Legal advice, health screening, and aid to persons in hard times, including the often neglected elderly, are among plans hammered out at last week’s meeting of top administrators of Cayman’s Adventist Church as part of its four-year planning cycle.

“We consider responding to needs of persons in communities across the three islands a priority for the church,” said Pastor Shian O’Connor, who presided over the meetings as the newly re-elected president of the Cayman Islands Conference of Seventh-day Adventist.

During last week’s two-day think tank, church leaders formulated other goals involving the more than 5,000 members spread across the three islands. These include, in addition to internal church plans, the expansion of Cayman Academy, the Islands´ only Seventh-day Adventist School, to accommodate increasing demand. In addition, a new television channel, ¨Hope TV¨, the official channel for the Seventh-day Adventist Church globally, is scheduled to be added to the menu of channels offered by Logic TV.  The channel, branded locally as CATV (Cayman Adventist TV), will begin airing later this month.

Pastor O’Connor said that the community services initiatives were separate from the church’s assistance to its own members through its existing Dorcas Society. He noted, as well, that the church already has in place another unit, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), that coordinates disaster response.

“The new initiatives planned for this year are aimed at assisting anyone in need, regardless of religious affiliation,” Pastor O’Connor said.  “In accordance with Biblical teachings with respect to the sick, the hungry, the imprisoned, and the otherwise disadvantaged among us, the church has a responsibility to reach out to people who may need some help in getting back on their feet.¨

As a prelude to launching the community response initiative, to include a central supplies depot, the church will be conducting needs assessment commencing 6 March, at which time a cadre of trained and accredited assessors will fan out into communities across the three islands.  The assessment programme will include discussions with relevant personnel in the RCIPS, Fire Service, Mental Health Services, and social services’ agencies.