Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, Mr. Evans McNiel Rogers and Mr. Cardigan Connor
This week, the six elected members of the Anguilla United Party Government, led by Chief Minister, Mr. Victor Banks, are observing their third anniversary in office.
It has been arranged that during the course of the week each of them will be delivering radio addresses in connection with the conduct of their responsibilities over the three years.
The week of activities commenced on Sunday, April 22, with the majority of the Government officials worshiping at the Immanuel Methodist Church at West End.
The sermon, a presentation on faith, was delivered by Mrs. Evalie Bradley. She is a popular Local Preacher and is the Elected Representative for District 5 – and serves as the Ministerial Assistant in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Her sermon, based on the faith demonstrated by a centurion whose servant was healed by Jesus from afar, exhorted the congregation to exercise a reliance on spiritual faith in their lives. While looking into her own life, she took the opportunity to reflect on the recovery from illness of certain members of the church whose faith had been of significant value to them.
Mrs. Bradley’s service as a public official also came in focus during the delivery of her sermon. “We all know that we are living in very serious and challenging times – economically, financially and socially,” she said. “As a Government, a lot rests on our shoulders. Just the other day I happened to have gone up to the courthouse to speak about one of the probationers – about a young offender. I was really downhearted when I saw the number of young, bright, handsome and productive young men shackled to each other as they awaited sentencing for various crimes.”
Mrs. Bradley, the former Labour Commisioner, continued: “On Tuesday evening [April 17] my Minister [Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge] and I were on a radio programme. There, both of us placed on record our disappointment with something that is happening in the labour market – the hospitality industry. This relates to putting employees on one-year contracts. On that programme, I publicly aired my viewpoint – that is not to say that employees are all angels but it [their job] is their bread and butter. There must always be that mutual respect and understanding at the workplace. Employees cannot expect that they can walk into people’s workplaces any old time and not expect that there will be some consequences.
“But I see [the contracts] as a way of suppressing our employees and keeping them in poverty because they cannot comfortably go to any financial institution and get a loan…with such an insecure tenure of employment. At the end of those one-year contracts they do not know if they will be employed. I know this is something that I can safely say our Government is continuing to insist on. These are some of the issues that we continue to be concerned about despite what is being said out there.”
Mrs. Bradley added: “What I know is that we continue to look to God for strength, guidance as we wade through the onerous problems of governing, and we do so with a confident hope and trust that God will bring us through; that He will bring hope and relief for our many situations and problems.”
Chief Minister Banks, a regular member of the Ebenezer Methodist Church in The Valley, commented: “We began with God and will carry on with God. He is always our strength and our support throughout difficult and challenging times like these.
Mrs. Evalie Bradley
“One of the things that we must be grateful for is that, like the challenge we had last year with the hurricane, God does not give us more than we can bear. We feel blessed, and we have the opportunity now to come to the House of God and thank Him for his mercy, grace and blessing that He has provided us – and the strength to carry on.”
The Chief Minister was asked to comment on the fact that Mrs Bradley was a Local Preacher as well as a member of his Government.
“Sister Bradley is the soul of the Anguilla United Front Party Government. She is always the one who leads the devotions, and she has distinguished herself as somebody who keeps Christ as the centre throughout her own personal life. She has demonstrated conviction – and has delivered a sermon that has been so inspiring and very fitting for this third anniversary of our Government.”
