On Sunday, thousands of Christians are expected to march along the Mall in London, past Buckingham Palace, sounding drums and tambourines, trumpets and tubas.

They’ll be clad in blue, gray serge or white uniforms with red or blue epaulets and the letter “S” on each lapel. It stands for salvation, as in The Salvation Army, an evangelical Christian church that will be celebrating its 150th anniversary in the city where its global work began, now active in 126 countries.

A church? Yes, The Salvation Army is a church. The “salvation” the movement offers isn’t just about used clothing or old furniture, staples of its rehabilitation programs and thrift stores that dot the United States. For the 2 million or so “soldiers” worldwide, the organization is a Protestant denomination descended from the Wesleyan Methodist tradition of its founder, William Booth.

Today’s version of what Booth originally called the “Christian Mission” is a global gathering of people who announce they are “saved to serve” others, another interpretation of the “S” insignia on the uniform lapels. In addition to its deploying disaster relief, feeding the homeless or providing a place for after-school activities, The Salvation Army has over 1,200 churches across the U.S. where 77,000 people attend worship each Sunday.

Read the article “What You Didn’t Know About The Salvation Army’s 150 Years of Service” on deseretnews.com.