03/08/2025
Remembering Evangelist and Pastor Frederick Edward 'Ed' Allen Jr (1929-2018) born 2nd August, 1929
Frederick Edward 'Ed' Allen Jr(1929-2018) was born in Tarpum Bay Eleuthera to Frederick Edward Allen Sr and Bessie Elizabeth Carey.
In 1952, he married Iris Velma Archer from Marsh Harbour, Abaco. She is the daughter of Albert Livingstone Archer and Caroline Lightbourne.
Pastor Allen began his education at the Tarpum Bay All-Age School. He went to other government schools when his family relocated to Nassau, and eventually graduated from the Eastern Senior Secondary School in 1945. While working on his father’s farm and assisting with the family store in the daytime, Ed Allen received private tutoring at Cecil Bethel and H. O. Nash Evening Schools. In 1946, he went to Emmaus Bible School, Toronto, Canada and spent three years there. Years later, in 1989, Ed Allen received a Bachelor of Theology from Trinity College of the Bible. In the same year he earned a Doctor of Divinity (Honors) from Trinity Theological Seminary.
It was at the age of 14 the Ed Allen accepted Christ as his Savior, at a service at Central Gospel Chapel, Nassau, Bahamas.
He first began his work as an evangelist, travelling with W. H. Farrington to Grand Bahamas, in October 1949. In 1951, Ed Allen began his solo evangelistic ministry that would span almost 30 years, taking him to many islands of The Bahamas, throughout the Caribbean and to different parts of the United States.
In 1952, Ed Allen married his fiancée, Iris Velma Archer, in a ceremony performed by W. H. Farrington at Central Gospel Chapel. The couple spent their honeymoon preaching and visiting friends throughout the United States.
In 1959, Ed Allen and Rex Major started the Great Commission Gospel Crusades. The Crusades took them and the other team members who eventually joined (namely Tom Roberts, David Cartwright, Alan Lee and Marcel Lightbourne), nationally to Eleuthera, Long Island, Cat Island Spanish Wells, Abaco and New Providence. In the international arena, they went to Jamaica, St. Kitts, Bermuda and U S Virgin Islands.
In 1964, the Gospel Bells Broadcast began on 4VEH, Cap Haitian, Haiti. The Gospel Bells Broadcast is still heard on the air to this day – 51 years of continuous broadcasting.
Ed Allen first took on the role of Pastor in 1956, when he served for three years in Nicholl’s Town, Andros. His second pastorate was at Grace Gospel Chapel (now Grace Community Church) from 1973 to 1977.
In 1979, Pastor Ed Allen was called of God to start a new work, the Abundant Life Bible Chapel now called Abundant Life Bible Church. He served as Senior Pastor until he retired on February 1st, 2010.
