Letter to the Editor Expresses Hope that Usain Bolt Will Be Baptized
29 May 2018 | The Gleaner, a major Jamaican newspaper, has published a letter to the editor from a communications officer of the largest Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. Valerie Moodie of the London, England-based Brixton Seventh-day Adventist Church expressed hope that Jamaican Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt would follow his father’s recent decision to be baptized into the Adventist Church. The sprinter’s mother, Jennifer Bolt, is an Adventist.
On Saturday, May 5, Wellesley Bolt was baptized in the North Jamaica Conference of the denomination in a ceremony presided over by Dr. Karl Archer, president of the conference and O’Brien Hawthorne, pastor of the Falmouth District of the church in the country.
In her letter to the editor, Moodie said that no matter how large the congregation becomes, “there is always room for one more. Not only one more, but as many as would accept the message of salvation through the blood of Jesus.”
She added that the church welcomes Wellesley Bolt and members “look forward to doing the same to his son, Usain, who is an ambassador of sports for the island of Jamaica.”
According to the Adventist denomination’s Office of Archives, Statistics and Research, there are 37,519 Adventists in Britain in 288 churches. The majority of British Adventists are of Afro-Caribbean descent. Of this majority, a large percentage is of Jamaican decent.