A New General Takes Charge

By Richard N. Ostling

Talk about the high expectations of new parents. On the morning that Eva Burrows was born in an Australian mining town, her father, a Salvation Army officer, was conducting a worship service. Within minutes the father returned to his home, held the newborn baby aloft and uttered a prayer dedicating her to the glory of God and the salvation of the world. "It was rather a tall order for a little baby," says Burrows with a grin.

Burrows, 56, faces her tallest order yet in her new post as general, or worldwide commander, of the Salvation Army. Chosen over six male nominees last month by the denomination's 48-member high council, Burrows is only the second woman to hold the top post since a military-minded Englishman (and former Methodist minister) named William Booth founded the evangelical Christian group in London in 1865.*

The Army, whose headquarters are still in the British capital, encompasses 86 countries in a social-welfare network that includes clinics, centers for alcoholics and drug addicts, homes for the down-and-out and the aged, food services for the poor, and mobile teams to aid refugees and disaster victims. Burrows faces the task not only of continuing such help but of pumping new life into an organization whose ranks are thinning. "If we're not growing, we must feel guilty, because we are not fulfilling Christ's demand," says Burrows.

Today the Army reports 1.5 million adherents worldwide and about 16,800 active officers (the equivalent of clergy), down from nearly 18,000 in 1968. Europe has fared the worst, losing 33% of its officers in the past 15 years. In the U.S., the officer ranks, the largest of any country, have declined slightly, to 3,703. The U.S. operation has 29,000 other employees, and 1985 revenues were estimated at more than $500 million.

What Burrows will not change is the Army's religious philosophy or its military structure. The revival-minded Protestant group holds strictly to an eleven-point orthodox statement of doctrine and a literal interpretation of the Bible. It is so insistent upon simplicity in worship that it shuns all services of baptism and communion.

In Army parlance, committed lay members are "soldiers," prayer meetings are "knee drills," and officers and soldiers take a pledge known as the Articles of War. Salva

tionists do not die; they are "promoted to glory." Burrows also has no intention of dropping the group's paramilitary uniforms, which vary from country to country. "Some people say the uniform is a Victorian appendage, but it is part of our awareness of being a militant church," says Burrows. *

The new general did not come to her vocation easily. One of nine children, she was impressed when her mother brought home destitute people to share the family's spartan meals. But as a teenager, she recalls, "I felt the Salvation Army discipline was too rigid, and for a good deal of time, I refused to go to church."

While studying at the University of Queensland, Burrows experienced a "divine compulsion" to rejoin the Army. Her leadership skills were evident at age 19, when her father suffered an asthma attack during worship services and Burrows coolly preached an impromptu sermon. Equipped with degrees in history and English and a graduate degree in education, Burrows spent 17 years as an educator in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). After leaving Africa in 1969, she served in England as an administrator and then was the territorial commander in Sri Lanka, Scotland and southern Australia.

In these posts, she displayed the qualities of self-discipline and single- mindedness that marked her as a contender for the top post. Says one Army colleague: "She knows what she wants and sets out to get it." A workaholic with an outgoing personality, she finds time for two passions: swimming and crossword puzzles.

Like her predecessors, Burrows will keep the Army on a conservative tack. The U.S. branch was a founder of the USO but resigned from the group in 1976 when it began serving alcohol to soldiers. In 1981 the Army quit the World Council of Churches after it awarded welfare grants to guerrilla organizations that eventually overthrew the white minority regime in Rhodesia. The Army found aid for violent groups inappropriate.

Some critics fault the Army for not changing with the times, but Burrows rejects the criticism. "We're hardheaded as well as softhearted," she insists. "We won't hang on to things just because we've always done them." As head of women's social services in Britain in the mid-1970s, Burrows met new demands by converting orphanages into shelters for battered women, and in Australia she has inaugurated new efforts to train unemployed youths. In the U.S., Army leaders have cut back street-corner proselytizing and increased counseling services.

Next week Burrows will announce a new U.S. commander to replace Norman S. Marshall, who is retiring after three years in the post. She is already mapping the Army's future, including how to deal with the alarming drop in European officers. But what is certain not to change is the Army's dedication to serving the unfortunate. A visit to the Bowery in New York City vividly illustrates that commitment. There, in a lodging run by the Army since 1912, a staff of 72 takes care of more than 400 down-and-outers. An officer on duty admits that "most of these men aren't going to improve." That may be true, adds a colleague, but "we try to give them a sense of responsibility for themselves." General Burrows could not have said it better.

FOOTNOTE: *The Army's first female leader was Evangeline Booth, the founder's daughter, who served from 1934 to 1939.

With reporting by Steven Holmes/London and JoAnn Lum/New York