The Salvation Army

Denomination·Founded 1865 CE·The Army works in 134 countries by its own count. It publishes country-by-country figures of officers, soldiers, adherents and corps in its annual Year Book rather than a single global membership headline; totals commonly cited run above a million and a half and are not independently audited. The number of people it serves through its social programmes is far larger and is a different thing entirely.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army International HeadquartersThe recordRoyal Commission Case Study 5 — Find and Connect, Australian Government

Branch
Overview Belief 3How to Live 1Practice 1Stories & Scripture 1Community 1 You × The Salvation Army Discussion
C Figure of The Salvation Army

Catherine Booth — who argued women into the pulpit before there was an Army.

In 1859 she published Female Ministry: Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel, answering a preacher who had attacked women speakers, and then began preaching herself. Because of her, women have been officers on the same terms as men since the beginning, and a woman has held the office of General.

Add to My Beliefs →
Names & titlesCatherine Booth; the Army Mother
DomainFemale ministry, holiness preaching, the theology behind the movement
RelationsWife of William Booth; mother of eight, of whom several led the Army abroad
StandingCalled the Army Mother; her 1859 pamphlet is the reason the Army has always had women officers
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Catherine Mumford Booth published Female Ministry: Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel in 1859 in reply to an attack on the American revivalist Phoebe Palmer, and it is a straightforwardly exegetical piece of work — Paul's restrictions read as local, Galatians 3:28 read as principle. She began preaching the following year and became the more sought-after preacher of the two Booths. The consequence was structural: The Salvation Army has commissioned women as officers on the same terms as men from the beginning, women have commanded territories, and Evangeline Booth, their daughter, was elected General in 1934. The Army has nonetheless had a persistent practical problem with married women officers, whose rank was historically tied to their husbands', and it has been revising that arrangement since the 1990s.

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