A Childhood Dream Becomes a Reality

 February 8, 2023 | Mandeville, Jamaica | Communication Department, Jamaica Union and IAD News Staff

Twenty-two years ago, when then-students of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Omar Oliphant and Sharette Kirby, met on the Adventist campus in Jamaica, little did they know that a life of service would evolve into a marriage giving birth to the first Adventist pastoral attorney couple.

On December 15, 2022, Sharette Oliphant was called to the Bar at the Supreme Court of Jamaica, with her husband beside her, to robe and assist the newly minted counsel taking the oath to enter the profession.

Raised in a single-parent home, Sharette learned how to thrive amid difficulties and persevere through hard work toward achieving her life goals. Although the childhood “dream” to be attorney did not materialize after high school, she immersed herself in psychology with a minor in political and legal studies at NCU.

“I give credit to my husband for being a ‘dream-enabler and people empowerment specialist’, as he is always seeking the best for his people but especially for me and our family,” said Sharette.

Things were not always perfect for Sharette, the young senior youth leader of the Old England Adventist Church in the rural area of Manchester, had her childhood dream of being an advocate dashed due to financial limitations. She received a graduate scholarship to pursue her master’s degree in counseling psychology, which she earned at age 21.

Thereafter, Sharette entered the workforce as a librarian, preparatory school teacher, and later, as a career development officer. It was as though the dream to be an attorney-at-law died, she said, until her husband pursued his dream of becoming a lawyer, creating a stir in 2017 as the first Adventist pastor in Jamaica to be called to the Bar.

The end of Pastor Oliphant’s legal studies became the beginning of Mrs. Oliphant’s study of the law. She graduated two years later from the Faculty of Law with an Upper Second Class Honors degree. This qualified her to enter the Norman Manley Law School, where she passed her bar exams, graduating in 2022. While being a mother of three daughters, and employed,

Sharette went through an intensive program of lectures and tutorials, court attendance, mock trials, legal aid clinic, and hours of study, procedures and rules of law during the pandemic years.

“The truth is, it really does bring excitement,” said Oliphant. He feels more proud of his wife being called to the bar than he felt for himself. “I think it’s wonderful in the context of our relationship where we share goals together and grow together as a couple and for me seeing her reach her goal to become an attorney, I’m over the moon.”

The accomplishment was a cap on the Oliphants celebration of 14 years of marriage in December 2022, a month that is special for the family given Pastor Oliphant’s ordination, calling to the Bar, anniversary and Sharette’s own calling to the Bar.

“It’s a surreal feeling, it’s a dream realized,” said Sharette. “I’ve always wanted to be an attorney, I knew this from before high school. If you look in my school yearbook and all of that, my ambition was to be an attorney.”

Sharette is currently employed with a government agency which deals with technical skills training development for youth and young adults.  She will be practicing law soon and has interests in civil, conveyancing, employment, probate and family law.

“My dream moves beyond my personal desire to serve, advocate and give support to issues of justice and equity in the workplace, family and society,” said Sharette. It’s about aiming to tap into the branches of practice which enable individuals to actualize their capacity, potential and dreams rather than the cut and thrust of adversarial advocacy, she added.

The family continues in ministry in the East Jamaica where Pastor Oliphant serves as the public affairs and religious liberty director for the conference as well as the senior pastor for the Andrews Memorial and New Kingston Fellowship churches.