Twenty-two years ago, when then-students of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Omar Oliphant and Sharette Kirby, met on the Adventist campus in Jamaica, little did they know that a life of service would evolve into a marriage giving birth to the first Adventist pastoral attorney couple.
On December 15, 2022, Sharette Oliphant was called to the Bar at the Supreme Court of Jamaica, with her husband beside her, to robe and assist the newly minted counsel taking the oath to enter the profession.
Raised in a single-parent home, Sharette learned how to thrive amid difficulties and persevere through hard work toward achieving her life goals. Although the childhood “dream” to be attorney did not materialize after high school, she immersed herself in psychology with a minor in political and legal studies at NCU.
“I give credit to my husband for being a ‘dream-enabler and people empowerment specialist’, as he is always seeking the best for his people but especially for me and our family,” said Sharette.
Things were not always perfect for Sharette, the young senior youth leader of the Old England Adventist Church in the rural area of Manchester, had her childhood dream of being an advocate dashed due to financial limitations. She received a graduate scholarship to pursue her master’s degree in counseling psychology, which she earned at age 21.
Thereafter, Sharette entered the workforce as a librarian, preparatory school teacher, and later, as a career development officer. It was as though the dream to be an attorney-at-law died, she said, until her husband pursued his dream of becoming a lawyer, creating a stir in 2017 as the first Adventist pastor in Jamaica to be called to the Bar.
