A Unified Army

What does a unified Army look like? How do we achieve unity? This begins and ends with each of us. We all have our part to play in this hour, but it is only in unity that we can move forward, because ‘a house divided against itself will fall’. To not live in unity is damaging for families, communities, movements and countries.

We have arrived out of a dark tunnel onto a new landscape. Our eyes are adjusting, and things look similar, but we know they are not. We know that the landmarks have been removed in many areas of society and we must adapt quickly and move forward with purpose. The intensity of God’s call is increasing, and the urgency focuses our sight.

The way we previously ministered will not work in the place where we now stand in history. The predictability of our service and the comfort this has brought us will no longer give us that sense of orientation. The trappings that once served us well are now a hindrance and we must simplify and modify.

Now, more than ever, we need to be a streamlined, unified Army. We need to ‘hear what the Spirit says to the Churches’. Jesus remains the head of The Salvation Army. He has gone before us, and it is in his footsteps we now place our feet.

On page 8 in our feature article ‘Shalom Together’ you will read about a shift, a change, an adaption in the Army’s response to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi). This is an opportunity that will require us to move forward in a partnership that will model unity; to reject the stronghold of racism—that is increasingly dividing New Zealand—and evict its influence in the Army.

This new covenantal relationship requires humility by all participants. It requires putting aside individual agendas and finding ground in this new landscape that strengthens and does not divide. It requires sacrificial partnership, and, above all else, it requires us to reject divisive influences that do not belong in Christianity. We all come to Christ on the same terms, and it is within these terms that we move forward, embracing our individual ethnos, not only in Aotearoa New Zealand, but in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa—all of us together.

Vivienne Hill, Editor