From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
Diplomatic Farewell for Dr. Myles Munroe and his Wife Ruth
By Lindsay Thompson, BIS
Dec 5, 2014 - 1:26:07 PM
A State-Recognized Funeral was held for Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe, on Thursday, December 4, 2014 at the Diplomat Centre on Carmichael Road. (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)
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NASSAU, The Bahamas - People from all walks of life -- locally
and internationally -- assembled at the Diplomat Centre for a Celebration of
Life for the late Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe, on Thursday,
December 4, 2014.
Leading the list of dignitaries and guests at The
State-Recognized Funeral were: Her Excellency Dame Marguerite Pindling,
Governor General; The Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, Prime Minister, and Mrs. Bernadette
Christie; Leader of the Opposition Dr. Hubert Minnis; Senators, Members of
Parliament, Senior Government Officials, members of the Diplomatic Corps and
leaders of the international religious community.
Dr. Myles Munroe was senior pastor of Bahamas Faith
Ministries International Fellowship, where his wife Ruth Ann Munroe served as
co-senior pastor. The couple died November 9, 2014 when their private jet
crashed into the Grand Bahama Ship Yard. Also on board that ill-fated aircraft
were Dr. Richard Pinder, Pastors Lavard & Radel Parks and their son Johanan
Parks all of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship; pilots Frakhan
Cooper and Captain Stanley Thurston and American Diego DeSantiago.
Hundreds gathered at the Diplomat Centre on Carmichael Road for the State-Recognized Funeral of Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe, on Thursday, December 4, 2014. (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)
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Tributes were paid in liturgical dancing, praise and
worship, with special selections by Vision singing the remake “
Brand New World, and the Original
Visionaires singing “
Living With Jesus on
the Other Side’”-- the group Dr. Munroe was a part of in the early
70s. Grammy Award-winning Gospel
recording artist CeCe Winans also rendered “
Don’t
Cry for Me” – one of the Winans’ greatest hits.
Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie revered Dr.
Munroe as “a man who never forgot his roots; a man who was passionately
involved in Bahamian nation-building and who played an important part in that
process over the course of more than three decades.”
He added, “So, let us make no mistake about it therefore,
while Dr Myles Munroe was unquestionably a globalist, an internationalist, in
scope of his Christian ministry and in the reach of his teachings and travels,
he was at the same time a profoundly committed nationalist; a Bain town-bred
Bahamian through and through.”
Senior Pastor Dave
Burrows of BFMI said, ”We are gathered here to pay our final respects and
tributes to two extraordinary human beings. Today, in some ways we are saddened
but in other ways, we celebrate lives of purpose and destiny.”
He best described Dr. Myles Monroe, his mentor, as “a
transformer; [in] that through his relationship with God and in his pursuits,
no one he encountered was left without being transformed.” And in Referencing the Bible, Pastor Burrows
described Ruth Ann Munroe as “a good thing.”
A Colour Guard procession led the way into Lakeview Memorial Gardens & Mausoleums where the bodies of Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship were interred, during a State-Recognized Funeral on Thursday, December 4,
2014. (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)
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The Munroes left two children son, Chairo (Myles Jr.) and daughter
Charisa who likened their parents to a ‘king and queen.’
“We have
lost one of the greatest fathers and mothers; and… king and queen, who have
ever lived,” she said.
“Yet is
it only by faith that I can stand here before and declare with much authority
that Pastor Myles and Ruth Ann Munroe are not dead but are buried alive in me
and my brother.”
She said
that their parents were born into a life of purpose and they died fulfilling
that purpose. “They transformed people into leaders and leaders into agents of
change.”
Tributes
were also paid by His Grace Bishop Neil Ellis, President Bishop of Global
United Fellowship & Senior Pastor of Mt. Tabor Church; Pastor Gary Curry,
Pastor Emeritus of Evangelistic Temple; Dr. William Wilson, President, Oral
Roberts University, which Dr. Munroe and his wife attended; Dr. Peter Morgan,
President, International Third World Leaders Association; Charles & Xoli
Masala, Directors, Myles Munroe International, Republic of South Africa; and
many others. Dr. Jerry Horner of Jerry Horner International Ministries in
Columbia, Georgia, performed the Eulogy.
In a
written tribute, United States President Barak Obama said, “leaders like Myles
and Ruth teach us that we are our brothers’ and our sisters’ keepers and
challenge us to practice what we believe through our deeds as well as our
words.”
Myles Egbert Munroe was born in 1954 in Bain’s Town in a family of
11 children. He is an internationally renowned bestselling author, lecturer,
teacher, life coach, government consultant, and leadership mentor. He travelled
around the world training leaders in business, government, education, sports,
media, and religion.
Dr. Munroe is the country’s
youngest recipient of the ‘Queen's Birthday Honors’ Order of The British Empire
(OBE) Award 1998 bestowed by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, for his spiritual
and social contributions to the national development of The Bahamas.
He has also been honored by the government of The Commonwealth of
The Bahamas with the Silver Jubilee Award (SJA) for providing twenty-five years
of outstanding service to The Bahamas in the category of spiritual, social and
religious development.
The bodies of Dr. Myles Munroe and Pastor Ruth Ann Munroe, of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship were interred at Lakeview Memorial Gardens & Mausoleums during a State-Recognized Funeral on Thursday, December 4, 2014. (BIS Photo/Patrick Hanna)
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