THE RIBBON COLLECTOR

A newsletter for those who value the bits of colored cloth

and similar or associated items made of other materials

intended as awards of recognition in the U.S. of A.

 

ISSUE No. 8

JUNE 2018

>>>>>> (This version has been modified and reformatted for compatibility with Webpage display) <<<<<< 

 

 

 

PUBLISHED BY

Garreteer Press (formerly Patriot Press) P.O. Box 937, Lompoc CA 93438-0937–Greg Ogletree, Proprietor

 

 

Royal Ambassadors Ribbon Awards

by Greg Ogletree

Although it has relatively few ribbon bar awards when compared to some of the other faith-based youth organizations like Royal Rangers and Awana, the Royal Ambassadors (RA) is far older and, unlike the others, remains an organization strictly for boys.  Created in 1908 by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), and still administered by that group today,[1] the RA is a Scout-like organization described as “a missions discipleship organization for boys in grades 1–6.  Through hands-on activities that encourage spiritual growth, games and sports, and mentoring relationships with RA leaders, RA members become a faith-based brotherhood.”[2]  The RA “helps them develop a Biblical worldview with an emphasis on missions learning and missions doing.  [It] utilizes activities that are designed to help boys learn about missions and get them personally involved in practical missions experiences while having fun.”[3]  But it wasn’t always just for younger boys.  Before discussing the ribbons (and medals) used by the RA, let’s first review the early history of the organization.

Ironically, it was two women who established this program for boys.  Miss Fannie E.S. Heck was president of the WMU in late 1907 when a “Committee on Mission Work for Boys” was created, and she chaired the committee.  She and another member of the committee, Miss Elizabeth Briggs, attended a conference in Asheville NC at which they heard the 1902 song “The King’s Business” that was about Christian “ambassadors.”  Miss Briggs thought “Ambassadors” would be a good name for a boys’ mission organization, and Miss Heck added the “Royal.”  At the next annual meeting of the WMU in May 1908, held in Hot Springs AR, the committee made its recommendation for this organization for boys, ages 9-17, and WMU members voted to sponsor it, officially calling it the “Order of Royal Ambassadors.”[4] 

The very first RA group, named the Carey Newton Chapter, was formed at the First Baptist Church in Goldsboro NC by one of the women who had attended the 1908 WMU meeting.  At the end of the following year, there were 45 RA chapters in the Southern Baptist Convention, and by 1915 that number had grown to 500 chapters.  When the RA celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1933, there were 4,369 chapters with over 40,000 members.  Peak membership was reached in 1960 when the RA claimed 220,000 members in 13,000 chapters, but as the 1960s progressed the numbers began a gradual decline, owing in part to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War and an accompanying anathema for anyone in uniforms of any type.  Today there are only about 30,000 members in chapters sponsored by just over 3,000 SBC churches.  Some of the churches that used the RA program originally have switched to sponsoring Boy Scout units.  Even so, today it is reported that over 6 million boys have attended RA meetings since the organization was formed.  Rather than referring to the song that originally inspired the name, today’s literature suggests the name of the program is derived from II Corinthians 5:20—undoubtedly the original inspiration for the song too.

In 1924, RAs were divided into two groups:  Junior Royal Ambassadors (ages 9-13); and Intermediate Royal Ambassadors (ages 13 and up).  Also in 1924, a ranking (advancement) system was introduced, consisting of Page, Squire, Knight, and Ambassador.[5]  Five years later, two higher ranks were added for boys 13 and older:  Ambassador Extraordinary, and Ambassador Plenipotentiary.  Armbands with variations of the RA emblem were used to indicate the four lower ranks, but a sash—referred to as the “Ambassorial Sash”—was worn by those in the two new ranks.  The sash was 4 inches wide and of two colors, blue and gold (the color closer to the neck was blue).  For the highest rank, a white grosgrain ribbon, called the “Plenipotentiary Stripe,” was snapped over the middle of the sash to separate the blue and gold portions.  In 1953, the armbands and sashes were replaced by pins that indicated rank, except for the rank of Page, which was still indicated by an armband.  A new rank of Candidate was added to the program in 1957 but it gradually fell by the wayside over time.

