Heralds

Selling the Army's papers

A selection of War Cry and Kids Alive! covers

Heralds sell our War Cry and Kids Alive! to the public - any profit goes to the local corps.

Speak to your corps officer if you'd like to become a herald.

Meet Richard

Richard Smart is a herald from Wimbledon Corps. He says: ‘The War Cry is a gift that follows their donation and opens up doors to have a chat with them about Jesus, which you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.

‘We’re a small corps – there are only about 20 of us - so that extra £2,000 we make through paper sales is actually very important.’

Read more from Richard in Salvationist

That extra £2,000 we make through paper sales is actually very important.

Richard Smart, Wimbledon Corps

Meet Graham and Rachel

There are heralds of all ages and backgrounds across the territory.

Graham Warburton is from Swanage Corps in Dorset, and Rachel Frost is from Buckhaven Corps in Scotland.

Graham says: 'I enjoy raising funds for our corps, but more important is the outreach of Jesus into the community.'

Read more from Graham in Salvationist

Rachel says: 'We have found that there is a renewed interest in The Salvation Army publications and quite often we’ll run out of papers while participating in the ministry, something that rarely happened before the pandemic.'

I enjoy raising funds for our corps, but more important is the outreach of Jesus into the community.

Graham Warburton, Swanage Corps

The Salvation Army has three weekly papers.

Salvationist covers internal news from across the UK and Ireland and around the world.
Kids Alive! is the UK’s only Christian weekly comic for kids. It features Bible stories, competitions, puzzles and activities.
War Cry covers culture, current events and human-interest stories from a faith perspective for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Kids Alive! and War Cry are sold by heralds on the high street and in public places.

Heralds play an essential role in selling our papers to the general public. While we do offer an individual subscription format, our biggest support base by far is that of corps and heralds.
Selling the papers raises money for local corps. It’s a great way for people to serve their church family and support a local church.
Heralds provide a friendly, localised face to The Salvation Army and being a presence on the high street represents an outworking of their faith. They are able to build links with their community and strike up conversations about Christianity.
People often remark on how they like seeing their local heralds, some of whom serve week in, week out. Heralds reach people who may not necessarily think of walking through the doors of a church.
The papers themselves provide an invaluable opportunity for gentle evangelism. For instance, the front cover of War Cry may feature a popular TV show or film and generate conversation and interest from passers-by, who then take home a copy and read it. There’s never been more of a pressing need to share the gospel than right now.

You can volunteer as much or as little time as you can spare.

While we rely on a solid base of volunteers who serve week in, week out, we’re keen to get as many people as we can involved in selling the papers.

It might be that during the busiest times on the high street, for example between 12-2pm on a Thursday or Friday, a corps can have multiple heralds out.

Yes. However, we’d recommend that you go out with a more experienced herald for the first few times that you volunteer, so that they can help you learn the ropes. We would also ask that all young people are supervised by a responsible adult at all times.

Some corps members may even have partners or family members who will help them out, even if they don’t usually attend church services. It’s a great way to include family and friends.

The War Cry and Kids Alive! are both registered newspapers. As such, they can be sold on public land without a licence. On private land, the permission of the landowner must be given.

If you are using a collecting box, you may find it helpful to take a bag containing loose change in case people ask for it after buying their paper. This helps to distinguish it from charity street collections, which require local authority permission.