In 2004 Canada had a family poverty rate over 17% and roughly 20% of children under the age of 18 lived below the low income cut off (approximately $33,000 for a family of 4) in this country. The Canadian Council on Social Development issued a report in 2002 which showed that children who live below that income level do poorer in schools, are less healthy, are more likely to become runaways and are twice as likely to live with violence than those who are above that cut off line. Even families who are living “well” according to government criteria (i.e. families earning above $60,000 per year), are finding it hard to make ends meet. Most economists suggest that a family is struggling if they are paying more than 55% of their income for food, clothing and shelter. In Canada over the last decade, the cost of food, utilities, gas and housing has exceeded income by more than 10 percent, which in turn has caused a huge number of Canadians earning more than $60,000 as a household income, to fall below that 55 percent barrier. Many will suggest these people are just living above their means but regardless, it certainly dispels the government line that most Canadians are better off today than ever. The Salvation Army’s Christmas work is needed more today than ever.
While there are no hard statistics on exactly how many shoe boxes are handed out by the Salvation Army in this territory a number can be estimated. Most Salvation Army churches and most social units are involved in the project including those of us at Territorial Headquarters. This year THQ sent in 83 boxes to Samaritan’s Purse. From a small sampling of ministry units, it is estimated that the Salvation Army in Canada and Bermuda sent in between 30,000 and 40,000 shoe boxes. However, it would be interesting to find out the true number of boxes so we can rejoice in our contribution to this worthy cause. If every unit could send a figure for the amount of shoe boxes they sent in to Samaritan’s Purse to Hartley Goldenthal, we’ll put together an exact total to determine exactly how many children will be blessed this year as a result of the partnership between Samaritan’s Purse and our organization.
Three churches were suffering from mouse infestations. The first pastor decided to place mouse traps all over the church and filled each trap with cheese. The mice were too smart for this and after a month of futile trapping efforts the pastor just decided they had to live with the mice. The second pastor hired exterminators to get rid of the mice. The exterminators sprayed in all the usual places and tried some ingenious trapping techniques but like the first church, these mice were just too smart. After some time the pastor gave up and told the congregation that they just had to live with the mice. These two pastors then met with the leader of the third church who told them that his mouse problems were solved. “That’s great,” they said to the third pastor. “We tried everything to get rid of the mice in our churches but nothing worked. “How did you manage to solve your mouse infestation problem?” “Simple,” the third pastor replied. “I invited all the mice into the sanctuary, welcomed them to the church, told them how much we appreciated them being here and made them full members. Now we only see them at Christmas and Easter.”
Most denominations suffer this problem of massive spikes in attendance around Christmas and Easter but low attendance in comparison the rest of the year. While The Salvation Army in Canada shows increases during advent and at Easter it is nowhere near the figures reported at the other denominations. In 2005, The Salvation Army churches averaged 81 people for Sunday morning attendance during the month of December and 84 people on Christmas Sunday. The rest of the year the attendance averaged 79 people and close to the 81 attendance if the summer months are excluded. Similarly for the decade from 1996 to 2005 Salvation Army Sunday morning attendance averaged 75 people for the months of January to November and 79 for the month of December. So why is the increase so much less than other denominations at Christmas? Perhaps the answer can be found in articles posted by Reginald Bibby and Statistics Canada which showed that youth and baby boomers tended to follow their parents in the area of spirituality and attend church in the same manner their parents do. And as we all know attendance at churches have significantly declined in the past 50 years, particularly in mainline denominations. Contrary to what many secular publications want you to believe most people today believe in God. In the 2001 Census 20 percent of Canadians listed themselves as having no religious affiliation, but a follow up study, indicated that only 2 percent of the population are atheists or agnostics. Therefore, because the baby boomers and their parents before them stopped attending church except on the 2 main holidays (particularly in the mainline religions), their kin followed suit. The Salvation Army, however, tends to have attendees who are consistent in their attendance. Very few people come from off the streets and just walk into an Army church but instead are introduced to the Salvation Army church by parents or friends, through social services or from other Salvation Army work. As such they don’t attend out of obligation as occurs in other denominations but rather they do so because they want to worship and thank God for the blessings in their life. Of course it could also indicate that we have more interesting pastors!