By R. Vassell
When Dr. Astor Bowers said the ‘amen’, to his closing prayer, at around 3:30 pm on Sunday January 31, 2010, in the Santa Cruz Seventh-day Adventist Church, in St Elizabeth, it was the amen to a historic convention. The ‘amen’, carried the meaning of not just so let it be, but also it shall be no longer.
Pastor Derek Bignall, president of West Indies Union of Seventh-day Adventist, who delivered the devotional message at the convention, shared with the attendants the information, that it would be for the last time that West Jamaica Conference, would be having a convention, as a part of the now West Indies Union. The next time convention is held, West Indies Union would have been a historical name, since it will be officially divided into two unions, namely the Jamaica Union, consisting of the fields in Jamaica, and the Northern Atlantic Caribbean Union, consisting of the fields in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Cacaos. Pastor Bignall also used the opportunity to summon the generosity of the large gathering, to give to the Haitian relief effort. An offering was lifted, as was the case in all the other parish conventions since the Earthquake catastrophe in that island on January 12.
In his devotional message, the president charged the full house gathering, that the need is, and the time has come for the Seventh-day Adventist Church to get back to the basics, restoring the heritage, in living and in teaching.
True the prevailing spirit, the convention was fully populated, as it was with the previous conventions in; Hanover, St. James, and Westmoreland. The participation of the various church choirs, and other singing groups was a treat of heavenly quality, from an earthling point of view. Indeed, conventions this year had something from the old past about them that made them just wonderful. But, little did we realize that they were not conventions as usual, but that in a special historical sense, they were the last of another era in the growth and development of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as she marches on to her eternal destination.