The Tribune

OPENING the 114th session of the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday night, Bishop Laish Boyd focused on several topics pertinent to today’s Bahamas, including the national birth rate, an independent boundaries commission, campaign reform and immigration.

Below is an extract of the address he gave at Christ Church Cathedral:

Doing what is right is the job of all of us in the Church and in the state. The Church is called to preach the gospel and to instruct and encourage members to bring their lives into line with Christ’s expectations. When this happens, our personal lives, our relationships, our work, our studies all take on their full potential. And we are empowered to do what we need to do in terms of impacting the wider community, changing lives, addressing national issues, speaking out against wrong, speaking the truth to power and to influence. But it begins with our faithfulness to the gospel. Then, our faithfulness to the gospel spills over into every other area.

In this regard, I want us to look at a number of issues which face us all:

The national birth rate

Richard Lightbourn, Member of Parliament for Montagu, made some remarks at the Free National Movement’s convention in July 2016. The Venerable James Palacious, Archdeacon for Administration for the Anglican Diocese, made some remarks at the 50th Majority Rule Day service. There were varied reactions to these remarks, but one thing is certain: the remarks speak to a national issue that has far-reaching and crippling implications on the current reality and on the future of our beloved Bahamas: While the birthrate per capita has actually declined over the years, as a general rule, too many people are having children that they cannot afford to maintain materially, parentally, emotionally or financially.

We know that the right to have a child is a personal one and that no one can stop anyone from mothering or fathering a child. We know also that many single parents have done a fine job raising children but, if we are honest, we have to admit that this is becoming less and less the case today as too many young people are having babies. They are not fully mature themselves. They are not socially stable in terms of their living circumstances. They are not financially self-sufficient. They cannot create a stable, ordered environment for a child to grow up in. Yet they are having babies because “they is man!” or they is woman!”

Some not-so-young persons are mothering and fathering children and do not have all of the resources to care for a child. Too many people are having children and have not asked, “Can I afford a baby or another baby?”, “Do I have the order and stability in my life to sustain a child?”, “Do I have what it takes to provide for this child?”, or

“Is this child going to have a fighting chance?”

For too many of our children the game is over before it even starts. They are born into “no-win” circumstances.

Dear friends, these are the realities that are affecting this country every day, creating hopelessness, giving no options for success, recycling poverty and underdevelopment and hurting Bahamaland. We cannot build a sound society on a shaky foundation.

Not every mother or father is doing this. There are many fine parents, single and married, who are doing the skill of parenting proud. But far too many fall into the category that I have outlined.

No one has all of the answers to this dilemma. We all have to work together on this. The government through its efforts and agencies is trying its best but let us all redouble our efforts. I do know that we have to talk more to our young people from the primary school and high school levels. I am not talking about conversation for the sake of having it, but real, honest, frank, practical discussions on this topic and on related issues. Yes, it has to happen in schools and churches and Sunday Schools and Sabbath Schools and youth groups. And it has to happen outside of those walls as well. We have to teach the value of life and healthy choices and responsibility for one’s actions. We have to teach that the body is still the Temple of the Lord and, for those with no Christian foundation, just let them know that the body and its functions and its capabilities are precious.

Teach that sex is not a recreation, it is a sacred act, and that a baby is not something you have to prove that “you is man” or that “you is woman”; that it is a bad idea to have a baby to keep a man or as a meal ticket, because the long-term responsibility is too big for one moment of satisfaction.

We have to talk aggressively and to teach this: parents, teachers, clergy, youth groups, curriculum people.

And we need a national information/education initiative to reach those who are out of school, to the wider citizenry.

We cannot just have children because we have the biology. We have to consider the long-term implications.

This is a matter of foundational national urgency, never mind how politically sensitive it is or how much furor it generates on the talk shows. There is urgent need for a more Comprehensive National Family Planning Programme.

Independent boundaries commission

I wish to renew my call for an independent boundaries commission. Successive governments continue to use their majority influence over the boundaries exercise as a way to attain political advantage, e g, chop off here and add on there to make sure my person gets in. The boundaries commission’s work should be based on numbers, demographics and geography, not political whim. I was once told by a sitting Prime Minister that he wanted it but that the Members of Parliament on both sides were all vehemently against it. I cannot say that I am surprised if it can be used to personal and partisan advantage. But we need an independent body, especially in a country where there is so much familiarity, inbreeding, corruption and circumventing of laws and procedures – when it suits our fancy. We need an independent boundaries commission that draws lines objectively and that reports on time.

Let us do the right thing!

Campaign reform

I call again for serious campaign finance reform. Parties need to be held accountable for what they collect and what they spend, with appropriate limits put in place for each. The Opposition and the Governing Party need to say where their money has come from. This is foreign to us and may even seem offensive, but it is standard practice in well-run democracies worldwide. It also keeps everyone honest and encourages campaigns and countries to be run on issues rather than by special interests and self-preservation.

Immigration

Over the past year, we have seen an increase in the number of illegal immigrants being picked up at sea or stranded on one of our islands. While we are sympathetic to our brothers and sisters who leave their country in search of a better life for themselves and their families, we have to protect our borders so that the country would not be overrun by a migrant population.

Once again, I call upon the government to continue to enforce the Immigration laws of our country and to repatriate people who are here illegally, while we give status to others who might have legitimate claim to it. Persons born in this country to non-Bahamians should not have to wait so many years before they receive a reply to their application for some kind of permanent status – if they return a reply at all.

We must commend the Immigration Department in its valiant efforts to apprehend and repatriate illegal immigrants. We must also say special thanks to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force for stepping up its patrol of all over the archipelago and for apprehending poachers and others.

In light of the huge increase in the number of Cuban nationals picked up recently, I strongly urge the government to appoint a citizens advisory committee that would visit the Detention Centre regularly in order to check on the overall management of the facility and the welfare of the detainees. This is particularly important in light of the negative publicity we have had from Cuban Americans who accused our officers of cruelty to their compatriots. Such a committee could speak truth to the issue and the government would not have to defend itself against false accusations.

Conclusion

Dear people of God, justice is something that we do. The Church, the government, the schools, the private sector, social and civic organisations must individually and collectively agitate and work for it in every area so that, in the words of the Prophet Amos, Justice will “roll down like a river” (Amos 5:24) all over the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands

Key in all of this in our personal choice: choosing to follow in our own lives, living our faith. This should spill over into everything else that we do.

As the bishop of the Diocese, I call on all Anglicans, and upon the wider community, to focus on that personal relationship with God: nurture it, strengthen it, rekindle it if you have to, or start it for the first time. Live for God. Let His light shine into our lives..and then let His light shine FROM our lives. We have to get back to basics. We have to live for God. We have to live the Gospel. We have to put arms and hands and legs on the Gospel.

Our theme in the Diocese this year is “We have a Goodly Heritage – Build on it!”

Our Christian heritage is rich. God has been so good to us. He has given us life. He has given us this Church that has shaped us all, and given us each our wonderful identity. He has given us His Son, Jesus, who died for our redemption. My friends, let us claim God, name and claim Gods’ place in our lives, and move forward from this foundation to live for Him, to build on the glorious faith with which we have been entrusted.

In this year I call on the whole Anglican Family, individually, in parishes, in your various ministries and in every sphere of existence, to build on God’s heritage in your life.