Walk away from Festival

The Walk Holy Band and church leaders should keep out of the Kadooment Day revelry.Outspoken pastor Peter Millington made this call yesterday, saying the Church had “failed miserably” in any attempt to better the Crop-Over Festival and the behaviour of revellers had continued to degenerate.“The Walk Holy Band should come out,” he told the SUNDAY SUN. “I feel that if the Church wants to show how you can party in a holy manner or in a wholesome way, then come out and have their own festival.“Leave Crop-Over alone for these people because some of the costumes that I see, some of the behaviour that I see, I don’t see how (Christians) can be part of it.”The former Government senator admitted that his issue was not with non-Christians’ involvement in Crop-Over and Kadooment, but with the actions of “church people”.“Christians should not be involved in this revelry but church people want to be in the pew and down Spring Garden too . . . . A lot of Christians are just looking for an excuse to party hard.”The long-standing keyboardist noted that church leaders including Monsignor Vincent Blackett and Father Clement Paul had taken part in the festival and spoken about the positive side of Crop-Over.However, he contended that they should not encourage Christians to take part in the parade of bands and other revelry.Again this year, the parade was characterised by drunkenness as well as lewd and disgusting behaviour and church heads promoting participation were simply “leading other people into the shadow of the Valley of Death”, Millington charged.According to Millington, some revellers are drunk even before their bands take to the road and sex is so pervasive around this time that nine months after Crop-Over there is usually a spike in births.He described Christians’ participation in the Kadooment Day activities as “the blind leading the blind”, arguing that the Church was not having any positive influence anywhere on the festival.In fact, he said he believed “the behaviour in Crop-Over is going to get progressively worse”, with or without the Church’s involvement.“They (Christians) should keep out of the people’s things and try and go to church and sing some hymns,” he suggested.“There can be no justification for any pastor to encourage any member of his church to be a part of Crop-Over.”Millington, who once sang in the Celebrities Calypso Tent and had played keyboard in the Super Gladiators Tent, said that church leaders look at some “alternative” celebration for the Crop-Over festival.However, he conceded that this might be problematic because “too many church leaders are tearing each other to pieces” and not co-operating on activities.Millington caused a stir last October when he announced his resignation from the Senate and the Democratic Labour Party with immediate effect.He declared “it was time” to leave after much prayer and soul-searching.Yesterday he said he had no regrets about the decision but was grateful for the opportunity to serve the people of Barbados in the Senate.He told the SUNDAY SUN he remained pastor of a small church and was continuing his work for God. (TY)