The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ANGLICANS will discuss establishing a programme so lay persons and clergyman can further their religious education during this week’s annual Synod.

Synod, which opened with a church service at Christ Church Cathedral on Tuesday, will continue until Thursday.

It is the 112th time the meeting will take place in the Bahamas.

According to Archdeacon James Palacious, the gathering will allow various ministries and departments within Anglican churches, including the men, the youth, the women, the renewal committee and the finance committee, to give an account of their stewardship.

“We will conceive and make a budget for the new year while discussing some new things,” he said.

One of those, he said, will be what can be done to allow some deacons in the church to remain deacons and not enter priesthood.

Another item on the agenda will be a consideration of how the church can better minister to those people who are a part of parishes with multiple churches but only one priest.

“How do you empower lay people to carry on the ministry in the absence of the priest?” he said.

The annual Synod is happening at Holy Trinity in Stapledon Gardens.

In addition to being attended by many clergyman, two lay persons from every parish in the Bahamas attend the meetings.

The Governor General, Sir Arthur Foulkes; Prime Minister Perry Christie; Deputy Prime Minister Phillip Davis; FNM Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner; cabinet ministers and senators were among the persons who attended the Synod’s opening ceremony.

During his speech at the opening ceremony, Bishop Laish Boyd commended the current government for its efforts to “make a difference” and urged leaders of the two major political parties to unite “for the good of the country”.

He also commended past and present governments for their efforts to curb crime while saying that more needs to be done to reduce crime.

“Politics, party and organisations continue to hamper the course of justice,” he said.