Adventists elect new head

Thursday, December 02, 2010

MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Pastor Everett Brown is the new head of the Adventist church in Jamaica.

Brown, the immediate past president of the Central Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, succeeds Pastor Derek Bignall who led the church from January 2009 when Sir Patrick Allen stepped down to take up the position as governor general.

Delegates registered their overwhelming choice for Brown at the 14th and final session of the church under the West Indies Union conference (WIU) name.

Earlier in the day they moved a motion to dissolve the WIU and create two separate entities — the Jamaica Union Mission and the Atlantic Caribbean Union Mission — effectively divesting Jamaica of the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

"This evening I'm truly humbled by the fact that of the many persons God could have called, could have chosen me to provide leadership to his church..." Brown said after the vote.

"I would like to express my profound thanks to my brothers and sisters for your confidence and your support. I pledge, by the grace of God that I will not betray the trust that you have reposed in me to lead as I follow the master teacher Jesus Christ," he added.

Brown, a 26-year veteran of pastoral ministry, has held various positions including youth director and executive secretary, and was at the helm of the Central Jamaica Conference from 2000.

Pastor Bignall, meanwhile, expressed thanks to members for their support during his stint as WIU president, and urged them to support his successor.

"We shall stand with him, we shall support him because this work is not his, it is God's work," Bignall told delegates.