02 April 2025

A group of 40 team leaders from The Salvation Army’s International Emergency Services (IES) has met in conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, focused on ‘Communication in a Humanitarian Context’. Delegates from International Headquarters (IHQ) and Salvation Army territories around the world attended the week-long event, held from 16 to 21 March 2025. It was only one week before a devastating earthquake, centred in Myanmar, hit the region, causing widespread destruction and loss of life.

At the welcome dinner, Lieut-Colonel Nigel Cross, Chief Secretary of the Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand Territory, said it was a privilege for the territory to host the conference in Thailand, where The Salvation Army had officially begun its work less than two years ago. Lieut-Colonel Cross introduced delegates to the work of The Salvation Army in each of the four countries embraced by the territory and prayed for the conference. A string ensemble from the Chiang Mai Central Corps performed before and during the dinner, bringing much blessing to their audience.

The next morning, in her introduction, IES Director Damaris Frick said the conference was a critical gathering for the movement’s emergency services at a time of turbulence and rapid change in the world. It was the first such conference in five years, the last being held in Indonesia in January 2020, just ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic.

IES Director Damaris Frick gives an introduction to the conference

Ms Frick said that ‘all communication must lead to change’ (Aristotle) and concluded her remarks by quoting Pope Francis from his address given on the 59th World Day of Social Communications in January 2025: ‘I dream of a communication capable of making us fellow travellers, walking alongside our brothers and sisters and encouraging them to hope in these troubled times… A communication capable of focusing on beauty and hope even in the midst of apparently desperate situations… A communication that can help us in recognising the dignity of each human being…’

Communication as story and narrative

In his keynote address, International Secretary for Programme Resources Commissioner Ted Horwood thanked the Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand Territory for hosting the conference and the IES team for their organisation.

Commissioner Horwood noted the critical nature of communications in a communications-saturated world. ‘When we speak about communication, let’s remember who we are: “The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church…” 

‘How we communicate, and to what degree we tell the story of who we are and our response when crisis and calamity strike a country, is an issue for us… We anchor our faith in the biblical narratives and in relating our lives to people we come into contact with. But it is all the creation of a narrative, a story that relates who we are and where we came from.’ 

Speaking of the conference in the context of Compass, The Salvation Army’s new global strategic framework of Empowering People, Enhancing Mission Impact and Establishing an Enduring Legacy, Commissioner Horwood concluded, ‘This conference is about us, the family, People, our people. The work of IES is about Mission, engaging with communities in need. This topic, communication, is largely about our Legacy.’

Foundations

In a communications foundations session, IHQ Secretary for Communications Major Peter McGuigan invited delegates on a journey as they explored the questions ‘from where does our communication flow?’ and ‘what shapes our communication?’. The questions were considered against the backdrop of Acts chapter 10, the account of a powerful communications breakthrough in which the good news of Jesus reached the world outside Palestine for the first time.

Delegates saw that Christian communication flows from and is shaped by at least five critical and life-giving elements: 1. Vision – how Christian organisations see what God wants them to be, do and say; 2. Venture – people’s ‘go’ and ‘sentness’ and ‘yes’ in response to the vision God gives them; 3. Vulnerability and Values – the evidence of Christian humility and shared humanity in posturing for appropriate communication; 4. Vantage Points – the opportunities that God creates in advance for people in mission; 5. Verbalisation – the language Christians use which comes from a deeper place within.

‘I contend that we need a new language,’ said Major McGuigan, ‘and that this language will come from a fresh engagement with our own brand which, before anything else, is Christian. When people see the Red Shield in a disaster zone, they know that spiritual as well as physical help has arrived. 

‘A new or refreshed vision of who we are and who we represent will drive fresh momentum both for our work and for how we communicate in this brave new world of the 2020s – a far different space in time than even 30 years ago and certainly from the era in which The Salvation Army first began.’ 

In table discussions, delegates brainstormed the vision dynamics that underpin their IES work, resulting in a powerful summary document titled ‘International Emergency Services – Our Vision’.  

Diversity

Following the foundations session, the conference unfolded over several days with a diversity of sessions on the dos and don’ts of crisis communication, communicating with external stakeholders, communicating with the media, media interview and disaster survivor role-plays, pastoral communication and much more. Presenters were Daryl Crowden (Australia), Pavla Lydholm (Denmark), Joanne Beale (IHQ), George John (Pakistan), David Jolley (USA National), Simone Worthing (Australia) and Stacie Barnett (from Genuine Article, a USA National media partner). Devotions were held at the start of each day’s sessions.

On Thursday 20 March, conference delegates visited The Salvation Army’s Chiang Mai Central Corps, where they spoke with corps members and split into groups to conduct interviews with victims of a flood event from late 2024. Group members were assigned different tasks related to gathering information for a story that could be retold in either internal or external media.

Conference delegates

Recommendations

On the final day of the conference, delegates presented the stories they had written from their field trip, and recommendations designed to enhance the ongoing work of IES were discussed and agreed. 

The recommendations included ways of developing stronger liaison between emergency services teams and IHQ and territorial communications teams, enhancing resource-sharing generally, establishing a dedicated dashboard where all information can be shared and accessible, and providing local training in communicating with media.

Throughout the conference, delegates commented on the sense of God’s presence and guidance among them. It was thought that a reassessment of the IES mission and vision statements would be a helpful exercise, using assessment criteria that had emerged at the conference and the priorities of Compass, The Salvation Army’s new global strategic framework.

IHQ Communications

Tags: South Pacific and East Asia, Events, News