Miami-based Adventists Honour J’ca’s Nigel Coke for Religious Liberty Work

Nigel Coke (left), communication, public affairs and religious liberty director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, accepts his award from Pastor Israel Leito, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America, for his outstanding leadership in spearheading a successful Festival of Religious Freedom in Jamaica. The presentation was made at a religious liberty congress at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Medellin, Colombia, last month.

TEN years after he left his banking job in Kingston and moved to Mandeville to run his church’s fledgling communication department, Nigel Coke has been honoured by Miami-based Inter-American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (IAD) for religious liberty work.

Coke, who has lifted church communication work in Jamaica and the Caribbean to new levels, is now in the line of sight of the Inter-American Division Adventists (IAD), though he deflects such suggestions as speculation that he has no time for.

“My life is the Lord’s and I go wherever and whenever He commands. I get great satisfaction from my work here. Our Jamaican Union Conference has grown tremendously and there is so much more to do. Where He leads me I will follow,” said Coke, who went to Medellin, Colombia, recently to receive his award for outstanding work in promoting religious liberty over the past five years, at the Inter-American Division’s Second Religious Liberty Congress.

He collected the award from Pastor Israel Leito, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America, in the presence of President of the Adventist World Church Dr Ted Wilson and cheered on by a proud Dr Everett E Brown, the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, as well as other top leaders of the IAD and its 24 church regions covering Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, French Antilles, Colombia and Venezuela.

The Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (JAMU) was recognised as one of the International Religious Liberty Chapters that has done an outstanding job in promoting religious liberty over the past five years. Read More…

Jamaica Union Bids Farewell to Milton Gregory

Pastor Milton Gregory and wife Gloria.

The Jamaica Union Conference (JAMU) family said good-bye (for now) to Dr. Milton Gregory and his wife Gloria on Thursday, April 2, 2015 at a farewell luncheon on the grounds of the Union headquarters in Mandeville, Jamaica.

Pastor Gregory, who served as Executive Secretary of the Union for the past four and a half years, accepted an independent call from the Greater New York Conference to serve as the pastor of the Victory Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bronx, New York.

“Leaving Jamaica was not an easy decision for us,” said Pastor Gregory. “Gloria and I leave behind good friends and colleagues who have been an integral part of our success in ministry. We will miss Jamaica but be assured of our continued support for the leaders of Jamaica Union and the work in Jamaica.”

Pastor Gregory has served the Church in Jamaica for the past 38 years in various capacities ranging from district pastor to Conference and Union director, Conference president and Jamaica Union Executive Secretary. Read More…