get the best experience of it. When we have faith, there can be value in not knowing what’s coming next – and opportunities that we may never have planned for.

Adults are stumbling through their working years

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

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Amen

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Contact details of a Salvation Army minister Name Address Extract from Why Jesus? by Nicky Gumbel published by Alpha International, 2011. Used by kind permission of Alpha International

Or email your details and request to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk 12 • WAR CRY • 16 April 2022

NOW, THERE’S A THOUGHT!

Q

QUICK QUIZ 1

What French phrase does the abbreviation RSVP stand for?

2

Who played Dr Watson opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in the TV series Sherlock?

A 3

What is the capital city of Peru?

4

Nigerian footballer Alexander

Iwobi plays for which Premier League football club?

5

Teenage hip-hop act Phineas

Waweru and Joshua Somerkun release music under what name?

6

Who is the shadow chancellor of the exchequer?

ANSWERS

by Mal Davies

Much to do about something I

CONFESS: I’m not a to-do list sort of person. My wife, on the other hand, maintains multiple lists: some of them for me!

Perhaps the reason I don’t keep lists is because she seems fairly willing to tell me what needs doing next, and I don’t want to take away that joy and privilege from her.

To-do lists can be of any length and – I’m reliably told – ticking things off them can be greatly satisfying. Whether it’s two things you’ve finished or a dozen, to know that you’ve accomplished something can make your day.

When Jesus began his ministry in the Middle East about 2,000 years ago, he had only one thing on his to-do list: he was to help people truly know God. He would achieve this through his teaching and preaching, and also through the way he lived and treated others.

Jesus warned people – especially the religious leaders of the day – that they had moved to a very cold and rules-based form of religious practice, rather than one based on love and relationship with God and with others.

In his ultimate act to bring people to God, Jesus sacrificed himself to take the punishment for everything that had caused humanity to be separated from God. Jesus knew this was a task he had been given by God and, just before his death, he prayed that people might ‘know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on Earth,’ he said, ‘by finishing the work you gave me to do’ (John 17:3 and 4 New International Version).

On the cross, Jesus’ final words were, ‘It is finished’, or as other translations put it, ‘It is accomplished.’

So Christians don’t think of Jesus’ death as a defeat, but as a victory. It was the biggest to-do list tick in history. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, the invitation to know God is open to us all.

Jesus had come to point people back to God and show them how to live in relationship with God and others. Job done.

Christians don’t think of Jesus’ death as a defeat

1. Répondez s’il vous plaît. 2. Martin Freeman.

3. Lima. 4. Everton. 5. A1 x J1. 6. Rachel Reeves.

16 April 2022 • WAR CRY • 13

PUZZLES Quick CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

ACROSS 3. Drinking vessel (3) 7. Motor shed (6) 8. Clergyman (6) 9. Frightened (6) 10. Vibration (6) 11. Allow (3) 12. Dive (6) 14. Thrown out (6) 17. Botch (6) 21. Cure (6) 24. Anger (3) 25. Weeping (6) 26. Vault (6) 27. Agreement (6) 28. Appeared (6) 29. Aye (3)

DOWN 1. Annul (6) 2. Head nurse (6) 3. Interfere (6) 4. Cave (6) 5. Entry (6) 6. Sullen (6) 12. Inn (3) 13. Sticky substance (3) 15. Employ (3) 16. Arid (3) 18. Disquiet (6)

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

2

7 5 1 9 7 2

7 1 3 7 5 3 8 9 4 5 6 9 9 6 5 8 1 5 1 2 9 8 4 19. Engineless aircraft (6) 20. Fourscore (6) 21. Niche (6) 22. Fungus (6) 23. Haberdasher (6)

WORDSEARCH

2 4 8 6 1 7 3 9 6 7 9 3 2 5 1 4 Look up, down, forwards, backwards and diagonally 5 these 1 3technology 4 8 9terms 6 7 on the grid to find 8 9 7 2 5 1 4 3 S X K N I J K1 I Q 3 L6P B 8 G9O M 4 Z2 E 5A K T E E R QWN Q R S KW F Y K C J F Z Y M N K E4T 5I S2B 7 E W6Z 3I Q9R 8 Y S U B L A I R9E S L A S R E V I N U 6 4 5 7 2 8 1 ZMO Z U I G R H Q R NMV Z T S P 8 M5Y 1 G S A V G S L3N C E A4 I 6 E R7M 2 E X K R R Q Z V7E E T P3B 8 F R5N 6 Z 2 A1W 9

