The long-established Bethany Gospel Hall on the Stoney Ground Road, the only such religious denomination in Anguilla, is featuring a Barbadian Church team in a series of revival services it is conducting.

Pastor and Mrs. Ashby with visiting Barbadian team

Bethany’s Pastor, William Ashby, who is originally from Barbados, told The Anguillian that there were some twelve Gospel Hall Brethren Churches there and members had been visiting Anguilla over the years to assist with the work at Bethany.

The team, which started its work on the island on Sunday, April 28, took time off on Monday morning to minister at the nearby Stoney Ground Primary School. The group is under the leadership of pianist Cleveland Harrison.

Some team members and Anguillians

“We are from the Dayrells’ Road Gospel Hall in Christ Church, Barbados,” he said. “We were originally invited to attend a conference in Guyana but we did not raise a big enough choir to go there where we were promoted as a really good singing group. We thought however to defer that visit and the idea of a visit to Anguilla came up because we had been here about five years ago and some six years before that we were here. So the group individually and collectively decided ‘let’s go to Anguilla’ to give some assistance.

“There are eleven of us and it is a real coincidence that when we were here five years ago there were eleven of us and before that there were eleven of us. So there seems to be a magical thing about eleven for this group. We have a senior and junior choir. I sing for the senior choir but play the keyboard for the junior choir.”

Asked what he thought about Anguilla, Mr. Harrison replied: “I love Anguilla and would move here if I could get a piece of property at a really good price. The island is quiet, there is not a lot to do but it is very quiet and relaxing and we are enjoying ourselves here.”

The team is in Anguilla for nine days and is scheduled to leave the island on Monday, May 5.

Mrs. Ashby and section of the congregation

Meanwhile, Pastor Ashby said that Bethany Gospel Hall was dedicated in Anguilla on July 22, 1973, some ten months after the start of its construction. With the assistance of his wife, Mrs. Joycelynne Ashby, a well-known music teacher on the island, he has been the sole Pastor of the Church over those long years.
Asked about plans for pastoral help later on, the well-respected Pastor Ashby, who is in his mid 80s and still very active, commented: “I don’t know about that. God sent me here and I am waiting for Him to send somebody else. I can’t appoint anybody. He sent these folks here this time and I am glad they came. I am leaving it to Him. He knows His business. I don’t know what He plans, but He will work His plans out for us.”

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