Freeport, Bahamas…[Nigel Coke/IAD Staff]
Hundreds of Seventh-day Adventists and government officials paid homage to the late Pastor Keith Densel Albury, former president of the church in the North Bahamas, in two services akin to an official funeral service. Services were held February 11 and 12. Pastor Albury died on January 24, at age 48, at Scottsdale Healthcare, Arizona, United States, after a one-year battle with cancer.
The mourners, who came from Jamaica, The Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands, were led by Pastor Patrick Allen, president for the church in the West Indies. Pastor Allen was joined by members of the Bahamian Government, civic leaders and church leaders of other denominations at the Kendal G. L. Isaacs Gymnasium and on the grounds of the Freeport Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The memorial service held on Saturday afternoon was attended by His Excellency Governor-General Arthur D. Hanna and Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Perry Christie, giving the ceremony an air of officialdom usually reserved for top government personnel.
In his tribute on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in West Indies, Pastor Allen said Pastor Albury “was a man who had visions of what could be, and made it happen. Those of us who worked with him got the impression that excellence was the least he would settle for,” he said, adding that Pastor Albury was an extraordinary person, a sincere and fearless leader, and a devout Christian who had a tremendous zeal for the Lord’s work.
Senator Tommy Turnquest, who represented Opposition leader The Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, hailed Pastor Albury as a giant of the Christian faith and mission in The Bahamas, who in his role as president of the Bahamas Conference, and later North Bahamas Mission, made a positive impact and became an inspiration to Bahamians of all Christian denominations.
The homily on Saturday was delivered by Pastor Albury’s close friend and colleague, Pastor Leslie McMillan who gave what he described as “the message Pastor Albury would want us to hear, is that Salvation is in Jesus and that is what counts above every other thing in the world. It is above power, position and possession.” He said that the essence of this reality is felt when one is on death’s bed and there is nothing else that matters.
In his remarks, Prime Minister Christie said the challenge left by Pastor Keith’s passing was for the Church to write and publish his story.
“We have an opportunity to recognize that there is a story to be told of a young man who came from simple beginnings in Harbour Island, coming to Yellow Elder, going to Government High and — in the vernacular of the streets — hustled through college, because he didn’t have the means and family support,” Prime Minister Christie recounted.
In brief remarks at the Sunday service, Opposition Leader Ingraham recalled how Pastor Albury had impressed him when they first met at an event some years ago. “His breadth of knowledge, his understanding and expressed conviction and focus caused me to enquire about him,” said Mr Ingraham.
Pastor Albury began his work in the Bahamas as a ministerial intern in 1979 and later served as church ministries director, executive secretary and president of the conference.
Pastor Keith Albury is survived by his wife Ann and sons Anson, Alden, and Brendon.
For more on the memorial service for Pastor Albury, go to www.wiunion.org.
