Promoted to Glory is a term used by The Salvation Army to describe the death of a Salvationist.
Earliest printed usage of the term seems to be in late 1882 in The War Cry, which included death announcements in the December 14 issue, with headlines such as 'Promotion of Sister Muxlow from Earth to Heaven' and 'Private Rudd goes to Glory from the Open-air.' Another report, headed 'Promotion from Cheltenham to Glory,' appeared in The War Cry of December 16, 1882.
Some Salvation Army corps have a Promoted to Glory Board or ledger on which all members (Soldiers or Adherents) of that corps, who have died, are listed along with the year of their death.
It is also common for Salvationists to talk about deceased Salvationists as being "P to G'd".
The term Promoted to Glory was actually coined by Herbert Booth, son of the Founder William Booth, following the death of Catherine Booth, the Mother of the Salvation Army. He wrote the song "Promoted to Glory" which is still used at funerals today.
Words & Music: Herbert H. Booth, in Songs of Peace and War, 1890 (MIDI, score). Booth wrote this song while preparing for his mother’s funeral.
Famous quotes containing the words promoted and/or glory:
“The most threatened group in human societies as in animal societies is the unmated male: the unmated male is more likely to wind up in prison or in an asylum or dead than his mated counterpart. He is less likely to be promoted at work and he is considered a poor credit risk.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity—an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)