ANGLICAN BISHOP JOHN HOLDER says “the strong connection between the diocese and the community” will be enhanced with a short story competition in the Christmas edition of The Anglican newspaper.
Holder, who is also Archbishop of the West Indies, was speaking at a Press briefing yesterday at his Mandeville House headquarters to announce that 2011 would be the Year Of Stewardship, with special emphasis on the family.
He said that stewardship and the family were the foundation blocks of Christian living and witness since both emphasised relationships in community.
“We know that stewardship when connected with the church is often be seen primarily in terms of fund-raising, but stewardship for us at this time is about more than fund-raising.
“It is about assisting persons to understand their responsibility towards themselves, towards their families, towards environment, towards the congregations and towards the church,” he said.
Holder said ties between the church and the community would be even closer with the short story competition that must relate to a Christmas experience.
Before a panel that included editor of The Anglican, Charles Harding, and chairman of the church’s communications committee, Sam Wilkinson, Bishop Holder said the Anglican Church had been quietly forging links with the community.
“We are connected to the communities in this society. We don’t have in this church a practice of publicising what we are doing. You have to search to discover what we are doing.
“In almost every parish in this diocese – there are 42 of them – there is a community connection, whether it is in the form of providing food for those in need, or having a programme that will address the concern of the young people . . . ,” Holder said.
Wilkinson said The Anglican had recorded firsts in Christian education and information, and had extended its outreach into the Caribbean. (MK)
