Religion in Greenland

The Salvation Army in Greenland

Salvation Army stamps issued by POST Greenland in January 2019.

  1. The twentieth century
  2. ‘Open fire’
  3. ‘Soup, Soap, and Salvation’
  4. COVID-19 and other emergent challenges
  5. Notes

The Salvation Army was founded in London in 1865 by Methodist pastor William Booth and his wife Catherine. Its modus operandi is a dual approach to salvation aiming to meet people’s material as well as physical needs, with a focus on poor and homeless people. Having landed in Nuuk in 2012, the Salvation Army is also one of the newest religious groups in Greenland — and arguably the most successful fresh arrival in the twenty-first century.

The twentieth century

There are passing mentions of the Salvation Army in the Greenlandic press stretching back to 1922, particularly in relation to its operations in Denmark and Norway.1 The Salvation Army was also occasionally spotlighted on Greenlandic television (which usually imported the majority of its showings from Danish stations), including one programme in 1983 following some of the organisation’s (probably Danish) ‘soldiers’,2 and another in 1990 exploring the life of Birgit Klockars, a Finnish missionary who joined the group in the 1940s.3

One of the few examples of the Salvation Army being discussed at any length came in January and February of 1962, when Rune Åsblom, a Swedish Pentecostal missionary, announced in the bilingual Atuagagdliutit / Grønlandsposten newspaper that his planned Pentecostal orphanage in the small settlement of Nanortalik would be headed by a Salvation Army nurse then working in Copenhagen.4 Åsblom’s plans were blocked by the local authorities due to a concern that the orphans would be subjected to a ‘one-sided influence’.5 As it happened, it would not be until the second decade of the twenty-first century that the Salvation Army would become an ingrained feature of Greenland’s social and religious scene.

‘Open fire’

For some time the Salvation Army remained a distant phenomenon that Greenlanders only heard about through second-hand accounts. In 2010, for instance, the Sermitsiaq news outlet published an article on the response of the Army to the unprecedented material need experienced in Denmark after the economic crash of 2008.6 Less than two years later, though, the Army announced that it was planning to officially open a branch in Greenland on 1 August 2012. Deliberations began with an exploratory visit to Greenland by a delegation from Denmark, ordered by the Danish command in December 2011. Colonel Birgitte Brekke (Territorial Commander) and Lieutenant-Colonel Henrik Andersen (Chief Secretary) visited the island in January 2012, and in their report to the International Headquarters they wrote that they encountered ‘strong encouragement from government, church and community bodies’ to establish operations in the country. The report also ‘recommended the commencement of Army work in Greenland without delay’.7

According to Lars Lydholm of the Danish Salvation Army, the delegation found that the need in Greenland was ‘massive’, and so the conclusion was essentially foregone: ‘If the Salvation Army were not to be in Greenland’, he asked rhetorically, ‘where would they be?’ Lydholm also explained that ‘the authorities were very open to us both as a social organisation and as a church’.8 According to a 2015 article in The War Cry, a Salvation Army publication, fruitful meetings were held between the Army leadership in Denmark and members of the Greenlandic government early in 2012, with the result that ‘the last resistance to the Army’s move into Greenland thawed’.9

A team was officially selected to ‘open fire’ for the Greenland mission at the May 2012 congress of the Army in Denmark — an event marking 125 years of the Salvation Army’s presence in Denmark. Coincidentally, the commencement of the work in Greenland also brought the total number of countries with an Army branch to 125.10 General Linda Bond appointed a married couple, Lieutenants Magnus and Petura Haraldsen, who had been undertaking training in Norway. They would be joined by their sons Dánial and Andrias and the London-trained Lieutenant Maria Larsen, who was the youngest officer in the Denmark Territory. The youthfulness of the mission was of thematic significance, as General Bond described the organisation’s youth as a ‘revival generation’. Daniel and Andrias were presented with Greenlandic and Salvation Army flags to take with them.11

Preliminary operations in Nuuk began as planned on 1 August 2012 under the supervision of the Danish command. After spending most of the remainder of 2012 preparing for the full opening, the new Army mission in Greenland began spreading the word about its existence at community events in January 2013,12 and over the weekend of 11–12 February, as reported by Sermitsiaq, the mission ‘was ready … to formally inaugurate its work in Greenland at its premises in the middle of Nuuk’.

Army leaders from Denmark, Norway, and the UK were present at the opening, while Commander Robert Street, the Salvation Army’s Secretary for Europe, formally presented the Haraldsons with a large flag to fly on their flagpole. In his keynote address, Street declared: ‘The Salvation Army has not come to bring God to Greenland, because God has been here since the beginning of the world. Nor has the Salvation Army come to bring Christianity to Greenland, because it has been here for centuries and is already being preached in many churches. But we have come to join in the work where we can lend a helping hand.’

