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As Barbados enters 2025, two Pentecostal Church leaders and the head of the Adventist Church here have urged the nation to return to its moral roots and confront rising crime levels, calling for collective action, stronger family values, and a renewed commitment to faith.
Reverend David Durant, senior pastor of Restoration Ministries, expressed his hope that 2025 would be a year filled with boundless opportunities, success, and joy for every individual.
“I wish this new year will greet everyone with many open doors, full of endless opportunities and possibilities for remarkable success. May each one experience joy unspeakable and be blessed with many memorable and unforgettable moments that will add virtue to their lives,” he said.
In his New Year’s message, Pastor Anthony Hall, president of the East Caribbean Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, began by wishing everyone a “happy, productive, and successful 2025,” acknowledging the importance of optimism and hope as the new year begins.
Senior Pastor of Mount Zion’s Missions, Reverend Lucille Baird, said her first wish for 2025 is a spiritual revival for Barbados. She believes the nation must turn back to God, whose guidance has shaped the country for over 300 years.
She said: “I would really wish that we would recognise him as God. I’m concerned that there are so many persons out there that have become Godless. So many people are not believing in God who can guide and direct us, and that’s a very frightening place to be as a country because the nation and the people that reject God will be in trouble.”
The year, 2024, saw an increase in criminal activities, resulting in a record number of murders and several hit-and-run accidents that are yet to be solved.
When Barbados TODAY spoke to the religious leaders, all expressed concern about the crime levels in the country.
Rev. Baird appealed to Barbados to return to the morals that once guided the nation.
“I’d like to see a return to the values and the morals and the principles that our fore-parents shared with us and taught us and we learned in school, and I like to see praise return in school as part of the programme.”
She added: “We all together as a people will want to see the end of the violence and the crime in Barbados,” she said adding, that the number of murders recorded in the country “is too much. This is the highest that we’ve ever had, and it breaks my heart as a mother to see our sons taken in the streets in the bloodshed.”
Rev. Baird appealed to families to return to the moral teachings and to restore the family structure.
“I think because we don’t have the family structure that we used to, the extended family of grandmother and community person helping to raise the children. A lot of single parents, and single mothers are parenting their children for fathers. I think that’s causing a lot of problems because we do need the father in the home, even though we’re having mothers doing their best. There’s something that mothers cannot give that fathers will give,” she said.
She called on communities to look out for each other as they used to.
The reverend who has worked with youth and prison inmates for several years, called for harsher penalties for crimes, particularly to deter youth from engaging in criminal activity, and stressed the need for a justice system that better addresses crime and discourages impunity.
“We need to have harsher penalties in the justice system so that it’s a deterrent to the youth who want to commit crimes and want to use guns as weapons on their own people”, she said and called for an improvement in the nation’s education and healthcare systems.
Rev. Durant expressed his desire for fewer criminal activities.
“We also would like to see a reduction in crime and violence, and the nation coming to a place of greater stability, peace, love for each other. There they can rise to a higher level of prosperity, not only economically but also in the area of industry.”
Pastor Hall of the Seventh-day Adventists, said he was “concerned about issues of morality and crime, integrity and so on within the society, and we are hoping that the new year will provide us with an opportunity to re-evaluate where we are, how we live, our obligations to God and family and others, and that we can strengthen the particular institutions of society that really matter”.
He added: “Focus on personal well-being, mental health and wellness, family life, and education.”
He also expressed concern for the marginalised in society: “We should try to tackle issues related to poverty, issues related to people who are marginalized or are somehow or another on the sidelines and not getting the best of the community. I hope that we can tackle those real issues in the upcoming year and that we can move everybody forward. Nobody should be left behind.”
louriannegraham@barbadostoday.bb
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