Tribute to Osmond James Lewis

Fri Oct 04, 2013

It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Pastor Osmond James Lewis who passed to the great beyond following a prolonged period of illness on September 17, 2013. His remains were interred in New York on September 23, 2013.

Osmond (Dreams) James Lewis was born to Almina Lewis and Edward Jeffers of Lowmans Hill Leeward in St Vincent and the Grenadines on May 8, 1955, the fifth of ten children.

He attended both the St Martin’s Secondary School in Kingstown and the Bequia Seventh Day Adventist School in St Vincent and the Grenadines and later became a schoolteacher. In 1974, he was baptised as a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

In 1978, Osmond left his native St. Vincent and the Grenadines to study theology at the Caribbean Union College in Trinidad & Tobago, where he also met and married his beloved Rose Bruno of San Juan. Following his marriage and graduation, he travelled to Michigan, USA, to pursue a Masters in Religious Studies at Andrew’s University. On completion of his degree he returned to Trinidad & Tobago and was employed as a minister with the South Caribbean Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Ozni, their first child, was born in March 1986, while a daughter, Odelia, was born in December 1987.{{more}}

Osmond and his family left the Caribbean to take up residence in New York in 1989. Along with several other pastors, Chapman, Matthews, Sanderson, Charles and Kerr, the Trinity SDA Church was founded. While at Trinity, he started a program called PHP (People Helping People), which continues to meet people’s financial and social needs.

Pastor Lewis began his own ministry called Eureka Christian Fellowship at 1055 Rogers Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.

Pastor Osmond James Lewis is survived by his wife Rose, their children Ozni and Odelia Lewis in Brooklyn, New York; sisters: Mrs Andrea Shallow, Lowman’s Hill, Yolande and Nicole Lewis of Toronto, Canada, Mrs Marilyn Hope of Indiana, USA; brothers: Carlson Jeffers and Treldon Lewis of Lowman’s Hill, Selwyn “Jimmy” Lewis and Michael Lewis of Toronto, Canada, Edward Tannis, currently in New Orleans, Louisiana, Ezra Tannis and Sean Tannis of Redemption Sharpes, John Morgan of Birmingham, England and Arthur Isaacs of Trinidad; brothers-in-law Morris Shallow of Lowman’s Hill and Selwyn Hope of Indiana, USA; sisters-in-law Cora Lewis of Toronto, Canada, Martina Lewis of Lowman’s Hill, Irma Bruno-Simmons and Claudia Bruno-Burnett of Brooklyn, New York; uncles: Matthew Morgan of London, England and Ernest Lewis of Trinidad & Tobago; many nieces and nephews; close family members, including Mr O’Brien Simmons of Brooklyn, New York, Eloise Simmons of Ottawa, Canada and Agnes Lewis of Trinidad and Tobago; the Jeffers, Lewis, Peters, Simmons, Frederick and Friday families of St Vincent and the Grenadines and other family and friends residing in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as members of the Eureka Christian Fellowship Church of Brooklyn, New York, and Mr Steve O. Phillips and Mr Bernard Wyllie.

The family would like to express their sincere gratitude to the doctors and nurses at Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, along with all those who supported them and sent well wishers to offer their support during this time of loss.