Anguillian national, Mrs Muriel Hughes-Smith, now Vice President of the Leeward Islands District of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA), was honoured at a special dinner during the current District Council meeting in Anguilla. Her appointment makes her the highest church woman in the region.
The dinner was held at the Bethel Methodist Church Hall on Tuesday, January 14, as a side function of the agenda for the January 11-18 District meeting attended by delegates from the fifteen member circuits of the Church. Mrs Hughes-Smith was at the head table among the District President, Rev Franklin Manners; Rev Dr Watty, the former President; Rev Dr Wycherley Gumbs, Superintendent Minister (and Mrs Stella Gumbs) of the Anguilla Circuit; and Rev Dr Joan Delsol Meade and Mrs Adocia Francis, Secretary and Treasurer respectively of the Connexional Conference of the MCCA.
Mrs Hughes-Smith granted an interview to The Anguillian ahead of the dinner. She was born in West End, near the Immanuel Methodist Church and the Primary School and is the daughter of Mrs Eleanor (Nity) Richardson and her grandparents were the late Melonie and Ishmael Hughes. After spending part of her life in Anguilla, she migrated to St Thomas as a teenager with her mother and has since remained there. She is married to Dr Henry Smith, a Research Engineer of Tortola and they have one daughter who is also a Research Doctor residing in the United States.
At the dinner she was presented with a number of gifts including a carving on a piece of native stone symbolising her association with Anguilla; a card and a special cake. The presentations were made by leading lay persons Kenn Banks, Sinclair Buchanan and Mrs Evalie Bradley of the Anguilla Circuit.
The Anguillian church woman graduated from the University of the Virgin Islands with a Degree in Accounting. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and is the Financial Controller at the university. A staunch Methodist, from her early days in Anguilla, she served as a Circuit Steward in St Thomas twice and was later appointed Treasurer of the Leeward Islands District of the Church, a position she held for 10-11 years. In 2012 she assumed the appointment of Vice President of the MCCA.
“The Vice President does not move to the MCCA’S home office of the Methodist Church in the District (Antigua)”, Mrs Hughes-Smith explained. “It is a lay person’s position so I continue my job living in St Thomas.”
Questioned about her role, she replied: “When I was asked to be in this position, I told the President that I am not just a figurehead. One of the things he asked me to do was to handle all the finances and make sure that the Church is running appropriately in terms of its finances. Like everybody else, with the economic downturn, we too have our issues. I am working with the various districts to make sure that they pay their bills on time, and I am trying to organise a foundation which we never had. The delegates at this conference have accepted it totally so I am going to get this foundation established to help our Ministers.”
The MCCA Vice President was asked about her position in the chain of command in the Methodist District. “The MCCA has the ordained ministers, lay preachers and other people like me who are not preachers but we have ministries,” she stated. “My ministry is finance and at the top you have the President of the MCCA who is always a minister; then the Vice President who is a lay person so I am at the top of the chain that a lay person can occupy, so I can’t go any further.”
Quizzed as to how she felt as a woman in that lofty post, she responded: “I love my God and I love my Church, and I am very excited about doing this job for my God and my Church. I never knew much about the various positions in the Church, but I had heard about the District Treasurer and I said to myself it would be nice to do that one of these days for the Church. However, I never thought I would ever get it – and to be the Vice President was even off the radar, and so I didn’t see it coming. I am trying my best, and not only has God blessed me with a good family, but a good talent that I can give back to others.”
What advice does Mrs Hughes-Smith have for her fellow aspiring womenfolk in the Methodist Circuits in the Leeward Islands District? “I would say that they need to be open to the bidding of God – not the Church. I am a married person and you need to work close with your spouse so that it can be a family effort, because you can’t do it on your own. You have to involve your family. All our women need is just to set a goal – not that I set mine – but now that it can happen, as my case shows, you too can be the Vice President of the MCCA. Not all of us, but someone of us can be – and we just have to open ourselves to the opportunity.”
