Question about soldiership

[poppinskw]

Hi there elmo, havnt seen you for ages

 

[elm0]

Hi there elmo, havnt seen you for ages

Well, I've been here, where have you been?

 

[poppinskw]

where you havnt been

 

[elm0]

where you havnt been

Obviously.

 

[poppinskw]

Well, I've been here, where have you been?

Watching the All Blacks beat the Wallabies

 

[elm0]

Watching the All Blacks beat the Wallabies

Why would you want to watch little marsupials being beaten?? That's so mean!!

 

[sreno7]

Hey I have a question. I have a friend in another city who goes to the army and she says they no longer have soldiers there. Is that possible?

 

[TheDag]

anythings possible I suppose but it is hard to comment without knowing the specifics of the situation. I mean maybe they had a situation where almost all soldiers started using soldieship as a status thing and made a decision to get rid of soldiers just like one church got rid of music for awhile. Maybe there is something else behind it like the belief that all should be out there doing God's work regardless or maybe your friend misunderstood the situation. So yeah it is possible but hard to comment on sorry.

 

[InTheFlame]

Hey I have a question. I have a friend in another city who goes to the army and she says they no longer have soldiers there. Is that possible?

Does she maybe mean that they don't wear uniform to church services? For some, that seems to translate into 'no soldiers'.

 

[Reilly]

I recently completed soldier classes. Becoming an adherent means that you will be recognized as an official member of the Salvation Army. Becoming a soldier is when you sign the Articles of War document attesting to those beliefs and agreeing that you will adhere to a certain lifestyle.

 

[Reilly]

I also wanted to add that at the particular corps that I go to you are not required to wear your uniform to church if you don't want to. They would like it if you did but it's not mandatory. If we are out doing things in the community or doing league of mercy visits or representing the salvaton army in some way then we do need to be in uniform.

 

[Andy Broadley]

That sounds much more like the way we do things in thios country.

In fact it seems that only Australia don't do things like that.

 

[InTheFlame]

That sounds much more like the way we do things in thios country.

In fact it seems that only Australia don't do things like that.

I don't know... I think it varies from territory to territory and corps to corps. Some Aussie corps would be horrified at the idea of people not wearing uniform to church, for example. In the corps I started out in, bonnets had only just been chucked out!

But maybe it's heat-related. I know of overseas corps where uniform is nowhere near mandatory, and maybe they're often the hotter ones. That's just a theory at this point! But I know in Brissie, for example, at least half the year can be too hot for long pants - let alone tunics and the like. A polo shirt and pair of shorts is far more sensible attire. Maybe that's why we're less strict on uniform, etc?

 

[sreno7]

I don't know the details of my friend's corps but I mentioned to her that my sixteen year old was becoming a soldier (he since has and my daughter became an adherent) and she said "We don't have soldiers at my church anymore".Now not everyone at our corps wears uniforms, I don't even think the youth pastor is a soldier, I believe he is an adherent, and none of the younger people wear uniforms but they are still soldiers.
I questioned her and didn't get much more info.
I know another corps in our province that does only outreach in their community and doesn't have a regular meeting place.
There are so many things you can wear instead of the regular uniform now though, such as bermuda shorts. Hmm could it be related to the Canada and Bermuda territory?

 

[Abiel]

There seem to be as many approaches to this as Corps these days. I'm no fan of formal uniform, but we do seem to be losing something in all this.

 

[sreno7]

What exactly do you see us losing? Here in our community we still have the meal program and are building a new homeless shelter.

 

[Abiel]

World wide identity.

 

[sreno7]

Hmm and you equate losing the traditional symbols with losing our identity? People often talk of the past but the Salvation Army was at the World Trade Center clean up and the Tsunami too.