Proclaimers of the Defenders of the Crusaders

It’s the privilege of each General of The Salvation Army to provide the sessional name for sessions of cadets doing officership training.

This name then applies to any cadet at any training college around the world doing their training at that time. I was in a session called ‘Believers’ and, from time to time, I’ll meet a fellow Believer from an overseas territory.

Sessional names are sometimes phrases (‘Heralds of Grace’, ‘Servants of God’, ‘Messengers of Hope’) and sometimes single words (‘Visionaries’, ‘Shepherds’, Courageous’).

I was very happy to be a Believer – it’s short and sweet and to the point – but I’m guessing some other officers may not have been so happy with their sessional names. The ‘Heralds of Grace’ will forever be known as the HoGs, and the ‘Preparers of the Way’ were the PoWs.

Some Generals seem to jump on a theme. From 1963-67 we had five sessions ending with ‘of the Faith’ – ‘Heroes / Proclaimers / Defenders / Witnesses / Messengers of the Faith’. In 1994-96 we had three sessions of messengers: ‘Messengers of Hope / the Truth / God’s Love’.

There have also been some names – mainly in the period 1920-60 – where the name could be seen as inspired and motivating but could also be considered differently. The 1922, session was called ‘Fidelity’. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue easily or inspire, does it?

The 1925 session was called ‘Eureka’. I don’t know if that General took his inspiration from Archimedes or (more unlikely) the ‘Eureka Stockade’ uprising in Ballarat in 1854, but, either way, it’s a weird choice for a group of cadets to be known as the Eureka session.

The 1929 session was called Centenary. No, there weren’t 100 of them; it was the centenary year of the births of William and Catherine Booth. Maybe the session ate birthday cake and played ‘pin the tail on the training principal’ all year.

Many sessions – as is true Army style – have been given names on a spiritual warfare theme: ‘Warrior’, ‘Victory’, ‘Conquerors’, ‘Crusader’, ‘Fearless’, ‘Valiant’, ‘Sword Bearers’ etc. These make sense in our tradition and custom but try explaining to someone in a pub or on the street that you’re a Sword Bearer!

The 1978 session was called ‘Joyful Evangelists’. I looked at the sessional photo recently, and some of them don’t look all that joyful.

In 1993 we had ‘Crusaders for Christ’. The last Christian crusade was in about the 15th century, so I’m sure it amused some outsiders to know the Army was still crusading in the late 20th century.

Perhaps we’ll move to more 21st-century sessional names soon: ‘Cyber Servants for God’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Bold Proclaimers of the Faith (but only if you’re open to discussion and we’re not likely to offend)’, or my favourite, ‘True Witnesses in the Spirit’ – just don’t use their acronym.

Major Mal Davies is the Assistant Divisional Commander for the Victoria Division