Anguilla’s Chief Minister, and Minister of Home Affairs, the Honourable Osbourne Fleming, is distinguishing himself from his regional counterparts by being a political leader and a devout Christian leader at the same time and he is calling on nationals from the pulpit to pursue right living, honesty, love for God and their fellowmen.

Brother Osbourne Fleming delivering Sermon

“I have just started to preach again and I intend to continue preaching,” Mr. Fleming told The Anguillian as he busily shook hands at the door with members of the Mount Fortune Seventh-day Adventist Church on Saturday, December 6, following his stirring sermon on Stewardship.

For him, and perhaps the older generation of the church, it is a return to his boyhood days of preaching when he was 15 or 16 years old. “Those were many years ago and very different times from today,” he reflected. “Life has changed completely since then.”

The Mount Fortune Adventist Chorale (MFAC) in song

Asked what it meant to him to be back in the pulpit, he replied: “I don’t want it to mean to me. I want it to mean to the people and myself. We need to get closer to each other and to Christ who is soon to come.”

In introducing him to the congregation, of which Mr. Fleming is a member, First Elder, Wilkin Harrigan, said: “If it were at a different occasion and place, I would have addressed him as ‘The Hon. Chief Minister but, as he is in church, I refer to him as ‘Brother Fleming.’ He had in fact said what Mr. Fleming wants to be called during worship.

Brother Foster Rogers in song

Present with the Chief Minister was his Permanent Secretary, Foster Rogers, who often travels abroad with him and accompanies him at SDA churches in between their official business. Mr. Rogers , who is also an Adventist and a noted singer, sang the song “He Touched Me,” a fitting testimony of the Anguillian Leader who is forever grateful for his successful kidney transplant operation and his turn around to Christianity.

His sermon was taken from 2 Kings Chapter 5 which tells the story of the healing of Naaman, who was the commander of the Syrian King’s army, but who was a leper. Naaman was healed after grudgingly dipping into the murky Jordan River as advised by the prophet Elijah, rather than in one of the pristine rivers in native city of Damascus. The story relates that while Elijah refused gifts from Naaman as payment for his healing, Gehazi, the prophet’s servant, secretly and dishonestly took a portion of the gifts of money and clothing for himself from Naaman and immediately became a leper “white as snow” as a result.

Section of the congregation

“Jesus asks us for nothing but freely gives us His grace”, Mr. Fleming preached .” “There is nothing wrong about having money [provided it is gained honestly]. Jesus will not ask us how much we accumulated. He is going to ask what you did with it? He wants you to help the hungry, the sick, the stranger and the oppressed. When Christ comes, it will be the small things you do that will matter.”

Mr. Fleming was in essence telling his listeners to avoid selfishness, greed, and dishonesty. Referring to a way persons in Anguilla are obtaining money, he declared: “Anyone who plays the numbers game is greedy. He wants to get more than he puts in.” It is to be noted that at one of his recent press conferences the Chief Minister alleged that playing the gaming numbers was illegal and he warned that government was looking into the matter.

“God wants us to get whatever we have honestly,” he told the Mount Fortune Seventh-day Adventist congregation. “Let us continue to serve God and praise and thank Him for His goodness and let us be helpful to our fellowmen.”

Mr. Fleming is Deputy Chairman of a Stewardship Committee at the Mount Fortune SDA Church, now observing Stewardship Week.

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