The Tribune

MOUNT Tabor Full Gospel Church is honouring ‘Fabulous 40’ fathers to mark the 40th Anniversary of Independence. The Tribune is publishing the church’s profiles of the fathers.

Today, Reverend Harry Davis, a founding patriarch in the Bahamas’ Levitical order of priests.

Reverend Harry Davis was born May 16, 1916, in Mangrove Cay, Andros. After having suffered the loss of his mother Victoria early in his youth, and never really knowing his father, he was to forge a life on his own being raised by his grandmother and other family members.

It was life with his loving grandmother that taught him ‘the ways of the Lord’. As with most young men his age, Harry left for Deland, Florida in 1945, in the middle of World War Two, to foster a new and better life for himself and his family. Married to Dorine Elizabeth nee Bannister (deceased) in 1946 by Reverend Stafford Sands of Zion Baptist Church Nassau, the couple brought three children into the world: Roston, Wennith and Merilee.

A loving and caring father, while on the ‘contract’ Harry would send lunch money home for his three children in addition to whatever he sent Dorine to take care of the household needs. He was a strong proponent of education even though he himself never went beyond the 6th grade.

Called to preach, Harry Davis was ordained to the Gospel Ministry in Deland, Florida in 1947. He later repatriated to Mangrove Cay and in the fall of 1949 assumed the Pastorate of St James Baptist Church, Mangrove Cay, Andros. A fireball preacher, Reverend Davis would hop benches and roar like a lion and preach. He became a local revivalist walking on foot on missions from Little Harbour in the North to Victoria Point in the South, sometimes only being offered a loaf of bread for his reward.

As the church and ministry grew As the church and ministry grew, Harry Davis became the Moderator of the South Andros District of the Zion Baptist Church Convention. He is an inspiration to his four generations of offspring who are all strong representatives in the ministry.

His sons are both bishops and his only daughter serves as a prophetess alongside her husband apostle Ed. His grandchildren are professional actors, administrators, a national journalist, doctors, principals, computer technicians, policemen, clergymen, and lawyers.

Harry Davis’s love and admiration of his great grandchildren and his numerous adopted ‘spiritual’ children led to them all calling him, lovingly, ‘Daddy Harry.’