Mandeville, Jamaica….[Nigel Coke/IAD]
Delegates and members of the Executive Committee of the church in the West Indies territory met to elect its leadership for the next five years. The meeting took place on the campus of the Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, Jamaica from November 9-12.
The 285 delegates who traveled from The Bahamas, Turk and Caicos Islans, Cayman Islands and throughout Jamaica raised their voting cards to re-elect Pastor Patrick Allen as president of the 233,000 member church that comprises the West Indies Union territory.
Pastor Allen, who will serve for a second consecutive five-year term, said he would continue to serve God and his people to the best of his abilities.
Separate from the call for a life of spiritual renewal or formation by church members, he made reference to the Adventist church and its social role in Jamaica and stated that “We have tools to offer to the needy, we have tools to offfer for the healing of the sick and we have tools in offering hope to the dying.”
“The church must go out into the communities. Not only must our doctrines and beliefs be appropriate for the time, but our outreach and intervention must also be shaped to fix the specific need of our contemporary society and the communities in which we live,’ said Pr. Allen in his acceptance speech. We don’t have the luxury of being bystanders, we don’t have the luxury of being idle watchers, we don’t have the luxury of basking in Laodicea lukewarmness,” he continued, “our resonse must be appropriate and it must be prompt.”
Other officers elected at the session were Pastor Derek Bignal as executive secretary, Pastor Herman Ming as treasurer, and Pastor Enell Hall and Milton Gregory as vice presidents; as well as Pastor Wendell McMillan as Field Secretary. For other elected church leaders at the session, go to www.wiunion.org.
As one of the largest and fastest growing denominations in Jamaica, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the West Indies region has more than 233,000 members who worship in 732 churches and companies every Sabbath. The union is comprised of five conferences, three missions and four institutions.
