Bermuda Conference

Bermuda Conference is a unit of Seventh-day Adventist Church organization comprising the territory of Bermuda, and forming part of the Atlantic Union Conference, which in turn is part of the North American Division. Statistics (2023) include 11 churches, 3,872 members, 1 church school, 8 ordained ministers, 25 teachers.¹ The headquarters is located at 41 King Street, Hamilton HM 19, Bermuda.² As of 2018, the Bermuda census estimated that approximately 6 percent of the population of Bermuda identifies as Seventh-day Adventist.³

Institutions

Bermuda Institute (established 1943) in Southampton, Bermuda.

Local churches: Devonshire, Hamilton, Midland Heights, Pembroke, Restoration Ministries, Rockaway, Somerset, Southampton, St. David’s, St. George’s, Warwick. Local company: Compania Ministerio Hermandad.

Early Beginnings

In the 1880s Francis Read, a black Bermudian, left for Battle Creek College, and then returned to Bermuda.⁴ He worked as a colporteur distributing Adventist literature.⁵ His efforts resulted in Florence Paul, a resident of Southampton West, who accepted the seventh-day Sabbath. In 1912 Proferio Gomez⁶ (1855-1943), a farmer and stalwart supporter, was baptized as a result of his outreach efforts.⁷ Gomez came to Bermuda at age 21 on a banana boat and spoke Portuguese.⁸ The work of Francis Reid, although overlooked until new research revealed his story, contributed to paving the way for other missionaries to come. Unfortunately, not much is known about his life, and his biographer suggests, based upon verbal sources, that he only returned for a time before once again returning to the United States.⁹

Sometime around December 1, 1892, James Franklin¹⁰ (1867-1910) and Jasper Marcus Pogue¹¹ (1868-1963) arrived from Minnesota. They began canvassing in Bermuda¹² as self-supporting missionaries. They took 327 orders of Bible Readings totaling $1,087.50 in the month of January 1893. Combined sales since their arrival in late 1892 amounted to a total sale of $1,892.02.¹³ James stayed until early April, 1893, during which time he delivered “about 800 orders for ‘Bible Readings.’ They report success in delivering.”¹⁴ Jasper, for his part, married a woman from Bermuda, Florence Hollis (1869-1905), and they had two children (Myrtle [b. 1894] and Jasper Jr. [b. 1896]) before they returned to Minnesota in 1897.¹⁵ Such success by these two brothers spawned reports of several early converts along with basic information about the geography and population of these 181 little islands.¹⁶ One individual who read a copy of Bible Readings from these Pogue brothers was Richard T. Munro[e]¹⁷ (1843-1914) who with his family accepted the seventh-day Sabbath around 1893 and whose family is generally referred to as the “first Bermuda convert[s].”¹⁸

In the summer of 1894 Marshall¹⁹ (1847-1924) and Melinda²⁰ (1845-1941) Enoch emigrated from Halifax, Nova Scotia, as an evangelistic couple to more permanently establish an Adventist presence.²¹ They set up housekeeping, started a variety store on Reid Street where he specialized in manufacturing peanut butter, and began to share their faith. They held regular meetings in their home. The Enochs had earlier become Adventists in 1876 where he served as a minister in the Midwest before they left Canada for Bermuda. In doing so, they “became the pioneer[s] of our work in the islands” as they systematically built up the church’s work in Bermuda. In 1895, when Marshall Enoch heard of the Munroes, he visited them and arranged to hold weekly services in their home. A minister, several missionaries, Bible instructors, and nurses later came from this Munroe family.

On November 10, 1900, six individuals were baptized (Owen Frith, Nancy Lambert, Henrietta Munroe, Richard Munroe, Martha Parker, and Florence Paul) on the south shore (Warwick Long Bay) near Munroe’s home. The baptism was officiated by J. W. Bartlett (1821-1908), who passed through Bermuda on his return from the West Indies to the General Conference headquarters. Then, on March 16, 1901, these early believers organized into a congregation that became known as the Hamilton Church of Seventh-day Adventists. During the pastorate of J. A. Morrow, the first paid church pastor (1903-1909) built and dedicated the first church in Hamilton (1909). The building has since been replaced by a larger church facility on King Street. The new building, dedicated in 1949, also serves as an evangelistic center and has significantly contributed to church growth in Bermuda.

