Broken Down Walls – Bermuda Churches and Racial Reconciliation (Nisbett Lecture 2026)

In this FREE PUBLIC LECTURE, Rev Dr Lorne Bean explores the nature of Bermuda’s Churches’ Racial History, the need for Reconciliation, and an agenda to seek this healing.

Rev. Bean is married to the former Rochelle Furbert and they are the delighted parents of two adult daughters: Brianna and Tionae.

Rev. Bean is the first of four children born to Velma and the late Alfred Bean of Somerset, Bermuda. Rev. Bean’s formal education began at the Southampton Glebe before proceeding through West End Primary School and Warwick Academy. In 1978 he pursued a program of nautical studies in the United Kingdom during which time Rev. Bean rededicated his life to Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Resigning from the position of deck officer in the British Merchant Navy because of God’s call to the Christian ministry, he moved on to study psychology at Central State University, Ohio and theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. He earned a Doctor of Ministry in Prophetic Preaching and Praxis from United Theological Seminary, Ohio.

Rev. Bean served as assistant pastor at St. Paul, Bermuda and has led congregations in Pennsylvania, USA; Warwick and Hamilton Parishes, Bermuda. Now he is the pastor of the only A.M.E. Church in Bermuda’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Towne of St. George: Richard Allen A.M.E. Church. He also serves as the secretary of the Bermuda Annual Conference.

One of his favorite scripture passages is Romans 1:16-17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written “The just shall live by faith.”