Dr. Herbert Thompson and wife, Avery. - CONTRIBUTED
DR. HERBERT Thompson, president of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU), was among a list of 13 Adventist leaders who were accredited as commissioned ministers at a service conducted by the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, on Saturday. The function took place at the Seventh-day Adventist Church on the NCU campus.
Dr. Thompson, who has been the president of NCU since 1990, was recently conferred with the Order of Distinction, Commander Class and is the first church leader to be appointed to run a state board, by the new government administration led by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. He has had a long and illustrious career as an Adventist church worker, having been baptised at the age of 14.
EXEMPLARY LEADERSHIP
Pastor Patrick Allen, president of West Indies Union, who led the service and also delivered the main address, admonished the new commissioned ministers to display exemplary leadership in the church and by extension, the society.
Other individuals who were commissioned into service are drawn from a wide cross section of the Union, including its head office, the eight conferences and missions and institutions of the Union in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Island and the Cayman Islands. They are: Marion Barrett, treasurer, North Jamaica Mission; Dr. Gloria A. Davis-Roberts, vice-president for student development, NCU; Dr. Daniel E. Fider, vice-president for planning and development, NCU; Carmelita E. Findlay, treasurer, West Jamaica Conference; Sandra E. Gayle, education and children's ministries director, West Indies Union; Doreen A. Grant, associate secretary, West Indies Union; Princess May Lawes, assistant to the president, PARL director, West Indies Union; Danieto H. Murray, vice-president for finance, NCU; Vivienne L. Quarrie, associate director, education and personal ministries departments, West Indies Union; Roderick N. Sands, treasurer, North Bahamas Mission; Dr. William M. Smith, acting vice-president for academic affairs, NCU; and Dr. Patrick A. Williams, vice-president for technology extension and strategic planning, NCU.
A commissioned minister credential is given to leaders in the Adventist Church worldwide who have served for five years at that level of denominational service to the church at the administrative level. This individual would have demonstrated a high level of proficiency in the execution of responsibility assigned during the period of service to the organisation.
