Salvoes fire a salvo: A lovely story about The Salvation Army (TSA) being faithful to its beliefs, told by commenter Ben White in a debate on The Other Cheek Facebook on religious discrimination laws and what exemptions should remain: “In South Australia, the Marion Council sold a former Community Hall called Pioneer Hall. It was very popular locally for wedding receptions. Various groups tendered to purchase it. The winning bidder was The Salvation Army, who needed to expand their Seacombe Gardens Corps due to growth. Their bid was chosen because they would use the property to distribute welfare. Almost immediately, an uproar was created because people felt that the Hall would no longer be available for wedding receptions. The Council, having sold the building, tried to stem the uproar by trying to make The Salvation Army guarantee the availability of the hall for wedding receptions. TSA responded that was fine – providing no alcohol was taken onto or consumed on the property…
“Its a rule globally that Alcohol cannot be taken onto or consumed in a property that is owned by The Salvation Army. Its their right to do so, as an organisation they are openly opposed to the Alcohol industry and do not permit members to participate.
“Various people thought they would have that rule changed for Pioneer Hall and failed. The venue is no longer used for wedding receptions where alcohol is present. TSA stuck to their beliefs, and the government, in this case local, had no choice but to comply with them.”
###
Cashless: the campaigners for cash – notes and coins – are convinced that electronic transactions will lead us to a surveilled society, with the Christians fearing the anti-Christ. They are on the warpath against any business or group that turns away the folding or jingling stuff. Even churches:
###
Wagnerian but restrained: This column is written within a large office block/hotel complex in downtown Sapporo, modelled on the work of the great Austrian architect Otto Wagner. If my eye had not caught the Vienna Succession detailing and expressive decoration within a stripped classicism, I would have known what was going on by his drawings everywhere. Everywhere, I glimpse half-remembered illustrations from my life as an architecture student.
I feel as though I am living in a jumbled version of the Vienna Postal Savings Bank. See if you can tell them apart.
I like Otto Wagner’s designs, the way he stands at the beginning of modernism. The idea of ‘homage’ to a great architects work was very much a feature of the short period post-Modern architecture. So i am living in a desugn that refects two periods of modernism – early and late!
Image Credits: Otto Wagner’s Vienna Postal Savings Bank, Thomas Ledl; Hotel Monterey Edelhof in Sapporo, Braveheart; Both Wikimedia
###
Church in the snow: Communion was rice crackers with chocolate and green tea at Lifehouse church in Sapporo, an outpost of the Australian Christian Churches. A very reassuring gospel explanation followed, explaining what communion is. And a sermon listing Bible reading, daily Bible reading as the first of three ways to renew your mind. (the others were prayer and praise, and “good voices, surrounding yourself with fellow Christians. “If you surround yourself with people who follow the Bible, you will find it easier to have Biblical thoughts.”
A worthy outpost of Aussie Christianity, Obadiah felt.