Last Thursday, May 4th, marked Anguilla’s 6th annual Interdenominational Day of Prayer. That was when Anguilla joined with several other Caribbean islands, including St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Montserrat and the British Virgin Islands, along with, of course, the United States of America, which had officially initiated the National Day of Prayer observance since 1952. Currently, Mrs. Shirley Dobson, partner in the renown Focus on the Family ministries, serves as designated Chairman of the National Day of Prayer’s Task Force in the U.S, while Dr. Henry Blackaby serves as honorary General Chairman.

National Day of Prayer’s Chairman Rev. Weekes with others

Under the theme “Those who honor me I will honor”, local organizers of the event last Thursday became engaged in all-day prayer sessions at the local Parliament Building. The precedence for this venue was set since last year, when, for the first time, the National Day of Prayer Committee headed by the Rev. Cecil Weekes was privileged to utilize the highest Chamber in the nation for the purpose of staging prayers on May 5th 2005.

Like last year, various radio stations on Thursday took turns in airing prayers live from the Chamber of the House at two-hour intervals from 8:00 am to 4:00 p.m. From here, many aspects of national life were taken to the throne of God by a cadre of pastors, accompanied by their respective church members.

At least for once, these bands of intercessors came together on common ground to pray for such facets as: the running of our government; our health and education systems; the judicial sector with emphasis on crime and police services; protection from natural disasters; social morality; family-life relationships; and juvenile matters, etc. Employees at offices, establishments and work-sites all across the island were also encouraged to pause awhile and engage themselves in a “season” of payer, particularly at noon.

At 5 o’clock that evening, a fairly large procession of vehicles engaged in a spectacular “prayer-cade”, which began at the grounds of the Landsome Bowl, moving west through South Valley, up through Sachasses and down to George Hill en route to North Hill, via Sandy Ground. Several prayer stops were made along this route as Pastor Winston Ryan provided ample prayerful commentary over an efficient PA system for the entire journey. Prior to the “prayer-cade”, Rev. Weekes had prayed that God would retain the rain inside the grey forbidding skies, which had cast a threat of inclement weather over the area all day. And certainly, not an ounce of water fell to interrupt any of the day’s proceedings.

A section of the congregation

The motorcade eventually culminated at the North Hill basketball court, where an ecumenical service was held featuring a session of song and worship led by Vanessa Connor with more concentrated prayers offered by Pastor Jerome Harrigan. The spirited service was moderated by Mr. Stanford Richardson and, like last year, the Chairman, Rev. Weekes, commented that it was an admirable spectacle to see the many denominational walls broken down so that Christians can come together as one to unite in prayer for at least one day of the year.

The modest congregation represented a favourable cross-section of the local Christian community. Government officials in attendance included Minister of Finance, the Hon. Mr. Victor Banks, as well as Minister of Infrastructure Communications and Utilities, the Hon. Mr. Kenneth Harrigan. The presence of the Hon. Speaker of the House, Mr. David Carty, also graced the gathering.

Sermon being delivered by Pastor Philip Gumbs

The sermon for the occasion was delivered by the Pastor of the Church of God of Holiness, Pastor Phillip Gumbs. He stressed the need for Christians, in particular, to uphold the attributes of honesty, diligence and integrity. In an age when it is so easy to compromise morality for the attainment of selfish gain, Pastor Gumbs unraveled instances where Christians are often tempted to run their daily lives contrary to God’s will and even counter to their own convictions. He emphasized that such contradictory conduct would certainly cause one to miss alignment with the theme, “Those who honor me, I will honor” – a promise of God found in the Bible book of 1 Samuel Chapter 2 and verse 30.

Close to the end of the service, Rev. Weekes astonished the congregation by announcing that instead of in the customary month of May, next year’s National Day of Prayer will be observed on the first Thursday in the year. That would set a date at January 4th, 2007. Again, we would be looking forward to this day of spiritual refreshing next year.

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News