About Mannings SDA Church

Our Beginnings

The Mannings Seventh-day Adventist Church is the oldest Seventh-day Adventist church on the island of Nevis. Established on August 25, 1928, Mannings SDA Church continues to be a beacon of hope and light in this part of the Lord's vineyard. In 1920, Mrs. Rachel Griffin returned to her native Mannings Village from the United States and began sharing the good news of the Three Angels' Messages with her fellow villagers. She had four attributes that greatly assisted in the development of the early church. She sang sweetly, played the organ, was a good organiser, and a lover of children. She organised a Branch Sabbath School in the home of Spike Jeffers (who is believed to have had previous knowledge of the Seventh-day Sabbath).

What do we do?

As a result of her personal evangelism, many of her villagers accepted the Lord and joined her in keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath holy. The first person to be baptised was Amelia Maynard. The work flourished and the company grew so she enlisted the help of her husband Elihu Griffin. As the numbers increased, they were organised into a company and Mrs. Griffin became the first leader of the company. The membership soon outgrew their first location and so they built a “woura” tent on the property of Rene Small who was one of the members.

However, satan was at work and someone defecated on the altar and finally the structure was burnt to the ground - (arson was suspected). This incident caused them to move to the “great house” at Eden Brown Estate, where Mr. Griffin was the manager. They worshipped there for a while but were forced to acquire their own church property since the other established churches e.g. Anglicans and Methodists refused to bury their dead.

In 1927, the property on which the church now stands was bought from Casy Huggins. The brethren decided that this time around they would build differently. The believers planted cotton on the newly purchased land since they were an agricultural folk and donated the proceeds towards the new church building.

This time around, it was built from stone. They named their new church Phoenix after the mythical bird because they felt that it had literally rose out of the ashes of their former church. However, it is more popularly known as Mannings because of its geographical location. It was dedicated to the honour and glory of God on August 25th 1928. During those early years, the brethren had a decided advantage as they were the only church located in Butlers.

Growing Pains & Faithfulness

In the years of 1931-32, all the men left the church except Elihu Griffin. It was around this time that John Sutton joined the church and became the longest serving elder when illness forced him to relinquish his position. It is widely believed that the first couple to be married in the church were Miriam (Baby) Small and Waldy Maynard and the first baby to be offered up was Florence Maynard.

The brethren at Mannings were an evangelistic group and they held services regularly at Hickmans, Market Shop, Rawlins, Cotton Ground, Mount Lily and Brick Kiln to name a few. Today, we have established churches in Gingerland and Camps - direct results of sharing their faith in these areas.

During the 1940's, the Progressive class was organised and one of the first to be invested was Olivia Alexander nee Liburd. Sadly however, with the mass migration during the 50's and 60's the progressive class as it was known then became defunct.

During the early years of the church, there was no resident minister only visiting minister and the first one to visit was I. C. Knight.

Brother Elihu Griffin preceded his wife in death. Mrs. Griffin was buried on 22nd June 1966. They have both been laid to rest at the Mannings' cemetery.

Pastor Samuel Joseph, the first resident minister, held his first crusade at Mannings and 13 souls were baptised. In 1969, the Mannings Progressive Pathfinder Club was born under the directorship of Whitman Browne and Pastor Orville Sutton. During those years, Mannings was part of the East Caribbean Conference with headquarters in Barbados and so the club had to wait five years for the first investiture service. On June 22nd 1974, Mannings Church had its first investiture service conducted by Pastor Everette Howell - 18 friends and 2 busy bees were invested. The two Busy Bees were Guenlyn Bussue and Herald Sutton.

On February 27th 1978, the construction of the present Mannings church building was started. Exactly ten years later, while the church building was still under construction the brethren in Nevis gathered together at Mannings to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Brother John Sutton's tenure as an elder. The guest speaker was Pastor Haldain, Davies the resident pastor in St. Kitts. The church building was dedicated on November 11th 1990, under the leadership of Pastor I. Pinney, the district pastor.

In 1991 the Community Services Department began a hot meal ministry. They have been serving meals to the senior residents of Zion, Butlers and Brick Kiln each and every Thursday for 32 years. In the early years when they began, they packaged the food and stood at the side of the road to get a ride to deliver the food. This continued until Avery Bussue, impressed with the dedication of the women volunteered to drive the bus and assist them with the delivery of the food.

On May 16, 1995, Brother John Sutton, the last of the pioneers passed to his rest bringing to a close a very important period of Mannings' Church history.

The month of August 1994 was special to the Pathfinders. Why? It was their silver jubilee anniversary - 25 years of Patherfindering at Mannings. This auspicious occasion was celebrated with a week of activities August 6-13, 1994 and a commemorative anniversary booklet. The theme was “Twentieth Century Foundation for Twenty-first Century Challenges”. Pathfinders from St. Maarten, St. Kits and Nevis came together to participate in the celebration. The featured speaker on the first Sabbath was Pastor Everette Howell. The week of activities included a thanksgiving service, consecration service, community outreach as well as other social activities.

In December 2007, it was announced that the Church will embark on the project of refurbishing the sanctuary. The building fund was low. However, it was announced that work would start in February and culminate in December. We knew it was a formidable but attainable task. Under the leadership of Renny Bussue, Chairman of the Building committee, who encouraged the membership to give sacrificially and led by example, together with donations received from friends, relatives and businesses, we were able to achieve our goal. And so, during the weekend of 19th to 21st, December 2008, the Church celebrated its 80th Anniversary and Rededication. Candle light vesper was held the evening of 19th December and Pastor Carson Greene presented the sermonette. The celebration continued on Sabbath 20th December, and culminated on Sunday, 21st December 2008, with a Rededication of the Church building with Pastor Desmond James presenting the sermonette at the Rededication.

Mannings SDA Church is unique to the island of Nevis for many reasons. It was the first church to hold a Vacation Bible School (VBS) under the supervision of Brother Orville Sutton. It has also produced four ordained ministers: Pastor Edson Sutton, Pastor Orville Sutton, Pastor Roosevelt Daniel, and Pastor Irvine Pinney. Josiah Maynard, the former North Caribbean Conference Education Director, also hails from Mannings.

On August 25th, 2018, Mannings celebrated its 90th Anniversary with a week of activities which included Sabbath service, health fair, old time Wednesday night service, concert, and a consecration service.

We have come thus far by faith.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!