Well-known local pastor Randy Von Kanel, senior pastor of the Cayman Islands Baptist Church, has written a book chronicling the origin and history of the Baptist witness and church in the Cayman Islands. Titled ‘Our Baptist Story: From England to the Cayman Islands’, the publication records the over 130-year history of Baptists in the Cayman Islands and includes the origin of Baptists – who were originally called Anabaptists – the beginning years in England and the paths through the United States, Jamaica the Sister Islands and Grand Cayman. The book is a result of five years of research by Pastor Von Kanel and is now available on island.

Pastor Randy, who has lived and preached in Cayman on and off since the 1970s, and been the Pastor at the Cayman Islands Baptist Church for the past nine years, said he wrote the book for a couple of reasons:

“First, so many in our Baptist congregations here in the Cayman Islands are unfamiliar with our larger history as Baptists, and I felt a need to try to capture what is truly a rich legacy of faith and freedom and share it in a readable format,” he explained. “Secondly, I wrote to convey what it means to be a Baptist in our contemporary setting. As an example, just in the one area of our distinctive stance on liberty and social justice, it is so important today that we live out our heritage of standing for liberty of conscience and protecting the God-given rights of all persons. Freedom in our world, both religious and civil, owes much to the Baptist movement of the past 400 years.”

“What Randy Von Kanel has put together in this major text before you is the first major religious history of Baptists of the Cayman Islands, a history that necessarily includes a journey through Jamaica, the United States, England, Switzerland and beyond,” said Malcolm B. Yarnell III, Research Professor of Systematic Theology in Fort Worth, Texas, who wrote the foreword of the book. “It has cost the author a great deal of time and effort in both dusty archives at various libraries and in personal interviews with important contemporary figures in the Cayman Islands. This book’s historical method is sound, and its author must be commended for his original contribution to both academic and popular scholarship. However, as we have already indicated this text is more than good history for it is also inspirational.”

Proceeds for the book over the cost of printing will be go toward the Northwestern Caribbean Baptist Theological Seminary, a new local seminary, as well as support for the Little Cayman Baptist Church.

Pastor Von Kanel will do several book signing events, including in Cayman Brac on Saturday, 7th July at the Cayman Brac Beach Resort from 2:00pm to 4:00pm, and the George Town Public Library on 21st July at 11:00am.  A signing will also be held at Cayman Islands Baptist Church on Sunday, 8th July after the church service.

For more information about ‘Our Baptist Story: From England to the Cayman Islands’ email Pastor Von Kanel at [email protected] or call 926.2422.