Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/4385/-1/140/
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At Ebenezer Methodist Chapel: Government Marks Two Years In Office
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Having worshipped at the Mount Fortune Seventh-day Adventist Church the day before, the Chief Minister, other Ministers and officials of Government, attended the Sunday morning service at Ebenezer Methodist Chapel on Sunday, February 18.
The regular service was conducted by Superintendent Minister of the Anguilla Circuit, the Reverend Dr. H. Clifton Niles.
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Government Officials at service
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One of the matters of concern he spoke about was the ill-manners, uncouth behaviour and foul language of young people on the island and the acceptance of such conduct by adults. “I asked myself, how come Anguilla has degenerated like this?” he went on. “The answer I have given myself is: ‘while we were sleeping the enemy was working.’ We are asleep – morally, spiritually and educationally.” He compared the situation in Anguilla to the Biblical reference that while the people of the day were asleep ‘the enemy’ had sewn tares among the wheat.
“There has to be a halt to the downward slide,” The Minister said. “We cannot go week after week seeing murders and other crime and violence…When God’s people fall asleep the enemy gets what he wants to do.
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Members of the congregation
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He told the Government officials they had an important leadership role to play in Anguilla. “In the name of God and in the name of Anguilla: please make sure that you do not fall asleep. Stay awake,” he admonished.
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Anniversary ribbons from Janice Hodge
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Speaking in general, he continued: “I am calling on you, my brothers and sisters to rise from sleep. Wake up. Stay alert and do what you have to do in the name of Christ. Wake up as a family, a father and a mother. Have you gone to sleep on your children’s morality, and discipline – so that they are undisciplined, uncontrollable and disrespectful and you are not doing anything about it?”
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Rev. Dr. Niles
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He advised the Government and other members of the congregation “to go to the mountain top” to pray for leadership.