Vale Bexley North

By David Woodbury

Having just attended the final closing ceremony at The Salvation Army School for Officer Training at Bexley North in Sydney, I found myself coming away with a disturbing sense of disquiet and uneasiness, and have spent some time reflecting on the decision to move training for officers nationally, to Melbourne.

Among much of the paraphernalia circulating around the merger of the two territories was a logo entitled; Inclusive Australia. My understanding is that it refers to The Salvation Army’s Multicultural Department which is focussed on making migrants and refugees welcome among us and part of our mission and ministry; a ministry, that I personally know, is highly beneficial and effective in some parts of Sydney. I would commend those participating in such ministry for their dedication, love and understanding.

However, if we were to apply the same logo to recent amalgamations and the merger of the two Australian territories, we may well have a different perspective. The reality is that in the final analysis, The Salvation Army is highly authoritarian and undemocratic, and no manner of consultative committees and groups can alter the structure of the organisation and its decision-making processes. The Salvation Army is, in the end, an authoritarian, military structure which enables it to move quickly and decisively when the need arises. A structure I understand and with which I basically agree, but a structure that has serious, and perhaps long-term, detrimental flaws, if not used wisely.

Within the last few years Salvationists and friends who call The Salvation Army their spiritual home have been confronted with such authoritarian decision making in the:

·         The merger of divisions

·         The merger of corps

·         The merger of the two Australian territories.

The reality is that human beings are not wired to handle change well, and too much change, too quickly, will not only unsettle people and make them feel insecure, but also make them feel excluded and isolated.  And I suspect that is happening in areas where I have personal contact.

I must confess I find, given this comprehension of human nature, whether some of the decision making has not compounded the problem. Case in point: Most Salvation Army territories around the world have two significant establishments; Territorial Headquarters and The Officer Training College. These two establishments are more than just land holdings; in many ways provide not only a presence but also a sense of a spiritual anchor to those who see The Salvation Army as their spiritual home.

To arbitrarily relocate both entities to Melbourne, I feel, was an ill-advised and unwise move and did not seem to take into account some of the factors I have noted. It would seem to me, that the Bexley North College in Sydney was far better located geographically to meet the needs of a national territory. Within 10 minutes of an international airport and with 25 minutes of the CBD. Far different from the Ringwood campus chosen which is the best part of an hour's drive across heavy city traffic.

Common sense would seem to dictate that in an effort to be inclusive and accountable, the wise move would have been to have either the Territorial Headquarters, or the School for Officer Training, left in Sydney. I know there will be arguments put forward about the amount of prayer and seeking of divine guidance that went into these decisions, but the reality is that someone as wise as Solomon countered divine guidance with human wisdom.

Now that the merger has taken place some hard decisions will have to be made, particularly in relation to land holdings in Sydney. Whether we like it or not, the reality is that some land holdings have provided a presence and also a sense of a spiritual anchor. I suspect when these are finally stripped away The Salvation Army in The Sydney area and will be but a pale expression of what it once was.

In my years as an officer in the erstwhile Eastern Territory, I never experienced any great appetite among Salvationists for the merging of the two territories. My only experience came from a concerted effort by leadership in the Southern Territory to spring it on as an unlisted agenda item at a high-level meeting of the leadership of both territories in Melbourne. I am left wondering who really drove this impetus for a merger.

In today’s world, change management is an important and crucial factor for corporations and business seeking to restructure. To my way of thinking this has not been a high agenda item and much more needs to be done urgently in this area if we are to try and restore equilibrium and a sense of genuine inclusiveness. Many Salvationists and friends that I know personally have simply resigned themselves to a process in which they felt they had no input and didn’t support. Others, some of them 3^rd and 4^th generation Salvationists, have simply walked away, some disillusioned, some disgusted.