In a stirring sermon, during which there were occasional bursts of applause, visiting dynamic preacher, Reverend Theophilus Rolle, challenged the historic Ebenezer Methodist Chapel in Anguilla to be an agent of change in the community.
Rev. Rolle, a national of The Bahamas, is well-known in Anguilla having served as a Minister in the Anguilla Circuit for five years from 1995 to 2000, but has been back on the island for subsequent visits. Over the past several days he, his wife and family, have been vacationing in Anguilla but he nevertheless accepted an invitation to preach at the church’s 185th Anniversary Service on Sunday evening, July 26.
He told the mixed congregation, comprising members from the six Methodist Churches on the island, that it was a privilege for them to join the late Reverends John Hodge and Henry Britten, other leaders, and many slaves – by carrying on the legacy they bequeathed to this present-day generation.
“I have chosen to address you on the future of Ebenezer in a complicated community,” he said. “I believe, today, there are not many churches than can rival Ebenezer for being the oldest of our churches on its present site in the Caribbean and the Americas.” He thought 185 years was a major time to pause, remember, give thanks and take stock of the life, witness and influence of the church.
He was of the view that the people of the Methodist Church on the island were living in a society on the verge of eroding values, changing roles and circumstances. “God has, no doubt, positioned this Ebenezer Church right here in this Valley community to be the kind of church that would speak decisively and unequivocally against the culture that is fast becoming polluted, distorted and corrupted…,” he stressed. “This church must be an agent of change, standing in the forefront of a present-day society with eroded values and with people who have lost respect and decency…and the church must make the connection between this generation in this present-day society, and those who represented the church yesterday. Ebenezer has a tremendous task to hold the past with the present and help the present to be led into the future.”
Rev. Rolle went on: “If Ebenezer is to be the church that remains, not as Charles Wesley put it, ‘disobedient to the Heavenly vision’, Ebenezer must be a church where her identity is clear and her practices of discipline – the tenets of this church – remain entrenched.”
In examining various societal scenarios confronting the church, in the wider context, the visiting Methodist Minister called on all other churches in Anguilla to join in fulfilling their roles in the spiritual life of the island. “We need not only the Methodist Church, but every church in Anguilla standing up …individually and collectively so that we can turn from anxiety and fear to a society of faith and trust in God,” he stated.
In addition to Rev. Rolle, the other main officiating Ministers were the Superintendent of the Anguilla Circuit, Rev. Dr. Wycherley Gumbs; Rev. Joseph Lloyd; Rev. Dunstan Richardson and Rev. Velina Petit.
Two others Ministers, Rev. John A. Gumbs and Rev. Franklin Roberts, delivered the closing prayer and the benediction respectively.
