THE Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church in Jamaica has distanced itself from partisan political affiliation, amidst the furore over one church leader’s prophecy that Portia Simpson Miller would be returned as prime minister in the coming elections.

The SDA Church is the second, following the Rev Merrick ‘Al’ Miller’s Whole Life Ministries, to speak on the issue of political party affiliation this week, after the controversial prediction by Rev Phillip Phinn of the Word of Life Ministries on Easter Sunday.

“The Seventh-day Adventist Church wishes to categorically state that as a matter of policy we do not endorse political parties and we do not support one party over another,” the church said in a statement issued from its Mandeville headquarters late Monday.

“The church supports the government of the day, regardless of which party forms that government,” said the SDA statement which was issued ostensibly in response to a Sunday Observer article it said had erroneously reported an SDA pastor as endorsing Simpson Miller on April 1.

But the response, which came two weeks after the newspaper article, appeared to have been spurred by the growing controversy over Phinn’s prophecy.

The Sunday Observer article suggested that an Adventist pastor, Michael Harvey, president of the church’s North Jamaica Mission, and his Mt Salem, St James congregation were backing Simpson Miller who says she has undergone spiritual transformation in recent times.

The article quoted Harvey as telling the prime minister during a service to mark her first anniversary in office, that she was called by God to carry out His work.

“This is a message from God,” the pastor was reported as saying. “You are a strong resilient woman, don’t let anybody ruffle your feathers…”

But according to president of the West Indies Union of Seventh-day Adventists, Dr Patrick Allen, the article was “inaccurate” and “misleading”.

In Monday’s statement, Allen said: “The Church cannot be partisan in its approach to the nation because we have a God-given responsibility to give spiritual leadership at all times regardless of who forms the government”.

Dr Allen noted that while some members of his church supported political parties, many others did not. Even so, he said that was no indication of the position of the church itself.

“The focus of the Church is to carry its mission given by Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost and to care for all God’s creation. We also cooperate in nation-building by funding and managing programmes which contribute to the four-dimensional growth of each individual,” he added.

On Sunday, Miller rapped Phinn for making his prophecy public, adding that it may be misconstrued as a “manipulation of the political process”.

Miller insisted Phinn’s public declaration could be viewed as the abuse of the position of privilege in order to promote personal interests, prolonging the age-old debate as to whether the Church should show public support for a political party in a tribalised political environment.