Part 360. Musical Chairs

 Next week the Territorial Appointments Conference of the United Kingdom and Ireland Territory of The Salvation Army meets to decide on the disposition of commissioned officers and territorial envoys in 2025/26.  There will be played out an odd game of musical chairs as there will be more seats that participants. Last year some corps became unofficered.  Closures and mergers have happened. Will this trend continue?

The Salvationist this week published an article by a participant in the process of appointments:

"Divisional leaders have been asked to look where appointed leadership will have the most impact.  I discern a greater sense of collaboration where corps and centres are in geographical proximity and are building on each other's strengths in a shared understanding of mission.   Sometimes this is in a cluster and at other times within a local authority borough, so that the Army can speak into local issues with greater clarity and share resources."

I thought integration was a major policy decision anyway.  Talk of collaboration, shared understanding and clusters is for me management-speak for more shared officers, mergers and closures.  It is managed decline.

But is the cavalry riding to the rescue in the form of employed spiritual leaders?  Such individuals will have contracts of employment and could be made redundant.  Commissioned officers are not employed by the Army and cannot be made redundant, although they are subject to dismissal if they run foul of the Army's regulations.  The iron fist in the iron glove.   How these two classes of leaders will interact should prove interesting.

It looks as though there will be an increased emphasis placed on the role of local corps leaders who have been described in the Salvationist as having "stepped up" to take on more significant roles.

In the Church of England the resignation  of the Archbishop of Canterbury has led to his work being undertaken mostly by the Archbishop of York and to a lesser degree the Bishop of London.  The replacement will not be voted on until the latter end of 2025 and it is not a forgone conclusion that a decision will be made.  The successful candidate must command a two thirds majority and given the current strife within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion a stalemate is a distinct possibility, particularly as a stalemate exists currently in the appointment of two diocesan bishops.