102nd International Assembly, Saturday Afternoon Session (2024)

Saturday afternoon was a lively Caribbean Celebration. Presiding Bishop Tim Coalter opened this special service celebrating the members and churches of the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean Islands. The general presbyter of the area, Bishop Dr. Clayton Martin, greeted the people, after which a worship team led the audience in worshipful singing. The Bahama Brass Band gave a small concert and a second worship team from the Leeward Islands came and blessed the congregation. The national bishop of Jamaica, Bishop Dr. Winston Leith, greeted the Assembly. General Presbyter of Mexico, Central America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean Bishop Dr. Ben Feliz shared with those in attendance that the first Central American Church was a Jamaican Church in Costa Rica. He called on Costa Rica National Bishop Jose Romero Diaz to read the history of the COGOP in Central America. Bishop Romero said, “The Caribbean has a seasoning, a color, a passion for everything we do. We say, ‘Pura vida’—everything is well.” He told of a Jamaican family who went to live in Costa Rica in 1928, the William Brumley family. They went to work in the “poor mile,” Cinco Millas de Cairo, Limon. Sister Brumley became the first ordained female COGOP minister in Costa Rica. Bishop Romero said he is a result of that migration. Bishop Feliz shared that by the next Assembly, the goal is 4,000 churches in Central America. One small seed, God multiplied. The service continued with choral speaking by members from Turks and Caicos, steel pan playing by Trinidad and Tobago, dancing by the Paragon Region. Other areas ministered as well. Bishop Timothy Johnson preached, and the Bahamas Children’s Choir sang. It was a wonderful time of ministry that blessed everyone.