Published On:Wednesday, September 08, 2010

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Writer

TO commemorate their 48th anniversary, the members of the Mt Moriah Baptist Church, Farrington Road, are coming together on September 12 to hold the 1st Annual Elkin R Storr Memorial Hymn Festival.

The event will take place at the Mt Moriah Church starting at 4pm. Members said Dr Storr, who passed away in August 2004, served three times as interim pastor of the church during very crucial transitional periods. The hymn festival is to memorialise his legacy of willing and unselfish service and his keen interest in and love for church music. An invitation is extended to the public.

According to the Director of Music at Mount Moriah Baptist Church and host of the event, Mr Darville "Sonny" Walkine: " Elkin R Storr was a preacher, teacher, husband, father, academician, public servant all rolled into one. He was born in the obscure little settlement of Polly Hill San Salvador, on 27 September 1939 to Captain Claudius and Lolita Storr. He became a monitor at age 12 at his All Age School. His career ambition was to join the lighthouse service but his father encouraged him to stay on in school. He did and in 1957 he moved to New Providence entering the Technical School, Oakes Field, studying for and successfully passing his Cambridge examinations - the forerunner of the London General Certificate of Education (GCE)."

Tribune Religion understands that after completing technical School, Mr Storr was posted at Stanyard Creek, Andros, as the headmaster of the All Age School, staying there for one year. In 1961 he entered the Bahamas Teachers College and on completion of studies there was posted as headmaster at the Rolle Town All Age School. In 1965 he was granted a Commonwealth Scholarship tenable at the University of Southampton to study mathematics.

Dr Walkine noted that on Mr Storr's return home he was posted at the George Town All Age School staying only for one term before being appointed as a mathematics lecturer at the Bahamas Teachers College in 1967. The following year he was given an in-service award to study in the Natural Science Division of the University of the West Indies. After completing his degree he returned to the Bahamas Teachers College as a lecturer in mathematics.

" This institution would later become the College of The Bahamas and he a member of its formulating faculty. His pursuit of higher education was far from complete as he again was given another in-service award to study for his masters degree at the University of Loughborough England, but true to form he stayed on to pursue his doctoral degree in the philosophy of mathematics. All of Dr Storr's public service was not exclusively in teaching as he spent the years 1986 through 1993 in various capacities in the office of the prime minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and would retire from the public service as a senior officer in the Parliamentary Registration Department,"

He notes that Mr Storr was fully persuaded throughout all of his life that it is the "fool" who says that "there is no God" so he nurtured his spiritual life much the same as he did his academic life. In 1967 having been earlier commissioned as a deacon in the Zion Baptist Church, East and Shirley Streets, he transferred his family's membership to the Mount Moriah Baptist Church on Farrington Road, Zion's first New Providence mission.

In the 1976 general Conference of the Zion United Baptist Convention he was ordained to the sacred gospel ministry. Faithfully and humbly serving the Mount Moriah community he was called on to act as its interim pastor on two occasions. Indeed he was presently serving when he went home to his reward on 09 August 2004.

"To Mary, he was the consummate husband and friend, to Merrit and Elvia a father like no other and to the Mount Moriah family, an example of a true servant of God," Mr Walkine stated.

"He never sought leadership but was always willing to rally to the call when he was needed most. A scholar trained in logic and deductive reasoning, he presented his sermons in clear argumentative style. He also loved music and shared his talent as a bass singer in the choir up until the time of his passing."

The establishment of this annual hymn festival, therefore, is to memorialize his legacy of willing and unselfish service and his keen interest in and love for church music.