• How it started
• Vision Visit Greece Thessalonians
• Greek Officers
• The International Salvation Army

The Salvation Army
The World Over

    Haris and Anna

Commissioned as officers of The Salvation Army in 1997 was for us a milestone on a journey that started in Monolofos.

It was while living in Monolofos a village of 300 people just outside Thessaloniki, that we got to know Nikos Ziogas who was getting very interested in the Salvation Army by the things he heard from his distant relative Jim, who lived in Australia and had become a member of The Salvation Army and this is how we found ourselves here in London.

Nikos and Jim took me along mainly as an interpreter to come and visit the International Headquarters of The Salvation Army in London and meet with the Officer in charge of the Salvation Army's work in Europe. We expressed our desire to see The Salvation Army in Greece and were told that it is rather difficult to start this venture without a Salvation Army Officer who could speak the language.

After thought and prayer Anna and I offered to come to London and receive the training that we needed so that one day we could go back to Greece and help start The Salvation Army.

For the first two years I was able to work as Centre Manager, for the Salvation Army's Regent Hall on Oxford Street in the heart of London. My family and I lived on a flat just above the Regent Hall. What a contrast this was to the "little house on the prairie" we came from in Monolofos. Joy was starting secondary school and she had to commute to her school. She had to, in a very short time, adjust to the new country, a huge city and learn to find her way around central London.

Two years later we entered the Training College in Denmark Hill, a college full of history and excitement. With our fellow cadets of the "Messengers of God's love" session we went through our two years' residential training and were commissioned in May 1997.

Our first appointment was to revive the East Finchley Corps in North London that had closed down in 1991 after having served the community of Finchley since 1897.

Our second appointment in 2001 was in Hammersmith West London. Among other things Anna run four playgroups for preschool children and Haris was the Salvation Army's representative in Brixton prison and Edith Road Hostel.

 Anna is also involved in Brixton prison as a member of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB). The IMB is directly under the Home Office and is there to ensure that the Prison functions well, respecting the rights of prisoners and staff.

At Edith Road hostel, a home for 25 men who all used to sleep rough, part of Haris' ministry is to run a course called "Curry and Christianity" - Residents come together for a plate of curry and a basic course on Christianity.