Have a look at our new page on the Golden Eagle, totem of our High Patrol. The custom of adopting a totemic animal goes back to the knights of old, who carried on their helms the image of some real or mythical beast. A scout is required to find out about the habits of his patrol totem and to try and learn something from them.
Mr Crawford is always prepared.
A number of wide games were also part of the agenda:
Some of them got a bit dangerous (Entertainment included a cannibal sketch from one of the patrols!)
… but good fun was had by all!
- Chavagnes scouts
The foundations of a building are its humblest part. They are neither decorated by any artistry, nor are they displayed before the eyes of men. But they are the most important part of that building, because they support the entire edifice. Consequently they must be firm, strong, unmoving.
You are the foundation stones of the Scouts de Chavagnes, and lest you be in any doubt, I would like to talk to you about the nobility of your task. You are called to be founders, and do not be alarmed if I tell you that it is God who is calling you. What do I mean by this ‘call’? It is not a voice speaking in your head – if any of you did hear voices in your head I would be worried! – this call is heard through the circumstances of life. God is in control of the universe, and so for the Christian there are never any coincidences. It is not coincidence that has led you all here, it is the call. Therefore do not give up! You are the founders of the Scouts de Chavagnes; do not loose heart! Never be tempted to think that this is pointless, that we will never be real scouts, that our uniforms and equiptment are miserable, and our skills deficient.
All this will come, provided that you play your part well. It is not the uniform that makes a scout. True, the attitude a scout has towards his uniform – such as it is – will show whether he is a good or bad scout, but it would be foolish to say that the uniform makes the scout, just as it would be wrong to say that the soutane makes the priest. When Baden Powell founded the Scouts, he was not trying to bring about a revolution in the style of clothing! He was trying to achieve a much more profound transformation than a change of shirt!
You are the foundation stones. Your task is not merely to look good. What would be the point of looking good, of having smart uniforms and nice tents, if we lacked the heart of scouting? If that was how we were then we would really be a joke, a sham. So let us get things the right way round. You will find everything that is most essential in the Scout Promise and in the Scout Law. If you hold firm to these things, if you embody them, then you will be firm foundations, able to support a great edifice. You will be able to look back on your youth and say ‘I was one of the first; I was a founder.’
You are the guide ropes of our tent; if you go slack, the tent will collapse. Every great work must begin humbly and with trials, so that it can grow in resourcefullness. As Seneca wrote, God tests the good man “hardens him, and fits him for his own service.” Calamitas virtutis occasio est; disaster is virtue’s opportunity. As yet we know nothing of disaster – but we should be willing, prepared, to drink deeply of that chalice, because it is the chalice of the Cross. As good scouts we must not be always complaining, but we must keep smiling; “a scout smiles and whistles under all difficulties.” In the gospels, Our Lord sings only once…when He goes out to Gethsemane to suffer and die. We must use what we have to hand; “a scout is thrifty.” We must be real men, able to stand in the breach. We must find within ourselves and bring forth the gifts that God has planted in us, to found, to build, to create…
The next two posts are talks given by the Troop Leader and adapted here for reading.
About a hundred years ago the British officer Robert Baden-Powell founded the Scout movement. Baden Powell had fought in the Boer War in South Africa, and he took away two impressions from that conflict. Firstly, he was struck by the poor quality of the soldiers arriving from Great Britain; secondly, the valuable part played at the seige of Mafeking by boy volunteers. Scouting would be a way to correct the one, and build on the other.
Baden Powell was concerned about the survival of the British Empire. He had the example of Rome before him, and he therefore knew that unless a society has good citizens, it will fail. He knew that military success relied upon something more profound than physical strength: spiritual vitality. A strong body requires a strong will to push it. Remember Kipling’s poem: “If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve their turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’”
So Baden Powell gave us the motto ‘Be Prepared’ – that is: willing, knowledgeable, and physically capable – so that we might aspire to be useful subjects and citizens, able to deal with any eventuality, even – God forbid – an invasion: “We ought to be prepared in Britain against being attacked by enemies; for though it may not be probable, it is quite as possible as it was at Mafeking; and every boy in Britain should be just as ready as those boys were in Mafeking to take their share in its defence.”
One hundred years on we have even more reason to be concerned…and to be prepared. Our civilisation – like that of ancient Rome – is not only threatened from outside, but also from within. Our beliefs are under attack, the institutions of the Church are attacked, the very existence of the European peoples is attacked in the womb. Scouting gives us the same principles of honour and duty and service as guided the Christian knights of old. We have to be new St. Georges, and save the maiden Europe from the dragon of modern barbarism. But where does this barbarism come from? Not from beyond the Rhine or the Danube. “Out of the heart of man come evil intentions” (Mt. 15.19). Our warfare begins there, in the heart, where we must battle against ourselves.