A senior Pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church has jumped to the defence of under fire presiding elder the Reverend Malcolm Eve.

Government MP and Pastor the Rev. Wilbur Lowe said there had not been any call for Rev. Eve to resign and said morale in the AME Church had not been low, as claimed in The Royal Gazette on Saturday.

Rev. Lowe spoke out after members of the Church criticised Rev. Eve over the imminent departure of Mount Zion AME Church Pastor Rev. Christopher Haynes last week.

Rev. Haynes - a Jamaican who has lived here for 19 years - must leave the Island at the end of this month after Immigration failed to renew his work permit.

The Church had allowed Rev. Haynes to work without a permit for a number of months before applying for a renewal, and then failed to appeal when the application was turned down.

Supporters of Rev. Haynes claimed more could have been done by the Church to safeguard his position, and said morale was low due to the leadership of the presiding elder.

But yesterday, Rev. Lowe hit back and said the criticism being levelled at Rev. Eve was unwarranted.

He said Rev. Eve did not wish to speak publicly on the matter himself, but had given his blessing for him to speak instead.

"There definitely is not any kind of call for the Presiding Elder's resignation," said Rev. Lowe.

"He is very highly respected among the churches. We love him very much and he's doing an excellent job. He has the support of the majority, if not all, of the Pastors in the Bermuda Annual Conference (of the AME Church)."

Rev. Lowe said he did not know why Rev. Haynes had been allowed by the Church to continue with his duties without a work permit for several months, although he said both the Presiding Elder and Bishop Zedekiah Grady, who leads the First District of the AME Church in Philadelphia, which includes Bermuda, were aware of it.

And he said he believed the Church had not appealed Immigration's decision to refuse a renewal because of feedback they had received from some unhappy people in Mount Zion Church.

Rev. Lowe said: "Rev. Eve is very efficient. It's my understanding that the Bishop has no intention of removing him at all.

"And as far as morale being low, I would not go as far as to say morale is low. It may be low in the local (Mount Zion) church - I don't know. But I think the AME Church is healthy and strong and doing well."

Rev. Haynes spoke publicly in The Royal Gazette last week, some time after news of his impending departure broke.

He said he believed both the Church and Immigration were the reasons why he and his family were being forced to leave.

Rev. Haynes said he believed the Church had been frowned upon for failing to renew his permit when it ran out last September, and he then criticised the Church for failing to appeal on time.

He admitted that some old-time parishioners of the church had been upset because of changes that had been implemented and because a large number of new followers had joined the parish.

That issue came to a head earlier this year, he said, when the long-time members were not re-elected into parish posts.

And Rev. Haynes said that as of last Thursday, he still did not have a new post to go to, and said no replacement had yet been found for his church in Whale Bay Road, Southampton.

It was rumoured by some members of the AME Church that the former Mount Zion Pastor and previous Progressive Labour Party MP Rev. Trevor Woolridge would return to Bermuda to take up the vacant post.

However, yesterday, Rev. Lowe said he could "categorically deny" that Rev. Woolridge would be returning to the Island, and said he was doing very well at his new parish in New Jersey.

But Rev. Lowe said Bishop Grady had personally told him that Rev. Haynes had been offered another posting, in New York, which he had turned down.

And asked why some members of the church had turned against Rev. Haynes, and why an appeal to Immigration had not been made, Rev. Lowe said perhaps the Pastor had made some mistakes.

He added: "Speaking as a senior Pastor, I feel that Rev. Haynes has done an outstanding job. But, like all Pastors, including myself, he has made mistakes.

"While he has been respected across the Island, I think he has made some Pastoral decisions that were not to everyone's liking.

"He's a good preacher.... but while people like progress, they don't like change. When you have changes that take place quickly, people become concerned. People want to be sure that when change takes place, it is going to be better than it was."

And he said the fact that Rev. Haynes also had an intercessory ministry - which was deemed to be within AME Church policy after an inquiry - and involved a lot of prayer and the Prophets, that had also not proved popular with some parishioners.

Rev. Lowe said Rev. Haynes was known as a great advocate for investing money wisely, and tried to encourage his parishioners to invest their own cash properly, even bringing in advisors for people to speak to.

He added: "He felt we should maximise the funds that we have. There is nothing evil about that."

Bishop Grady was not available for comment yesterday.