Major Lynn Farmer (Salvation Army, Greenock):
Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament,
I thank you for the opportunity to address you today, on
together making a difference.
The Salvation Army heritage centre records
that, in 1891, William Booth, the Salvation Army’s founder, opened a matchbox
factory. At the time, matchbox making was big business, and the
workers—mainly women and children—were severely exploited as
well as exposed to phossy jaw, which was a painful and
disfiguring disease. William Booth’s factory introduced fair
wages and healthy working conditions. His approach attracted
attention from Parliament and news reporters and led to laws
that transformed the workplace in general.
In the words of an anonymous writer:
“it isn’t the problems that determine our
destiny, it’s how we respond.”
William Booth’s response was:
“heart to God and hand to man”,
and “soup, soap and salvation.” His
God-led vision has taken the Salvation Army to 131 countries around
the world. He knew that, alone, we can do so little but
together we can do so much. He was a
pragmatist to the end, living out Isaiah, chapter 1, verse 17:
“do good; seek justice”, and his final speech continues to
challenge to this day.
“While Women weep, as they do now, I’ll
fight; while children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll fight;
while men go to prison, in and out, in and out ... I’ll fight;
while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there
remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight,
I’ll fight to the very end!”
The Salvation Army in Greenock has an
integrated mission approach between the church, the Greenock
floating support service for people who are at risk of losing
their housing tenancy and the Scottish drug and alcohol
strategy, which is a recovery programme for people with
addictions.
Support comes through not a match factory but a garage
project, which started when an unused garage became a meeting
place for all, whether people come for peer mentoring, to
prevent social isolation or to pick up a bargain at the garage
sale and recycle. The project continues to develop and we have
just received planning permission to extend, to create a shop
and a safe, multipurpose area for our employment plus
initiative.
Whether we are talking
about a match factory, a garage or the
Scottish Parliament, I close with the prayer of Reinhold
Niebuhr:
God, give us grace to accept with
serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Amen.