Karen M. Lynge, chair of the welfare committee in the Sermersooq Municipality, was at the event and said that she had been ‘a little envious’ after witnessing the work of the Army in Iceland. She was ‘therefore happy that an operation is now being opened in Nuuk’. Sermitsiaq reported that the mission was working to start ‘Open House’ events at which poor residents could find fellowship and food.13

‘Soup, Soap, and Salvation’

In addition to the social work and food bank operations at its Nuuk base, the Salvation Army focused on outreach in public spaces. On 23 May 2013, for instance, Army members from the Greenland mission, joined by visitors from Norway and Iceland, stood in central Nuuk and handed out packages of food and toiletries along with Army religious pamphlets. As Sermitsiaq noted, this was wholly in keeping with the Army’s principle that ‘evangelical and social work belong together’, one of the organisation’s most recognisable slogans being ‘Soup, Soap, and Salvation’.14

At the same time, the Nuuk Army branch began collaborating with the Red Cross in Greenland and a local charity for the homeless, NO INI, to hold free soup kitchens for the city’s homeless people beginning in January 2014.15 NO INI estimated Nuuk’s homeless population to consist of around 40–60 people.16 These links were widened and deepened in subsequent years to include a joint charity shop (or thrift store) initiative.17

A short fundraiser documentary about the Salvation Army’s work in Greenland (2024).

Café events, dubbed ‘William’s Café’ after Salvation Army founder Willliam Booth, were regularly drawing 40 visitors by 2015. It was clear at this point that the first mission house was too small to meet Greenland’s ‘massive spiritual and social needs’, so the Army acquired a new house twice the size in May with financial help from the Army’s USA Western Territory division, the leaders of which visited Greenland to present the donation. Close ties were also developed with other religious groups in Nuuk, particularly the Pentecostal church, although very few Greenlanders actually joined the Salvation Army as adherent members. Four joined between 2014 and 2015. 

When Magnus and Petura Haraldsen left Greenland for a new assignment in the summer of 2015, they left behind a well-liked and well-known (if very small) organisation delivering material aid to a significant portion of Nuuk’s poor residents. Their successors were Majors Kurt and Helle Pedersen.18 Despite the challenging and isolated conditions, additional volunteer missionaries still trickled in from Denmark.19

Work continued under the Pedersens much as it had done under the Haraldsens. After the Arctic Winter Games in Nuuk in March 2016, the Salvation Army’s image as a trustworthy and efficient charitable organisation was boosted when it was selected to receive some of the mattresses and food left over from the Games.20 When Sermitsiaq covered human rights and poverty-related issues like human trafficking, it often consulted the Salvation Army for comment,21 while the government’s minister for social affairs appointed a representative from the Salvation Army to sit on an expert panel on tackling homelessness, signaling that the group was accepted as an authority on such matters.22 The Army was so deeply integrated with the wider charity sector in Nuuk that other groups came to rely on it as a kind of directory.23

Further legitimacy was granted in the form of special Salvation Army stamps issued by POST Greenland in January 2019, designed by local artist Maria Pannguak Kjrulff. The stamp celebrates the charity work of the Army by depicting a group of people sharing a meal around a table. Kurt Pedersen hailed this as ‘a huge acknowledgement of the work we are doing here in Greenland’,24 and in January 2022 profits amounting to 100,000 Danish kroner (around $15,000) were donated to the Salvation Army.25

The success of the Greenland mission was also recognised in the Army’s nomenclature and terminology, as the Danish organisation was renamed the ‘Denmark and Greenland Territory’.26

COVID-19 and other emergent challenges

From early 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic presented a whole new set of challenges for the Salvation Army in Nuuk to contend with. To conform with social distancing rules while still carrying out its core functions, the Army coordinated with the Danish charity Kofoeds School and the Sermersooq Municipality authorities to continue William’s Café events in an altered format, with food and clothing packages being handed out through a screen to people waiting outside. These same organisations collaborated on the construction of tented accommodation for the 80 or so homeless people then living in the city.27

By April 2020, the Salvation Army, Kofoeds School, and NO INI were conducting daily distribution tours of the city to deliver necessities to the needy at their places of residence, but this alliance was also beginning to criticise the response of the government. It called for greater public sector involvement in alleviating the worsening poverty crisis. Leading officials in the Sermersooq Municipality insisted that it was doing what it could and pointed out that it was already directly funding the distribution of food and medical assistance in the new tent village where the homeless were being housed.28

