Sunday, November 26, is the date for the Annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service when the Anguilla Christian Council and the Anguilla Evangelical Association will mark the end of the 2017 hurricane season.
But this year is different from other recent years in that while plans are in hand for that service, the two Christian organisations conducted a joint prayer service on Sunday evening, October 29, lamenting the devastation of Anguilla by Hurricane Irma. The category 5 tropical storm struck Anguilla on September 6 – as well as a number of other regional islands.
The prayer service was held at the Gazebo on the grounds of the Scouts and Guides Ruthwill Auditorium where the tattered and torn roofs still showed the ravages of the hurricane. The passage of Irma was also marked by the darkness of the area punctuated occasionally by the lights of vehicles; and the noise of the generator, which powered the public address system, threatened to drown out the voices of prayer and song.
The opening prayer was delivered by the Right Rev. Errol Brooks, Bishop of the Diocese of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba. In his introductory remarks he discounted one of the statements being made by some persons that Hurricane Irma was an act of God saying, among other things, that God was in fact a God of love and mercy. “It is so wonderful that we can come from different walks of life, and different congregations, because we are one in Christ,” he told the close-knit crowd just before his prayer.
The other participating church leaders were Rev. Dr. Wycherley Gumbs, Chairman of the Anguilla Christian Council and Superintendent of the Anguilla Methodist Circuit; Pastor Gerard Gumbs, Vice President of the Evangelical Association and Pastor of God’s Store House; Pastor Gareth Hodge of the Hilltop Baptist Church; and Pastor Carl Richardson of the Christian Fellowship Church. Also in attendance were Rev. Menes Hodge, Rev. Dunstan Richardson , Rev. Wilmoth Hodge and Pastors Julet Simon, Winston Ryan, Jerome Harrigan and Hugo Brooks.
The event was chaired by the President of the Evangelical Association, Pastor Philip Gumbs, of the Church of God (Holiness) who, at the end, delivered a wide-ranging prayer.
The prayer service covered such topics as the general need for recovery and rebuilding in the public and private sectors – and the need for unity, love, and Christian living in Anguilla.
