TWO Salvation Army divisional leaders are retiring next month with 70 years of service between them.

Majors Norman and Margaret Ord took over the Herts & Essex Division in 2012, when it was known as London North East Division .

Hundreds of well-wishers flocked to The Salvation Army's Hadleigh Farm Estate recently to pay tribute to the couple, who described their time with The Salvation Army as 'blessed'.

Margaret joined The Salvation Army at 21. She served for many years as a corps officer and was a family officer at Divisional Headquarters when she met Norman in 2011. She became a corps officer in 2008. Margaret and Norman married in 2012.

Norman was a corps officer for 11 years before becoming Evangelism Secretary at The Salvation Army's UK headquarters. He was subsequently principal at William Booth College for five years. The College provides training for officers, Salvationists and employees.

The pair married in 2012, having both been widowed a few years before

Margaret said she was particularly proud of the support they had made available to corps officers. Norman said supporting local leaders has been a key priority.

Norman added: "Throughout the pandemic, we made ourselves available and offered as much support as we could. I believe we have the potential to be even more effective by prioritising resources and this is the challenge as we come out of the pandemic and move forward."

Margaret said: "Over the last three or four years, we have introduced sessions called Leadership Life. Officers come together for different things and its lovely to see the relationships that have developed as people have learned and reflected together."

Although Norman and Margaret will still be offering support to Salvation Army officers and others, they aim to spend more time with family and pursue other interests.

Norman said: "The mission of God is something that will continue to have an impact. We have a great opportunity to prioritise on what really matters and thus, what we are able to offer to communities. We can build on what we have done before not least what we achieved in recent times of acute need."

Margaret added: "We have been blessed to have amazing teams working alongside us. We thank God for those people and the influence we been able to have for good. Officership is a meaningful and purposeful calling and we both recommend it."