As I head towards The Salvation Army’s City of London-based International Headquarters one last time (for now, at least), it’s appropriate to reflect that a lot of my work has taken place in England. And while the nature of the job has meant that travel to Denmark has been more likely than to Dudley, the diversity and variety of the things I’ve been involved with ‘at home’ has been no less notable.

International Headquarters itself has played host to a vast array of different endeavours that I have then played a part in communicating to a wider world. We’ve had art exhibitions, book launches, a community choir, discovering Christianity courses, ecumenical events, a fashion show… and this is rapidly becoming an inadvertent A-Z within an A-Z! A strength of IHQ is that it is not just a lofty ‘ivory tower’ but intended to be a place where the community can come and experience the breadth of the ministry undertaken around the world.

And elsewhere in England, we have supported the 2012 Olympics (the torch relay came past the office in the capable hands of Steve Chalke), elected numerous Generals, and held large-scale rallies and celebrations.

Highlights are, once again, difficult to choose. But professionally, leading the Boundless digital media team on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of The Salvation Army is hard to beat. This remains the largest event ever held at The O2, and involved a week of live blogging and social media curation from each of the venues as well as Heathrow Airport (airside passes are a wonderful thing!), Buckingham Palace (twice, but thankfully not the Tower), the birthplace of The Salvation Army in east London and, most memorably, preceding a mass March down The Mall with a live camera feed to convey the mounting atmosphere to the thousands watching online. I felt like a rock star for twenty minutes as the crowd lining the route roared!

Other memorable events (for varying reasons!) include an awareness-raising event that took Sea of Colour (an enormous textile artwork made up of discarded refugee clothing) over the Thames as a symbol of the treacherous boat journeys migrants were (and still are) having to risk their lives on.

Then there was a series of six live and interactive panel debates, hosted in conjunction with The Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission in New York, where we we were fortunate enough to have the BBC’s Nick Bryant presenting. In London, viewers had to make do with Kevin Sims, who I owe a debt of gratitude for seemingly constantly barking in his ear but having never (yet!) riled.

And the occasion at a major congress in Harrogate where a multi-camera broadcast turned into a single fallback camera feed due to what might generously be described as a ‘power cut’.

Actually, this seems like the right moment to declare a public apology to all those that I’ve subjected to monstrously bizarre expectations. Gaz Rose and Brent Forrest on a cycle rickshaw, for example, endeavouring to keep a Live-U link from Oxford Street on the air. Tim Siney for never flinching (well, not too much) when presenting with increasingly complex technical demands. Dave Haas for ‘while you are here…’ ephemera. Sylvester Osaji for urgent despatches to McDonald’s. Joseph Halliday for pretty much everything I’ve ever uttered, but certainly for the fabled time I proposed a Salvation Army version of the Periodic Table. I should probably seek forgiveness from Mendeleev too…