The Seventh Day Adventist Church will this weekend continue celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary since the Kingstown church was relocated from Old Montrose to the heart of commercial Kingstown.

Tomorrow, Saturday August 10, there will be Homecoming Celebrations at the Church located at Grandby Street, to honour members with over 50 years of attendance at the Kingstown church. The guest pastor will be Steve Phillips and the anniversary concert begins at 4:00 pm.

A week of Revival with Pastor Steve Phillips will be held from Sunday, August 11 to Saturday, August 17 beginning at 7:00 pm nightly. On August 17, there will be honouring of pastors.

In a message to the Brethren, Pastor Dermoth Baptiste, President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines mission of the SDA Church commended the church on the anniversary.

“It is a wonderful thing to keep your history alive as you trace how God has led you through the inter-generational stages of development and expansion,” he said.

He urged the congregation of reflect on 5 C’s: Connect, Commemorate, Consecrate, Contribute and Commit.

Connect – anniversaries make good opportunities to honour the memories of those pioneers of yesteryear who would have blazed the trail and laid the foundation upon which those who are now in the evening of their years have built and have passed on to the millennials to forge their own path and create their own legacies for the future generations. It is also an opportunity to connect with those who once walked with us, but have become, side-tracked or discouraged along the journey and have lost their first love.

Commemorate – as you celebrate, look for landmarks along the way that you can publicly and proudly identify as episodes of God’s amazing love and tremendous care of His prized possession, the militant Church and commemorate these signature events with Godly passion.

Consecrate – one of the reasons the Lord has given us anniversaries is to reflect on past blessings and consecrate ourselves anew to Him for renewal of faith and revival of purpose. May we be enamoured for the battle ahead as we lay our all on the divine altar of sacrifice!

Contribute – we must also use the occasion to appreciate membership for contribution of their temple, time, talents and treasures to the continued development, expansion and sustainability of the work. Our contribution must be ongoing until the Lord returns.

Commit – Finally the occasion lends itself to warrant our commitment to the mission of the church for there are thousands of persons within the environs who need to be told of the distinctiveness of the Three Angels Messages and be led to the Lord. May we be found faithful to our divine calling!

On October 16, 1901, Elder E van Deusen and his wife came to St Vincent from Michigan, USA. The first Seventh – day Adventist foreign missionaries on the island, they built their first chapel at Montrose. That wooden building was dedicated on July 12, 1903.

The church at Grandby Street was originally that of the Kirk (church) of Scotland. The decline of the church numbers finally led to the closure of the Scottish church around 1950s.
In 1952, the Seventh day Adventist leased but later bought the old Scottish Kirk in 1954. It has undergone some repairs, but much of the Old Architecture remains. It is now the main Seventh day Adventist church on the island.