After experiencing some disenchantment with the governmental status quo during the COVID pandemic, the Salvation Army became significantly more confident in expressing the need for long-term and government-led solutions to Greenland’s increasing rates of homelessness. In July 2022, the Army hosted a conference at which homeless people from Nuuk planned out the creation of a new organisation directly advocating for better conditions in the city’s hostels, including more privacy and better food.29 By then, there were around 80 to 100 homeless people living in Nuuk, and the Army was struggling to obtain enough food through donations to serve their needs.30

Nathanael Münch, corps leader at the Salvation Army in Nuuk, called for new legislation and a fresh, more humanitarian approach to this growing problem,31 but he also argued that cramped and unhealthy conditions for homeless people in hostels was in part attributable to government officials not following the legislation that was already on the books.32

Criticisms aimed at elected officials and high-ranking civil servants have not (so far) led to a sustained rift between the Army and the authorities. In November 2023, Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, the Siumut Party Member of Parliament in Copenhagen, listed the Salvation Army as one of nine charitable and social initiatives in Greenland making a real difference. She wrote in a press release: ‘The Salvation Army in Greenland plays a central role in improving the quality of life for citizens in homelessness and vulnerable groups. The initiative is expected to help improve the quality of life for homeless people in Nuuk and Greenland as a whole.’ As a consequence of the Army’s proven ability to effectively distribute resources, the Greenlandic government assigned 5 million Danish kroner to the organisation over the coming four years.33

It seems likely, given its remarkably rapid journey towards favourable notoriety, that the Salvation Army will be active in Greenland for many decades to come, even if its adherent member numbers remain modest.

