Friday, August 1, was a special day in the lives of Mr John (Bob) Rogers and Mrs Lilian Rogers of Stoney Ground as they celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on that date.
The couple are both retired taxi-drivers. Bob is noted as having been one of Anguilla’s political activists for many years, dating back to the Anguilla Revolution, and is still a frontline voice in a diverse range of current issues.
The event attracted many guests. They included family and friends from various parts of the island; political figures, as well as four Methodist Ministers and one Anglican Minister, all indicative of the high regard in which Mr and Mrs Rogers are held.
The main spokesman and leader of the Thanksgiving Service, which preceded the party, was Methodist Minister, Rev Franklin Roberts. He commended the couple for their enduring marital relationship, the example they had shown to young people, and the Christian union they had portrayed as set out in the Bible. Other participating members of the Clergy from the Methodist Church were Superintendent of the Anguilla Methodist Circuit, Rev Dr Wycherley Gumbs, Rev Dunstan Richardson and Rev Joseph Lloyd; and from the Anglican Church, Rev Menes Hodge.
A number of other persons, including Mr Evans McNiel Rogers, the Elected Member of the Anguilla United Front for Valley North, and Mr Victor Banks, former Minister of Finance and now a candidate in Valley South, also spoke.
Replying, Mr Rogers expressed thanks, on behalf of his family, to all for attending the event and for their remarks. Noting that there were five members of the Clergy present, he requested them to convey a message to the young people of Anguilla in their respective pulpits.
“Tell the young people to take care of their youth and their youth will take care of their old age,” he stated. “It is because Lilian and I took care of our youth is the reason we are surviving today. There is something that is happening in this country where the youth is destroying themselves in Anguilla and in the region. I am not casting blame on anybody because there is a generation gap between the young people today and the way we were brought up.
“The Anglican and Methodist Churches laid the foundation for education in Anguilla. It therefore hurts me when I hear the young people, who do not know about our history and culture, attacking these institutions. They should realise, as my son, Carlyle said, if it were not for those institutions after slavery, we would not have been living this comfortable life in this island.”
Mr Rogers pointed to one example of respect, cooperation and peaceful coexistence between him and his wife: “She is a Methodist and I am an Anglican,” he said.
Mr Carlyle Rogers, a private sector Offshore Financial Services Industry businessman, chaired the anniversary event on behalf of his parents and siblings.
