Part 116. All change?

Next month The Salvation Army High Council will meet to elect a new General. An officer elite consisting of Territorial leaders will decide who is to be the next leader. The poor bloody infantry, the footsoldiers, has no say in the matter. A key issue for some in the Army is the current exclusion from officership on sexual orientation grounds. Will the new General take a progressive inclusionist stance or simply adhere to the fundamentalist exclusionist position? The Anglican Communion is in turmoil over issues relating to sexual orientation. Will the next General be faced with similar problems? 

In the UK and Australia the Army is not only losing members, it is losing officers at much faster rate than it is recruiting. In the UK some corps no longer have full-time officers. In the UK a membership working party has been established. Its report will be analysed. Will it recommend radical changes in the criteria for membership and officership? We can but hope.