In 1961, a restructuring resulted in three age divisions rather than two.  These were:  Crusaders (ages 9-11); Pioneers (ages 12-14); and Ambassadors (ages 15-17).  The ranks of Page, Squire, and Knight, for boys of ages 9, 10, and 11, respectively, were used in the Crusaders division.  Boys in all three age divisions could earn various awards, but in this article only ribbons (and medals) will be discussed.  The ribbon bars, introduced in 1961 at the same time as the restructuring, are variously called “advancement bars” or “elective bars” in RA literature, but the latter is the more accurate term because the bars did not indicate advancement, per se; pins were still used for that:  “Once a boy earned his advancement pin he could earn elective awards known as ‘bars and stars’ by completing additional projects.”[6]  The stars are metal devices intended for attachment to a ribbon bar.  These bars and stars are shown below in Figure 1.

Figure 1

As can be seen, three colors were used for the ribbons:  blue, white, and gold.  (The color referred to as gold by the RA is actually more of a golden-yellow, tending to appear more orange than gold.)  These were the same colors used on the RA emblem and, previously, on the Ambassorial Sash.  The significance of the colors was stated as follows:

Blue stands for loyalty to Christ, to the church, and to the Crusader chapter.  “Gold stands for the worth of Christ to each Crusader who accepts him as Savior and Lord and the worth of each Crusader who seeks God’s will and serves in the place God has chosen for him.  White stands for purity of body, mind, and soul, as each Crusader tries to pattern his life after Christ.”[7]       

Of course ribbons and such aren’t much of an incentive if they can’t be worn (RA patches were first produced just a year earlier) so in 1962 a uniform was finally introduced, consisting of a white dress shirt, dark blue trousers, blue neck tie, RA belt, and an “overseas” style hat similar to that worn by the Boy Scouts at the time.[8]  This uniform evolved over the years (e.g., the white shirts were eventually replaced by blue ones) and was eventually replaced by a vest.

Beginning in 1970, RA was opened to younger boys for the first time and the programs were realigned to group the boys by their school grade rather than by age.  Crusaders were now comprised of boys in grades 1-6, and Pioneers were for boys in grades 7-12.  (Boys in grades 10-12 were apparently still called Ambassadors, but it’s not clear if the three Ambassador ranks were retained.)  Crusaders now contained the ranks of Lad 1, Lad 2, Lad 3, Page, Squire, and Knight for grades 1-6, respectively.  After the 1970 restructuring, the elective bars and stars were still earned only by the Pages, Squires, and Knights, but that soon changed.

In 1975, newly created elective bars were made available for the younger Crusaders (i.e., Lads).  Three bars were offered, each in a different color, as follows:  White (for Lad 1), Gold (for Lad 2), and Blue (for Lad 3).  This action doubled the total number of elective bars from three to six, as shown in Figure 2, below.  As can be seen, all six bars use one or more of the three RA colors.  Today, more than 40 years later, these are still the ribbon bars used by the Royal Ambassadors.

Figure 2

The requirements for earning each of these are contained in the Royal Ambassador Patches and Awarding Criteria document accessible via a link on the previously mentioned Webpage (see Notes 2 and 3).

A Royal Ambassadors vest, worn over the uniform shirt, debuted in 1984.  Just three years later, the traditional RA uniform (shirt and tie, trousers and belt, and hat) was discontinued and the vest became the standard RA uniform, worn over whatever clothes one was wearing at the time—although boys were usually encouraged to wear a Royal Ambassadors tee-shirt or some other RA garment displaying the RA emblem.  All awards and insignia are now worn on the vest, pictured in Figure 3, below, which is also accessible via the “patch placement guide” link on the WMU’s Webpage titled “About Royal Ambassadors.”

