The Anglican Church and the state have dropped the ball in Barbados, and both need visionary leaders if they are to take the country forward.
So said Dean Dr Jeffrey Gibson while delivering the sermon at the 80th anniversary service of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) at St Michael’s Cathedral yesterday.
“In 17 days’ time the Synod of the Diocese of Barbados will meet to elect the 14th bishop of the Diocese. Significantly, in the not too distant future, the electorate in our country will be called upon to select a new administration to govern the affairs of the state.
“Some may see this as a happy coincidence. However, people of faith may very well see it as a divine opportunity for faith and politics, the sacred and the secular, to experience God’s liberating presence to bring new life to our nation,” Gibson said.
Though the Anglican Church was disestablished by an act of Parliament on April 1, 1969, Gibson said the two pillars had formed the “bedrock” of Barbados’ development through the years.
However, he said that “regrettably”, both institutions had dropped the baton along the way.
“Instead of integration, there is now individualism; instead of cohesion, there is now disintegration; and instead of pursuance of the common good, there is now the resurgence of narrow interest groups competing for the goods,” he contended.
The dean, who along with Dr Michael Clarke, John Rogers, Dr Monrell Williams and Canon Noel Burke are five of the favoured picks for bishop, said his vision of church in its working relationship with the state was “brilliantly” captured in words of the late civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King.
According to King, the church was the conscience, the guide and the critic of the state.
“That is the position I would like to see it [the Anglican Church] adopt.”
Gibson said there was a message in the relationship between the sacred and the secular at Eastertide.
“Resurrection is about hope, new life and new beginnings. For there to be hope, new life and new beginnings for both church and country to enable positive movement beyond the crossroads, there must be first and foremost, visionary leadership,” he told the congregation.
“Both at the level of state and church, visionary leadership is required to produce a clearly thought-out plan or strategy to take us from where we are now, to where we wish to be in the future. The changing times in which we live mean we can no longer continue business as usual. If we do so, we are at great risk of continuing to see the same results which are the source of our current disappointment and frustration.” (YB)
