Shiloh Seventh-day Adventist Church invites community to fair on Sunday
Published: August 21, 2010
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Shiloh Seventh-day Adventist Church will extend an open invitation for Virgin Islanders to come out and see what it has to offer this weekend when the church’s personal ministries department hosts “From Our Hearts to Your Home, Reaching Out to Our Community with Love” from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at the church across from the Tutu Fire Station.
The informational fair will be an opportunity for all who are interested to learn about the church’s various ministries, including the Sabbath School, Health Ministry, Youth Ministry, Community Services Ministry and Men’s and Women’s Ministries, as well as the services these ministries offer.
Church leader, Pastor Amaran Williams, says this event was set up as a creative way to inform the community about what the church can do for them.
“We would like the community to know that we are a caring church within the community, and we have several ministries available to meet their needs,” Williams said.
“I think there is a general perception that sometimes the church is confined to what is within its four walls — the whole crux of this is to lift that veil of perception,” Williams said.
Held in the church courtyard, the event will feature exhibitions from the church’s ministries.
“It will be a practical exhibition as well, because folks are not just coming to observe, but we will make the services
available right there so the community can benefit from what we have to offer,” Williams said.
One example of these services, says Williams, is the Youth Ministry’s community outreach program that comes together at 6:30 a.m. each Saturday to feed the homeless across St. Thomas. It is a weekly program that Williams calls “a reciprocal arrangement,” as it benefits the homeless as well as the church youth, who learn not to take what they have for granted.
In the Women’s Ministry department, says Williams, one of the church’s current projects is spreading the worldwide “End It Now” initiative, which, led by the U.N. and the church headquarters in Washington, D.C., is focused on ending domestic violence across the world.
“We’re soliciting signatures worldwide to make a statement through the U.N. that, as a church, we not only abhor violence against women, but we are going to do something to end it,” said Williams.
In the church’s Family Life Department, services offered include counseling, both individual and family, and parenting classes. Programs for singles are also offered.
It is these programs that Williams hopes will get the community out to the church on Sunday, where people can learn about and take advantage of what is available.
“We don’t see this as just an activity, but as a genuine effort to step out of the four walls of the church and make our services available to the community,” said Williams.
Established in 1975, the Shiloh Seventh-day Adventist Church is part of the sisterhood of St. Thomas’ Seventh-day Adventist Churches and the North Caribbean Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, which has its headquarters in Christiansted, St. Croix.
Presently, the church has more than 1,000 members.
For more information, call 775-1059.