Figure 3

What’s interesting about this is everything worn on the vest has a prescribed area, unlike the vests of most other youth organizations that present a very non-uniform appearance because patches and pins are often attached randomly in an almost haphazard manner.  But when one remembers that in RA the vest is the uniform, the rationale behind this guidance becomes clear.

In 1987, a further restructuring eliminated boys in Grades 10-12 from the RA program (i.e., Ambassadors became High School Baptist Young Men—HSBYM), and removed Lads from the Crusaders division, resulting in the following three groups:  Lads (grades 1-3); Crusaders (grades 4-6); and Pioneers (grades 7-9).  This lasted until 1994, when Pioneers were merged with HSBYM to create Challengers.

Another change also occurred in 1994, of interest to collectors of ribbons and medals:  The Bible Memory Medals (Figure 4) made their debut.

Figure 4

The Bible Memory Medals can be earned by a member in either the Lads or Crusaders (i.e., any member in Grades 1-6).  The bronze medal is awarded for memorizing 25 Bible verses, the silver for 50 verses, and the gold for 75, as indicated by the numerals on the pendants beneath the ribbons.  Creation of these medals brings the total number of RA awards using ribbons, in one form or another, to nine.  It should be noted that there are no corresponding “service ribbons” worn in lieu of the medals because the bronze medal uses the color of the Lad 3 Bar and the silver medal uses the color of the Lad 2 Bar.  Also, current Silver Medals (for 50 verses) use a canary yellow suspension ribbon rather than a golden-yellow ribbon.  Apparently the exact shade isn’t deemed all that important.  

For collectors, ribbon bars for all but Knight are of commonly used designs and are readily available at a nominal cost from a number of different sources.  At this writing, they are also available from the WMU’s online store (www.wmustore.com- ribbons at https://www.wmustore.com/missions-resources/children-grades-16/royal-ambassadors?cat_id=234&offset=0&limit=124 =).  Over the years, variations in the color and width of the central gold stripe on the Knight’s Bar, and of the white stripes that separate it from the blue portion of the ribbon have occurred (Figure 5).  Early ribbons had a narrower center that was almost orange in color rather than golden-yellow (at far left in the figure); the ribbon currently used (far right) has a center section that’s nearly twice the width of the early ribbon bars.  Despite the difference in appearance, all of these were official and issued through RA supply channels.

Figure 5

Another difference that warrants mentioning is the size of the elective stars.  These metal devices have always been silver in color, but their size has shrunk in recent years.  The early stars were large, as depicted in Figures 1 and 2 (the same size as those used on some US Navy service ribbons) but in recent years the size has been reduced to about half of what they were originally (now the same size as those worn on some Army and Air Force service ribbons).

For collectors who would like to create a display of all RA ribbon-related awards, the medals, too, are available for purchase from the online store.  The six ribbon bars and three medals comprise an attractive display when framed, and are a visible reminder of the admirable mission and noteworthy achievements of the Royal Ambassadors.  v

 

Sources:

 

“About Royal Ambassadors” – WMU Webpage, http://www.wmu.com/?q=article/children-royal-ambassadors/about-royal-ambassadors (retrieved 4/17/2017)

“Brief History of Royal Ambassadors” – Georgia’s Royal Ambassadors, http://ga-ra.org/about/ (retrieved 4/17/2017)

One Hundred Years of Royal Ambassadors:  An overview of the Royal Ambassadors organization including RAs in Texas, by Keith Mack and Herb Weaver.  ©2008 by Texas Baptist Men, Dallas TX. (viewable online at:  texasbaptistmen.org – retrieved 4/18/2017)

“Royal Ambassadors” http://www.wmu.com/sites/default/files/RAHowToFlyer11x17.pdf (retrieved 4/17/2017)