In 1910 the General Conference declared Bermuda officially as a mission field. From its inception in 1901 the mission was administered under the General Conference until 1915 when it was placed under the auspices of the Atlantic Union Conference. The mission was fully organized in 1959 and was incorporated under an act of the Bermuda Parliament in 1960. In 1986 the Bermuda Mission became the Bermuda Conference.

A second church, begun in Southampton in 1926 was a small chapel built on land donated by Profirio Gomez, and later enlarged. A new church building was erected and dedicated on December 19, 1964. Another church was organized in St. George’s in 1935. The members met in rented quarters until 1954. They bought the historic Cooper estate on York Street and remodeled it into a church auditorium and Sabbath School rooms. The facility was dedicated free from debt in 1957. In 1984 a larger edifice was erected on Secretary Road in St. George’s. A portion of the York Street church was then utilized as a Community Services Center.

In 1965 the Warwick church was dedicated; in 1978 the Midland Heights church was dedicated. The new Somerset church was completed in 1983 and dedicated debt-free the same year. In 1987 and 1990 new churches were opened in Devonshire and Pembroke, respectively. A special emphasis upon evangelism in Bermuda occurred following the 1950 General Conference session when W. H. Branch, church president, challenged the world church field to double in membership during the subsequent quinquennium. The Bermuda Mission doubled in membership in less than two years (from 288 to 607 in 1952). Evangelism in Bermuda has been fostered in many ways through radio and television programs. Traditional forms of evangelism, including tent and public meetings, continue to occur as well. Since 1986 administrative posts have been filled by Bermudians.

Mission Superintendents/Conference Presidents 

J. A. Morrow, 1903-1909; H. F. Taylor, 1913-1914; Eugene Leland, 1914-1919; E. C. Rowell, 1919-1921; H. W. Carr, 1921-1926; W. A. Sweany, 1926-1930; Alexander Houghton, 1930-1933; Joseph Capman, 1933-1938; O. R. Snipes, 1938-1939; J. F. Knipschild, Sr., 1939-1945; J. A. Toop, 1945-1949; Beaman Senecal, 1949-1956; H. R. Jenkins, 1945-1964; V. E. Kelstrom, 1964-1965; R. R. Adams, 1965-1968; H. C. Currie, 1965; F. R. Aldridge, 1971-1974; R. H. Carter, 1974-1977; A. R. Goulbourne, 1977-1986; E. L. Richardson, 1986-1992; Carlyle C. Simmons, 1992-2001; Samuel Bulgin, 2001-2004; Jeffrey Brown, 2004-2014; Kenneth Manders, 2014 to present.

Sources

Browne-Dixon, Inez E. C. “The Historical Development of Higher Education in Bermuda.” Ph.D. diss., Andrews University, 1984.

Egbert, Elaine. Shipwreck on Devil’s Island. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2012.

Enoch, M. “Bermuda.” ARH, June 13, 1899.

Enoch, M. “Bermuda Islands.” ARH, September 26, 1899.

Holder, Leslie C. Bermuda Institute of Seventh-day Adventists: Origin, Philosophy, Growth. N.p.: Oakwood College Publishing Association, 1999.

Holder, Leslie C. “Key Administrative Decisions in the History of the Seventh-day Adventist Education in Bermuda,” Ed.D. diss., Andrews University, 1998.

Mote, A. C. “Bermuda.” The Atlantic Union Gleaner, July 22, 1975.

Musson, Nellie Eileen. The Missing Mr. Read: The Story of Bermuda Adventists. Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1984.

Peebles, Winifred M. “Bermuda.” Missionary Magazine, March 1899.

Peebles, Winifred M. “Rambles in Bermuda—VI: The Churches of Bermuda.” Youth Instructor, October 27, 1903.

“[Somerset] Reflections: 1977-1983.” https://somersetsdachurch.org/BLOG/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Somerset-Seventh-day-Adeventist-Church-Reflections-1977-1983.pdf [accessed 1/9/24]

Sahlin, Monte, and Paul Richardson, “The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bermuda: Demographics, Opinions, and Potential Prospects for the Future.” Lincoln, NE: Center for Creative Ministry, 2007.

