Participants of Counselling Course receive Certificates
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AS PART of its Community Outreach and Family Month focus, Zion Moravian held a Friendship Sunday when members were challenged to invite as many friends as possible to share in the worship with them.
Friendship Sunday was celebrated on Sunday July 8th 2012 at the Zion Moravian Church, Basseterre, and Gillian Archibald copped the prize for bringing the most ‘friends,’ some 25 of them, to Church on that Sunday.
In activities such as these e.g. the recent Moravian Counselling Course and the Moravian Senior Club, the denomination of the participants is pushed aside for the Church members “move from building walls to building bridges” as requested by the Rev. Dr. Cortroy Jarvis, Chairman of Provincial Elders’ Conference of the Moravian Church in the Caribbean
This concept of friendship and community outreach has been ingrained in the Moravian Church from its earliest beginnings in the Caribbean.
The Moravians in 1774 were the first missionaries in St. Kitts coming specifically to minister to the oppressed people; the first to begin teaching slaves to read; and was one of the first organized religious bodies to establish primary and secondary schools for slaves in the West Indies.
With a genuine concern for the youth and an open door friendship policy, the Moravians are able to attract many groups who wend their way to this Church to celebrate on special occasions or to begin their special week or month of activities with a Church Service.
On Friendship Sunday, they welcomed the graduating class of the Washington Archibald High School, the George Moody Stuart School, the Cotton Thomas Comprehensive School and the members of the Basic Counselling Course held from 4th to 9 th June this year.
Each of the above groups rendered items during the service and in addition the service was enriched by items from the Junior Choir, the Youth Choir, the Gospel Singers and the Senior Choir.
Variation was injected into the programme by the Zion Dancers, past members of the Cotton Thomas School who rendered a special item in sign language, and the touching song of Kailah James, a young lady (wheelchair bound) who was raising funds for a new wheelchair by selling her CDs. She appropriately sang, “Life is no bed of roses”.
Out of concern for the young lady, and impressed by her very positive attitude, one of the worship leaders, Sidney Osborne, called for a walk up collection in support and the congregation generously responded.
The strong themes coming from the lyrics of songs selected spoke of surrender and courage and determination to succeed. The song “All to Jesus, I surrender” was gracefully interpreted by the Zion dancers. “I speak of Life, don’t give up the fight,” “The road won’t be easy...I can’t give up now, I’ve come too far,” were the messages constantly proclaimed by these songs.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Patrick Martin, was the Guest Speaker. He used the opportunity to make the congregation aware of the increase in cases of mental and behavioural disorder and stressed that the main causes were sexual and substance abuse and the failure of mother/child bonding.
He went on to give advice on maintaining healthy mental and physical lifestyles.
He was also invited to distribute the certificates to the over forty participants who had completed the Basic Counselling Course facilitated by Dr. Neilson Waithe of Barbados and initiated by the Moravian Church.
Dr Martin commended the Moravians for initiating such a Course as it responded to a dire need in the Society.
The very large congregation conformed to the casual dress code for the day of white tops and jeans or skirts and it gave an atmosphere of unity to the proceedings.
The appropriate message for the morning was brought by Rev, Hilton Joseph, Resident Pastor of Zion Moravian. Leading the service were Worship Leaders, Delyth Christmas and Sidney Osborne. Organists were Gail Gumbs-James and Christian Nathaniel.
According to the Moravian Regional Leader, Rev. Dr. Cortroy Davis, the Moravian Church is seeking “maximise its impact on the community for good” and “doing church with new eyes”.
“Friendship” was described by the 17th century essayist, Budgell, as “as the strong and habitual inclination to promote the good and happiness of one another”.
Friendship Sunday at Zion lived up to such expectations.
