On Tuesday, November 17, the Committee for the Promotion of National Religious Services (CPNRS), a committee under the Ministry of Youth and Culture, assigned to the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) and whose main focus is to plan all cabinet appointed national religious/church services, passed chairmanship from the Jamaica Pentecostal Union – Apostolic, to the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh Day Adventists.

In a ceremony held at the Head Office of the JCDC, chairmanship was passed from outgoing chairman Dr. Patricia Holness representing the Jamaica Pentecostal Union – Apostolic to incoming chairman Pastor Adrian Cotterell of the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh Day Adventists.

Minister of Youth and Culture, Hon. Lisa Hanna, MP, in her remarks congratulated Dr. Holness on a job well done and charged incoming chairman, Cotterell, to maintain the standard the CPNRS has set in coordinating national religious services and combatting society’s moral decline.

“As we move on to Pastor Cotterell, I am eager to feel the stance that will be taken by this new regime” Hanna said. She continued “It’s a very heady time in Jamaica and the world, but I have always believed that Jamaica is at the forefront of international progress and so the messages coming out of this committee, particularly to our young people have to inspire, motivate and shift old paradigms of individualism”.

The CPNRS is comprised of representatives from the Jamaica Council of Churches, the Jamaica Association of Full Gospel Churches, the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance, the Jamaica Pentecostal Union, The Church of God in Jamaica -Apostolic, and the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh Day Adventists. The Chairmanship is determined by a system of rotation which allows each group an opportunity to serve as chair of the committee for two years. Currently the committee plans on an annual basis services to celebrate Emancipation and Independence, National Workers’ Week and National Heritage Week.

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