Notes

  1. Pictures supplement, Atuagagdliutit, 10 April 1922, p. 3. https://timarit.is/page/3771143 ; ‘Kvinden i kampvognen’, Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, vol. 110, no. 16, 1 September 1970, p. 30. https://timarit.is/page/3789991 ; M. Hoff, ‘Jul på pigekamre i Europa’, Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, vol. 118, no. 49, 14 December 1978, p. 2. https://timarit.is/page/3800268 ↩︎
  2. ‘KNR — TV’, Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, vol. 123, no. 2, 12 January 1983, p. 47. https://timarit.is/page/3808726 ↩︎
  3. TV and radio listings, Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, 25 May 1990, p. 2. https://timarit.is/page/3825941 ↩︎
  4. R. Åsblom, ‘Svar på artikeln »Martyrdøden«’, Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, vol. 102, no. 1, 4 January 1962, p. 10. https://timarit.is/page/3782678 ; R. Åsblom, ‘iluamérsumik ikiuinek’, Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, vol. 102, no. 4, 15 February 1962, p. 2. https://timarit.is/page/3782753 ↩︎
  5. E. Erngård, ‘En forfulgt pinsemissionær’, Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, vol. 102, no. 1, 4 January 1962, p. 11. https://timarit.is/page/3782678 ↩︎
  6. ‘24.000 børn lever ekstremt fattigt’, Sermitsiaq, 30 November 2010. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/24000-born-lever-ekstremt-fattigt/215670 ↩︎
  7. ‘Salvation Army work officially commenced in Greenland’, Salvation Army International, 18 September 2012. https://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/news/inr180912 ↩︎
  8. S. D. Duus, ‘Frelsens Hær begynder arbejde her’, Sermitsiaq, 8 May 2012. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/frelsens-haer-begynder-arbejde-her/231281 ↩︎
  9. ‘Pioneers for God in the “land of man”’, The War Cry, vol. 662, 11 July 2015, p. 6. https://www.salvationarmy.org.nz/article/other-side-world ↩︎
  10. ‘Salvation Army raises flag in Greenland’, Caring Magazine, vol. 30, no. 15, 24 September 2012. https://caringmagazine.org/salvation-army-raises-flag-in-greenland/ ↩︎
  11. ‘Celebrations include first appointment to Greenland’, Salvationist, no. 1349, 2 June 2012, p. 5. https://issuu.com/salvationarmyuk/docs/salvationist_2_jun_2012 ; ‘Salvation Army opens fire in Greenland’, Caring Magazine, vol. 30, no. 10a, 11 June 2012. https://caringmagazine.org/salvation-army-opens-fire-in-greenland/ ↩︎
  12. B. Kokholm, ‘Galleri: Kulturnat i Nuuk’, Sermitsiaq, 27 January 2013. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/kultur/galleri-kulturnat-i-nuuk/674299 ↩︎
  13. H. Broberg, ‘Frelsens Hær i Grønland’, Sermitsiaq, 16 February 2013. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/kultur/frelsens-haer-i-gronland/689611 ↩︎
  14. B. Kokholm, ‘Frelsens Hær uddelte suppe, sæbe og frelse’, Sermitsiaq, 25 May 2013. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/kultur/frelsens-haer-uddelte-suppe-saebe-og-frelse/429621 ↩︎
  15. B. Kokholm, ‘Se billeder: Suppekøkken til de hjemløse’, Sermitsiaq, 31 January 2014. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/kultur/se-billeder-suppekokken-til-de-hjemlose/660790 ↩︎
  16. M. Dollerup-Scheibel, ‘Tilskud sikrer mad til hjemløse i Nuuk’, Sermitsiaq, 7 June 2016. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/tilskud-sikrer-mad-til-hjemlose-i-nuuk/207870 ↩︎
  17. ‘Røde Kors Nuuk med rekordstort overskud’, Sermitsiaq, 18 March 2016. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/rode-kors-nuuk-med-rekordstort-overskud/396857 ↩︎
  18. ‘Pioneers for God’, War Cry, pp. 5–7. ↩︎
  19. ‘International leader of the Salvation Army thanks “army of volunteers”’, Salvation Army International, 4 December 2017. https://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/news/inf041217 ↩︎
  20. M. Dollerup-Scheibel, ‘Arctic Winter Games donerer mad og senge’, Sermitsiaq, 13 March 2016. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/sport/arctic-winter-games-donerer-mad-og-senge/672800 ↩︎
  21. ‘Hjemløse siger nej til menneskehandel’, Sermitsiaq, 7 February 2019. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/hjemlose-siger-nej-til-menneskehandel/116308 ↩︎
  22. ‘Martha Abelsen vil styrke indsatsen for hjemløse’, Sermitsiaq, 23 November 2019. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/martha-abelsen-vil-styrke-indsatsen-for-hjemlose/480804 ↩︎
  23. M. Lindstrøm, ‘Krydstogtskib donerer tonsvis af mad til Kofoeds Skole Nuuk’, Sermitsiaq, 19 September 2023. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/krydstogtskib-donerer-tonsvis-af-mad-til-kofoeds-skole-nuuk/349511 ↩︎
  24. ‘The Salvation Army in Greenland to benefit from postage stamp sales’, Salvation Army International, 18 January 2019. https://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/news/inr180119 ↩︎
  25. ‘Frimærkesalg indbringer 100.000 kroner’, Sermitsiaq, 2 January 2022. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/frimaerkesalg-indbringer-100000-kroner/681401 ↩︎
  26. ‘Everyone is welcome as the chief of the staff leads Denmark and Greenland territorial congress’, Salvation Army International, 18 June 2018. https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/ihq/news/inr180618/ ↩︎
  27. ‘Coronavirus pandemic: focus on Europe’, Salvation Army International, 24 March 2020. https://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/news/inr240320 ↩︎
  28. T. M. Veirum, ‘Hjælpeorganisationer efterlyser mad og beredskabsplan til udsatte’, Sermitsiaq, 7 April 2020. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/hjaelpeorganisationer-efterlyser-mad-og-beredskabsplan-til-udsatte/424832 ↩︎
  29. A. Rytoft, ‘Nuuks hjemløse mødtes torsdag og stiftede forening: Vil råbe politikerne op’, Sermitsiaq, 8 July 2022. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/nuuks-hjemlose-modtes-torsdag-og-stiftede-forening-vil-rabe-politikerne-op/416318 ↩︎
  30. K. Kristensen, ‘Frelsens Hær mangler donationer’, Sermitsiaq, 27 July 2022. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/frelsens-haer-mangler-donationer/616571 ↩︎
  31. A. Rytoft, ‘Hjemløshed: Manglende lovgivning giver udslag i dårlig sagsbehandling’, Sermitsiaq, 10 November 2022. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/hjemloshed-manglende-lovgivning-giver-udslag-i-darlig-sagsbehandling/467292 ; A. Rytoft, ‘Psykisk syge borgere får ikke den rette hjælp — og det skaber farlige situationer’, Sermitsiaq, 18 November 2022. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/psykisk-syge-borgere-far-ikke-den-rette-hjaelp-og-det-skaber-farlige-situationer/340497 ; A. Rytoft, ‘Ung og skizofren på herberg: — Skulle have haft hjælp for lang tid siden’, Sermitsiaq, 21 November 2022. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/ung-og-skizofren-pa-herberg-skulle-have-haft-hjaelp-for-lang-tid-siden/173250 ↩︎
  32. A. Rytoft, ‘Psykisk syge sidder i klemme på herberg: Kommunen lever ikke op til lovgivningen’, Sermitsiaq, 22 November 2022. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/psykisk-syge-sidder-i-klemme-pa-herberg-kommunen-lever-ikke-op-til-lovgivningen/341142 ↩︎
  33. J. Schultz-Nielsen, ‘Aki om finanslov: Stærke initiativer’, Sermitsiaq, 27 November 2023. https://www.sermitsiaq.ag/samfund/aki-om-finanslov-staerke-initiativer/527344 ↩︎

Rebecca Morgan

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