The Salvation Army Chatham

This week-end saw an event of great significance in the area of social justice in the Medway Towns, but more of that later.

Rochester Cathedral

Our meetings on Sunday were both led by Major Kathy

Major Kathy

In the morning she continued with the recent theme of ‘Reversal of Values’ by basing the meeting around ‘Losing is winning’. Scripture from Luke 14: 25-35 formed the basis of her thoughts and she included songs 283, 507, 758 and 440 from The Salvation Army Song Book together with 755 and 865 from Songs of Fellowship. A short dreama entitled ‘The Race’ clearly illustrated the point that not all of us necessarily have the right attributes to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, no matter what our position in life.

Participants in ‘The Race’

Musical contributions were made by the Singing Company (Perfect Child) and the Songsters (All that I am). In her address Major Kathy spoke about Discipleship. She said ‘discipleship is not periodic volunteer work on one’s own terms and conditions. We have to give up everything we have. Christ requires singleness of purpose. There is no promise of a trouble free life as a Christian but there is a promise of eternal lfe with God’.

Moving now to the event described in our opening paragraph, some members of the corps visited Rochester Cathedral during the afternoon for the public launch of the Emmaus Medway Community Project, seeking as it does to provide a scheme to encourage homeless and workless people to better themselves within our society. Our own General John Gowans (retired) is the chair of the steering group for the scheme and during this past week has recorded an exclusive interview for this website which will be published within the next few days. Amongst other things ‘General John’ talks about this scheme and sheds light on its concept and objectives so ‘watch this space’. Following the public launch a private reception was held in the Cathedral Crypt which was attended by Bev Hudson, leader of our Service and Ministry Purpose Group as the Army’s local representative.

Bev The congregation gathers

The following is an extract from the ‘Order of Service’ from the Cathedral:

Emmaus offers homeless people a place where they can feel safe and secure, where they can enjoy companionship and the support of a community. Each person has his or her own comfortable room, whilst living and working in the Community. At Emmaus everyone is accepted for who they are now, not judged on what they might have been. There are no conditions as to the length of stay, so a person may stay for a few days or indefinitely. Above all, Emmaus is a way out of the humiliation of homelessness; a way that offers hope, care, and a future.

There are 13 Emmaus Communities across the UK, in which previously homeless people live and work. Residents of Communities sign off unemployment benefit and work at the business of the Community, which is refurbishing and selling donated household goods in on-site shops. Each Community aims to become self-sufficient through this recycling work.

Terry Waite, National President of Emmaus gave an address speaking both about his experiences in captivity in Beirut and about the possibilities for Emmaus in Medway. He says:

“Emmaus is a model for a new compassionate structure in society. I intend to do everything in my power to help Emmaus reach the goal of a Community in every significant town or city. When I was released from my prison in Beirut I was very glad to be able to come home. Emmaus is home to many people who might otherwise be destitute, and is certainly worthy of your support.”

Terry Waite (left) with General Gowans

Returning to the Hall for our evening meeting it seemed quite in keeping with the afternoon events that we should be following the theme of ‘no armchair discipleship’. Basing the meeting on Romans 12 :1-16 Major Kathy included songs 734 , 687, 463 and 466 from The Salvation Army Song Book together with 1099 and 955 from Song of Fellowship.

The Band’s message was ‘Redeeming Love’ and the Songsters brought ‘This Kingdom’. In her sermon Major Kathy said that today life can be controlled from the airmchair. The TV remote, the washing machine and other labour saving devices make life very easy. In Christian terms we can be the bystanders watching from the sidelines or we can be fully charged with energy, contributing to life around us. If we are the latter we will indeed influence people for Christ.

A day in which we were encouraged to think not only about ourselves but about others, a fitting introduction to our lent course ‘Can we build a better world?’ which begins this week (today at 1.00pm and Wednesday at 8.00pm). If you live locally why don’t you join us. Visit contact us to find our location if you don’t already know.

Have a great week.