Head of St. George's Baptist Church, Pastor Stanford Simon is heading to Dublin, Ireland to attend a major international meeting of credit union officials from around the world.

Speaking to GRENADA TODAY on Tuesday before flying out of the country, Pastor Simon said that he was the only Grenadian among over 40 delegates from the sub-regional grouping known as the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) that would be in attendance at the forum.

It's the annual World Council of Credit Union meeting to discuss moves by the Washington-based World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bring them under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance in each member country.

According to Pastor Simon, some credit unions are cautious about this but in the case of Grenada the local credit unions took part in the efforts of government to bring them under their jurisdiction with the creation of a single regulatory body.

He said that at the Dublin meeting the focus would be to ensure that the credit union movement is not forced out of operating in their local environments in favour of other commercial entities.

He stated that the Dublin meeting would be historic for the Caribbean region since Melvin Edwards of St. Kitts is poised to take over the presidency of the world body.

Edwards is the current 1st Vice-President of the body and would officially take over at the helm next year in Vancouver, Canada.

Pastor Simon said: "This is a big thing for us. It's the very first time that somebody from the Caribbean is going to become President (of the world body).

The religious leader will spent seven days in Dublin attending the credit union forum.

Pastor Simon also spoke to this newspaper about his islandwide crusade in which his last stop was on the sister isles of Carriacou and Petite Martinique over the weekend.

He was high in praise of the manner in which residents on the two islands greeted his delegation and conducted themselves.

He said the people there reminded him very much about his trip to Kenya to preach the word of God on the African continent.

Pastor Simon announced that over 450 persons have given up their lives to God as a result of his crusade around the island. The last crusade would be held towards the end of August in St. George's.