Williams, Dantae. “A History of the Bermuda Conference.” Term paper, Andrews University, 2007.

Notes

1. This article has been updated and expanded from the “Bermuda Conference” entry in the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia [1996], 10:192-193.↩

2. Statistics from the Bermuda Conference. Email from Roslyn Amory to Michael W. Campbell, September 25, 2023.↩

3. Joao Mordomo, “Bermuda” in Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South, ed. Mark A. Lamport (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), 81.↩

4. Peebles identifies the person’s name as “Dean,” but presumably this is the same person recognized elsewhere. Cf. Winifred M. Peebles, “Bermuda,” Missionary Magazine, March 1899, 119-121; Idem., “Rambles in Bermuda—VI: The Churches of Bermuda,” Youth Instructor, October 27, 1903, 2. Some people have claimed that he left for Battle Creek College in 1884. Unfortunately, that information cannot be confirmed from the Battle Creek College records, because the college records up through 1893 are extant. However, he may have attended the college at some point in the 1890s and, if that is true, he would be the first Black person with a Bermudian heritage to have attended Battle Creek College and return to his people, most likely in the early twentieth century, possibly a decade after the Pogue brothers and the Enochs, non-native Caucasians, established a missionary presence in Bermuda (e-mail from Katharine Van Arsdale to Michael W. Campbell, January 10, 2024).↩

5. M. Enoch, “Bermuda Islands,” ARH, September 26, 1899, 624.↩

6. His first name is alternatively spelled as: “Profirio.” For a genealogical tree, see: https://www.ancestry.com/invite-ui/accept?token=r4UpbpIez0faCZn67b1EURaLzU8FHQLt3Q5WuZ4gRWY= [accessed 1/9/24]↩

7. Based on the account provided in Nellie Eileen Musson, The Missing Mr. Read: The Story of Bermuda Adventists (Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1984). See Obit. Atlantic Union Gleaner, June 2, 1943. Musson’s account argues based upon church minutes that Gomez was received into church membership in 1910 based upon his “old baptism.” It is unclear whether this “old baptism” is the reason why he was baptized again in 1912.↩

8. Jessie Moniz Hardy, “Reginald’s Lifetime of Service to Bermuda,” The Royal Gazette, September 1, 2015, https://www.royalgazette.com/home-away/lifestyle/article/20150901/reginalds-lifetime-of-service-to-bermuda/ [accessed 1/9/24]. See also “The Trail of Our People: Honouring Bermuda’s Emancipation,” N.p., 2014. https://docplayer.net/53179107-The-trail-of-our-people.html [accessed 1/9/24]↩

9. Musson, The Missing Mr. Read, 17.↩

10. Obit. ARH, November 10, 1910, 23.↩

11. Alternatively referred to as Mark or Marquis.↩

12. See note in The Home Missionary, January 1893, 22. See also “Field Notes,” in ST, January 9, 1893, 157.↩

13. See report in The Home Missionary, February 1893, 43. The “Notes” in The Home Missionary, April 1893, 66, indicates that they were selling Bible Readings.↩

14. As appears in ST, April 17, 1893, 381, as reported from The Minnesota Worker.↩

15. The National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at and Departing from Ogdensburg, New York, 5/27/1948 - 11/28/1972; Microfilm Serial or NAID: M237, 1820-1897 [accessed from Ancestry.com 1/11/24]↩

16. “The Bermuda Islands,” ARH, January 24, 1893, 54.↩

17. For a genealogical tree, see https://www.ancestry.com/invite-ui/accept?token=7753ta9BTWrJ-nkRaKUz_bbg6q84WsZ6PRc7G-1hojA= [accessed 1/9/24]↩

18. https://www.hamiltonsda.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/HSDA-History.pdf [accessed 1/8/24] It was conventional wisdom in the 1890s that Bermuda consisted of 365 islands, but conventional wisdom today notes 181 islands across the archipelago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda#:~:text=Bermuda%20is%20an%20archipelago%20consisting,mild%20winters%20and%20warm%20summers. [accessed 1/9/24]↩

19. Obit. ARH, February 21, 1924, 22.↩

20. Obit. Atlantic Union Gleaner, May 7, 1941, 6.↩

21. See report in The Bible Echo, July 9, 1894, 216.↩