Papers in This Session:

•Bearing Witness to the Truth of Christ in a Pluralistic Globalised World – Helen Cameron

•Stepney Salvation Army: Bearing Witness to the Truth of Christ in a Pluralistic Globalised World – Nick Coke

•A Reflection on Implications for The Salvation Army of ‘Bearing Witness to the Truth of Christ in a Pluralistic Globalised World.” –Jane Morris

Responding to the demand for emergency good – spiritual pluralism

•Hand approaches

•Heart approaches

•Head approaches

Engaging with Scripture – Epistemological Pluralism

A. Objectivist approaches

B. Social Constructivist approaches

C. Interpretivist approaches

The Challenges of Epistemological Pluralism

1. Fear of upsetting the world view of the objectivist

2. Fear of frightening off the social constructivist

3. A sense of feeling deskilled in the handling of scripture and tradition

4. A retreat from the Christian tradition into ‘what works’ secular pragmatism in deference to the ‘gods of the age’

Proposals for a More Confident Pluralism in the UK Salvation Army

1. Our core identity is that of hospitable interpretavists

2. We will make objectivists welcome but we will not pretend they are the only people in the room

3. We will challenge the relativism of social constructivists asking them to say where they are coming from and welcoming them in from an isolating individualism

4. We will be open to the orthopraxy of partnership but constantly reflect on practice to ensure it lives out our espoused theology

5. We will seek a lively engagement with the text of Scripture by teaching hermeneutics to all who belong to us and making theological reflection a normal part of the way we work

6. We will give the Christian tradition a place of honour in our worship and teach it as something that matters

A reflection on implications for the Salvation Army of ‘Bearing Witness to the Truth of Christ in a Pluralistic Globalised World.’

Jane Morris

Implications for the UKT: the primary function for Salvation Army expressions is to engage with people and cultures outside its ‘walls’.

Question: What are the ‘walls’ that we construct around us that prevent pluralistic engagement and how might we overcome them?

Implication for the UKT: The Salvationist is commanded to love his neighbour, being involved both proactively and reactively in issues of justice, in the smallest groups, as well as in national and global issues.

Question: How can we provide practical resources for this to be explored and for participation?

Implication for the UKT: We praise God for our diversity in community, which we see as a sacramental sign of the Spirit’s presence among us, and which we celebrate, recognising this to be a witness to a fragmented society.

Question: Do we sometimes value uniformity over possibly uncomfortable diversity?

Implication for the UKT: Authentic relationships in our faith communities must be our priority, in order to demonstrate Christ’s truth.

Question: How do we balance a need for self-preservation (e.g. demonstrated by recruitment and other statistics), with the need to be Christ’s truth, which may not be productive in the same way?

Implication for the UKT: Christ’s truth is evident amongst us all: Christ’s voice can be heard through any (non - ‘specialist’) disciple.

Question: How do we ensure that all voices are heard well? Including those within and beyond our communities, and those that are silent?

Break into trios and discuss these questions.

Note any points you want to make.

After lunch you will learn how to feed your thoughts back into the conference.

Question 1: What are the ‘walls’ that we construct around us that prevent pluralistic engagement and how might we overcome them?

Question 2: Do we sometimes value uniformity over possibly uncomfortable diversity?

Question 3: How do we ensure that all voices are heard well? Including those within and beyond communities, and those that are silent?