The Salvation Army has new leadership in Bermuda.

Majors Rob and Shelley Kerr, a husband and wife team, arrived in Bermuda this month and will complete their Covid-19 quarantines this week.

Mr Kerr will be divisional commander and Ms Kerr will be divisional corps ministries secretary in Bermuda after serving across Canada since 1998.

They served together as corps officers – pastors – for their first 15 years of ministry in Sydney Nova Scotia, Saint John New Brunswick, Edmonton, Alberta and Toronto.

They later worked in social services where Ms Kerr was appointed as chaplain of the Thunder Bay community and residential services and Mr Kerr was executive director.

Mr Kerr said: “This was a significant change for us as we moved from congregational ministry to ministering to people who were simply trying to figure out how to survive from one day to the next.”

The Kerrs worked in Winnipeg in 2015, where Mr Kerr was divisional secretary for public relations and development for the Prairie Division and Ms Kerr was spiritual care coordinator at The Salvation Army’s Community Venture, a multi-site operation that provided day and residential programmes for over 150 adults with learning difficulties.

Ms Kerr said: “For me, this appointment gave me opportunity to see a whole new way of not only ministering to people, but it also made me very aware of barriers in our communities that keep certain groups from accessing the same services that others take for granted.”

In 2019 the Kerrs returned to Toronto, where they carried out similar roles as they did in Winnipeg.

The couple said: “We come to Bermuda with great excitement and anticipation.

“What we have learned from our previous experiences and appointments has helped to form who we are today.

“One of our greatest learnings is not to assume we know much about the appointment we are coming in to.

“We must listen and learn and then together we will find our way forward in ministry and service in Bermuda.”

The Kerrs succeed Major Sandra Stokes as divisional officers.