BASSETERRE, St Kitts – Eloquently stating that it is the duty of the messenger of God to call men and women back to God, Reverend Bonnie Byron of the Charlestown Methodist Church said there can be no unity without justice and listed nepotism, lack of opportunity, crime, fear of expressing oneself and victimization as current ills of the St Kitts and Nevis society.
Reflecting on the theme: “Unify, Transform, Enrich: Uplifting Communities for Independence 36,” the Superintendent of the Methodist Church in the Nevis Circuit told the congregation including prime minister Dr Timothy Harris, the Federal and Nevis Island Administration Cabinets, parliamentarians, diplomats, civil servants and members of various groups, attending Sunday’s State Service that it is the responsibility of pastors and members of the clergy to be obedient to God first and foremost and to point men, women and children to God and the things of God.
“We are thankful for public servants and all who labour diligently for the good and upliftment of our people, but God says to us today my friends, that there is room for improvement in many areas,” said Byron, a cousin of attorney general and minister of justice and legal affiars, Vincent Byron Jr.
“There can be no true unity, without justice. There can be no transformation of our nation for the better without love, reconciliation, kindness and compassion one for another,” said Byron.
Stating that there must be justice and equal opportunity for all, the Nevisian born cleric pointed out that “too many decisions have been made along party lines in our nation. Persons should be chosen for job positions according to their qualifications and not according to the party that they support. Our partisan practices have caused too much division, too much conflict among our people and that is not right in the eyes of God.
Persons are afraid to speak their minds openly and honestly, less their frankness be rewarded with retaliation and victimisation.
“God’s way is the way of love. It is the way of peace and reconciliation, not confusion, war, conflicts, arguments, vengeful actions and constant bitter controversy in meetings and rebellion to God and the things of God,” said Byron.
She noted that in local textbooks “we are teaching our children today to be gender neutral and of course we all know that this comes as a result of the homosexual loud cries from the big countries.
Let us remember that God made man and woman, male and female.
God is not in any neutral gender story and I urge you brothers and sisters of the clergy, our children are being taught these things in the secular schools and that is why we in the church have to step up our efforts to get children in Sunday school where we can teach them the truth and the right. Don’t forget Soddom and Gomorroh.
Rev Byron said more and more nations are straying away from God and the things of God and “we see the results all around us; violence and crime. This little island nation of St Kitts and Nevis too much crime and violence.”
“God wants us to look for the good and the best in our fellowmen and seek to build each other up instead of pulling one another down because of jealousy and revenge and other negative motives,” Byron said.
“Too many of us are too full of self, always arrogant and proud. God’s way is the way of humility, not forever being puffed up about me, myself and I,” she said. Adding: “You hear it all the time, ‘it is I who pulled up myself by my own booth strap’. ‘It is my party who have done this or that or the other.’ ‘Since my party came in you can see this or that or the other.”
Byron called on spiritual as well as political leaders to give thanks to God who has given us the wherewithal to be where we are today. It can all be gone in a twinkling of an eye.”
