The future of the world and of the church passes through the family. Not only is the Christian family the first cell of the living ecclesial community, it is also the fundamental cell of society . . . . The family is the foundation on which the social edifice is built. (The Africa Synod – 1995)
As we gather together to observe the forty-fifth anniversary of Independence we direct our thoughts towards God who has led our nation for these 45 years and who has been our guide for over three hundred years.
Coming together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we are also prompted to ponder upon those values that have shaped our nation’s and our way of being and have the power to transform our society and guarantee our survival. [We recognize] our inability to build a nation on our own not only because we have limited resources, but more especially because our forefathers instilled within us the awareness of the deep and abiding presence of the Almighty and to live always with gratitude for His blessings and for what we have been able to achieve.
The theme chosen for our celebration this year is Resolving Our Challenges As A Family And Achieving As A Nation. Today when the family is under tremendous pressure as a result of the global economic climate and the new ways of viewing family are emerging, we need to do everything within our power to protect this institution called family as has been handed on to us from our own sacred tradition and from sacred Scripture.
We the members of the Christian churches are very worried about the emerging definitions of family, and more precisely marriage, which seem to stray from the way we have understood family.
We in Barbados must not be silent and we must find ways and means of letting the international community know how we feel about the move to redefine the institution we hold dear.Â
Whilst we will do all in our power to defend the sacred institution – the family – we will not support the bashing of people whose sexual orientation is different, nor are we going to join with those whose words can do nothing but create a homophobic atmosphere.
Fundamental to the Christian teaching is the dignity of the human person, of each person and of every person. Whenever we see that dignity threatened or in any way being violated we will stand by the side of the victims as Jesus did when he stood by the side of the woman who was caught in adultery and whose punishment was death by stoning.
As we look to the future with all its uncertainties and doubts we need an anchor, something that will hold us or that we can hold on to till the storms pass by. We have to become a church that preaches love and compassion. We have to offer people the feeling that they are loved and cared for.
Jesus Christ led people from a place of sin to a place of total liberation and he did not bash them or condemn them – he showed them love. We in Barbados are extremely good at tearing each other down. The attitude of tearing down is not a value to take into the future with its complexities and uncertainties. The future demands that we treat each other as brothers and sisters, helping each other along the way. For this to happen, there is going to be a need for a new and creative way of being church or a reimagining of church.
There are several images and models of church in the Bible and in theology that can be employed to imagine church. The model I am referring to is the church as family or the family of God.
When the late Prime Minister David Thompson was pushing the idea of Family First, I thought that this was indeed a great idea and it was something the churches could rally around and help to advance by supplying the underpinning theology to advance the idea.
The Barbados Christian Council looks forward to having a conversation with the Government on the theme [of family] to see how we can build our nation Barbados into a family as we face the future.
• This is an edited version of the sermon delivered on Sunday November 27.