M O HONEYC B

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

H Z D MU F U QM B L R D L A R E Q I F B B B D Y I T SMQ Y O D

1. Part of a dress 2. Column 3. Portable steps 4. Continue directly ahead 5. Remember 6. Breakfast food

ANSWERS 2 6 5 8 1 4 9 3 7

4 7 1 9 3 5 6 8 2

8 9 3 7 6 2 4 5 1

6 3 4 2 8 7 5 1 9

5 1 9

1 2 8 5 9 6 7 4 3

7 5 9 1 4 3 2 6 8

3 1 6 4 2 9 8 7 5

9 4 7 3 5 8 1 2 6

8

5 8 2 6 7 1 3 9 4 4

2

HONEYCOMB 1. Bodice. 2. Pillar. 3. Ladder.

4. Onward. 5. Recall. 6. Cereal.

QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS: 3. Mug. 7. Garage. 8. Rector. 9. Scared.

10. Tremor. 11. Let. 12. Plunge. 14. Ousted.

17. Bungle. 21. Remedy. 24. Ire. 25. Crying.

26. Cellar. 27. Assent. 28. Seemed. 29. Yes. DOWN: 1. Cancel. 2. Matron. 3. Meddle.

4. Grotto. 5. Access. 6. Morose. 12. Pub. 13. Gel. 15. Use. 16. Dry. 18. Unrest. 19. Glider. 20. Eighty.

21. Recess. 22. Mildew. 23. Draper.

14 • WAR CRY • 16 April 2022

6

J T X A O R P H VWO H U G N Q J HWL N B Q P S F MO E S K T A A G J AWU D HWR T

T P R O T O C O L Z Z

P D I S N Z A P Q S J

H I WO R C O T WV R P SMK A T A B L E E Z T I R P Z D T V H L SMD L R QW S SM I

Y P X K E A K T Q D K

Q S X Y H X GW Y C L H X J T D T B TW S Q N I A I I F I J J I Y R A Q CWL X Y AMX

APP

KEYBOARD

STREAM

DESKTOP

LAPTOP

STYLUS

DOWNLOAD

NETWORK

TABLET

EMAIL

SEARCH ENGINE

UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS

SERVER

WEBSITE

SMARTPHONE

WIFI

HYPERLINK INTERNET PROTOCOL

5 8 2 6 7 1 3 9 4

Italian Easter pie Ingredients

Method

Extra virgin olive oil

Heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.

1 onion, finely chopped

Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan and cook the onion over a medium heat for 5-6 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute, then remove from the heat. Mix in the spinach, ricotta, Parmesan and 2 eggs. Season with lots of pepper.

2 garlic cloves, crushed 600g frozen spinach, thawed, drained and roughly chopped 375g ricotta, drained 50g Parmesan, finely grated 6 British Lion eggs Ground black pepper 6 sheets filo pastry 50g breadcrumbs 2tsp sesame seeds

Lightly brush the sheets of filo with 4tbsp oil. Lay the sheets in a 24cm loosebottomed oiled cake tin, with each sheet a sixth of a turn round from the previous one and leaving the excess pastry.

Scatter the base of pastry with the breadcrumbs and spoon in the spinach filling. Make 4 deep indents in the filling, then crack an egg into each. Roughly fold over the excess pastry and gently dab with a little oil. Scatter with sesame seeds.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until cooked through. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a serving plate.

SERVES

8

Bacon and egg hot cross buns Ingredients 8 rashers smoked back bacon Maple syrup 4 hot cross buns Oil 4 large British Lion eggs 4tsp tomato ketchup Baby spinach leaves

Method Brush both sides of the bacon rashers with maple syrup.

Cook under a hot grill for 6 minutes, turning until the bacon is crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen paper.

Split the hot cross buns and toast them under the grill.

Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan, crack in the eggs and fry for 3-4 minutes. Spread ketchup over the base of the buns and serve each bun immediately with some spinach, 2 rashers bacon and a fried egg inside.

SERVES

4

Recipes reprinted, with permission, from the British Egg Information Service website egginfo.co.uk

16 April 2022 • WAR CRY • 15

Christians have lives of victory and strength because of the cross General André Cox

WAR CRY