Love Is Never Intentions Only: William Booth's Legacy

Simple stories sometimes say everything you want to say. Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan, simple, uncomplicated as it is, never fails to reach my heart; it searches me, inspire me, galvanises me and directs my gaze – to others.

The other Sunday morning I had to tell our folks about how ‘Your Learning’ (Skills project) is progressing at Coventry Jesus Centre and I couldn’t resist telling them the following story: 

William Booth died in 1912 and his funeral cortege brought London to a standstill. 150,000 filed passed his casket to pay their last respects and his funeral was attended by 40,000 people. 

William Booth: Funeral Procession

Queen Mary, wife of George V and an admirer of Booth, attended the funeral at Olympia. She did not come as a dignitary; rather she sat unnoticed near the back amongst the vast crowd of, 'thieves, tramps, harlots, the lost and outcast to whom Booth had given his heart' (The General Next to God: Richard Collier: Collins 1965). Next to her sat a shabbily but neatly-dressed woman who had once been a prostitute and when the coffin passed by, the woman placed some red carnations on it. Turning to the queen, she said, “He cared for the likes of me.”

That’s it. Love is expressed in care and care has hands and feet and is never intentions only. At the Jesus Centre we can theologise on what we do, not always a bad thing, but let’s hope the people we work amongst can similarly summarise our work:  “They care for the likes of us.”