Anglican cleric warns: Disasters come in many different forms

AN ANGLICAN cleric is warning that while June marks the beginning of the hurricane season, there are several other disasters that are confronting persons in their daily lives.

The message came yesterday from Rector of the St. Thomas Anglican Church Reverend Canon Coleridge Darlington as he delivered a sermon to his congregation, which included members and friends of the Department of Emergency Management as part of activities to recognise Hurricane Awareness month.

Addressing the members of the DEM, he reminded that while this period is expected to be the season with the most calamities, there are a number of other disasters such as earthquakes and even tsunamis that could also impact the island throughout the year.

He also reminded that there a number of personal disasters that are affecting many in wider society and which require spiritual intervention.

“In our living there are times when we are crippled by events and circumstances that occur in our lives and we are feel as though our heads have blown off, because we are not sure about what to do about the circumstances that surround us.”

“The signs of the times are clear to us. Persons are in danger of perishing because the way of the world seeks to separate them to a pathway that leads to God.”

“So we must ask ourselves. What is going on in our society? What is going out in our village and in our terraces, heights, in our gardens? What is going on with our family?”

“How are we able to relate to the breakdowns and the breakups; the material distractions from the pathway to God? There is so much that is competing for our children’s attention and for our attention and it seeks to blot out the love of God for all men.”

The Reverend pointed to the “deteriorating state of the world affairs and the burden of new hardships that are confronting us”, and said it gives the Church the perfect opportunity to be spirit-led
rescuers.

“To come together and respond to what is burning within out hearts to do. Do not wait for someone else to do it, step forward and by the grace of God, make a difference.”

It is against this backdrop that he made a call for members of the Church to get out of their comfort zone, lamenting that too many persons have become accustomed to their weekly church routine and are failing to meet persons where they are in wider society.

“We need to get uncomfortable with being comfortable and go out into the deep,” he said, as he called for church members to be courageous.

“Sometimes we have a way of admiring persons who go out ‘visiting’; Persons who stand up at the gate and talk and sometimes then when your church will say ‘we want to go out’, we will say ‘Not me – that isn’t for me!”

“We must never write ourselves off. We are not expected by God to go out on our own,” he said pointing to the fact that disciples were sent out in twos.

“In every church there are persons with many gifts and many skills and the Holy Spirit is knocking at the hearts of many of us asking us not to be afraid. Partner yourself with someone else and make the difference.”

The Reverend told the congregation that it does not make sense to look at what is happening in society and saying that someone else will address the problems. “We have been equipped with the love of God. We are the people that God has called to be his messengers and his Ministers,” he said. (JH)