“Is it nothing to you that crime and other social ills are rampant in Anguilla?” the voice of Pastor Norril Gumbs of the First Baptist Church at Welches echoed in the spacious edifice on Sunday, January 25. His challenge was to the people of the island, many of them seated in the pews below his pulpit, to confront evil and to work with the police.

Government Officials and others

He was at the time delivering his sermon during a special service in observance of the 37th Anniversary of the Royal Anguilla Police Force.

The outspoken Minister took his text from the Book of Lamentations which records the weeping of Jeremiah over the afflictions of the ancient city of Jerusalem when its people showed little concern for its situation. He drew the analogy that in Anguilla not enough concern was being shown about the rise in crime, and the need for members of the public to work with the police in their efforts to maintain law and order on the island and to bring criminals to justice.

The Church’s Adult Choir in performance

“Jeremiah just didn’t sit there, he cried out,” said Pastor Gumbs, in his plea to Anguillians not to remain silent in the face of the societal problems and the need to combat crime. He noted that some homes on the island were breeding grounds for much of the indiscipline in the schools and communities resulting from a lack of parental control and leadership. He lamented that the family virtues of unity, love, respect, good manners, religious living and concern for each other’s children in traditional Anguilla were sadly on the decline and, in some cases, had vanished leading to a socially and morally impoverished island. Yet he said there was hope for redemption with trust in God.

The March Pass on the main road in front of the Church

Pastor Gumbs stated that any religious conference held in the Caribbean invariably showed that many of the preachers were natives of Anguilla. He noted, however, that “a number of them were now getting old and falling off the scene” and there was a need for new preachers to continue the work of shaping the religious and spiritual lives of the people.

He called on the people of Anguilla to work towards a spiritual revival in the island, to look after their neighbourhoods and to come together in a spirit of cooperation, love and sharing as they did in the olden days. He exhorted them to work towards the rebuilding of the lives of their families and in particular to see about their children noting that, unlike in times past, the prison cells are filled with young people.

The March Pass on the main road in front of the Church

There was a capacity congregation at the church. Among those in attendance were Government officials including Governor Andrew George, who has responsibility for the police, Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming and Ministers Victor Banks and Kenneth Harrigan, Opposition Member Hubert Hughes and Attorney General, Dr. Wilhelm Bourne, and contingents from the Royal Anguilla Police Force, the Police Community Band and the Voluntary Korps Service of St. Maarten.

Following the service the uniformed units presented a spectacular march past on the main road in front of the church at which the salute was taken by the Governor with other officials from Anguilla and St. Maarten standing with him on the dais.

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