Blog Post
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
All praise, glory, and honour to the immortal, invisible, only wise God for having brought us into a new year, 2022.
I am Rev Algernon Lewis, Chair of the Eastern West Indies Province.
Greetings to you and your families as we begin this new journey together. We pray that goodness and mercy will be your constant companion for 2022.
Our traverse through 2021 had its challenges like any other year. However, God carried us through. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for your support through the changing scenes of 2021. Whether it was the Provincial Days of Prayer, the Lenten meditations, the Engagement and Empowerment sessions, the offering raised for brother and sisters in Haiti and St. Vincent, the offering for our widows or other causes, you showed up and offered your support. The Provincial Board is profoundly grateful.
We face a New Year of new possibilities through faith in our sovereign God. We will continue to make the SHIFT – Seek and Submit, Hear and Heed, Imagination and Insight, Focus and Function, leading to Total Transformation. Making the SHIFT means the work of equipping our Pastors and Leaders will continue. We will be more deliberate in our work of discipling and nurturing faith. Stewarding the resources that God has provided is a necessary part of this move – looking for ways to attract more resources to finance the work of ministry. Making the SHIFT also means being deliberate about our missional posture. Being missional helps us to be a church that is outward facing, being the hands and feet of Jesus in our communities. All of this will be done while we move towards the 33rd Provincial Synod to be held virtually in July 2022.
In relation to Synod, you can expect conversations to be held about matters to be discussed at Synod so that the time at Synod is more effectively used.
All of this requires more effort and time to get done. However, we are not doing this work by ourselves. I am encouraged by Caleb in Joshua 14: 12 who shouted, “give me this mountain,” the place where the giants were. He knew that as God led him, the giants would fall. Our giants can fall. Our giants will fall. That is why we need to continue to pray every month. That is why we need concentrated times of equipping and re-tooling. That is why the Provincial Board needs your full support.
It has been my absolute pleasure to serve as Chairman. Sure, there were moments of consternation. However, these were met by the unexplained, undeserved grace and favour of God. The other members of the Provincial Board and our Bishops are likely to say the same. We serve at God’s pleasure.
Once again to the Provincial family, a Happy, Blessed, Peaceful, Bountiful New Year to you and your families!
