The Right Reverend Gregory Ingram, the presiding prelate of the First Episcopal District of the AME Church, struck a conciliatory note at the end of a day of protests about the Tweed decision, as he called for “calm heads to prevail”.

Bishop Ingram, whose remit includes overseeing AME affairs in Delaware, New England, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as Bermuda, arrived on the island yesterday as the storm surrounding the Government’s decision not to renew the Reverend Nicholas Tweed’s work permit escalated.The dispute culminated in scores of the pastor’s supporters descending on the One Bermuda Alliance’s temporary Cabinet office at Innovation House, in Hamilton.

The Bishop, who met with Premier Michael Dunkley in the afternoon and is expected to see Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, the Minister of Home Affairs who made the decision not to renew Mr Tweed’s work permit, later expressed hope that a resolution could be reached.

“There has to be peaceful coexistence,” he said. “We have got to talk with people first and sometimes calm heads prevail. This issue did not have to come to this; it really didn’t.”

Bishop Ingram told the audience gathered at St Paul AME Centennial Hall: “We don’t have to draw lines in the sand.”

In speaking of the need for authorities to come together, he questioned why the AME Church should be required to advertise pastoral positions. “This is not a job, this is a calling,” he said.

The Bishop pointed out that the Mr Tweed before them now was the same man who had been given a work permit three years earlier.

“He is not Clark Kent and Superman; he is the same person,” he said.

In response to a series of questions from members of the audience, Bishop Ingram reiterated the need for calm heads and said that a final decision over Mr Tweed’s position in the AME Church in Bermuda had not been made yet.

“It is the Bishop who makes appointments,” he said. “I have not changed the pastor of this church; he is still here.

“At this point calm heads have to prevail. Let’s talk and listen together.” Asked if after discussions with the Premier, Mr Tweed would still have to leave Bermuda, Bishop Ingram replied: “We are still in a holding pattern while declarations are worked out. We don’t know yet.”