Barbados call after election: CEN 4.04.08 p 6. April 4, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies.trackback
Published in The Church of England Newspaper
The Church in Barbados has cautioned the country’s opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) against splitting into factions following its defeat in the General Elections.
In a founder’s day service for the BLP held at St. Mary’s Church in Bridgetown on March 30, the Rev. Von Watson charged the party to holdfast. “Unity is very essential for the present and the future,” he said according to local press accounts. “There will be the need for common mind and purpose in even the days of differences of opinions.”
On Jan 15 the BLP was turned out of office, returning only 10 members to the 33 seat House of Assembly—losing 14 seats to the opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) which returned 20 members.
In the wake of the defeat of the “oldest political party in Barbados, there has to be a cohesion” Fr. Watson said. “There can be no room for separation and certainly no room for division.”
Party leader Mia Mottley (pictured) told the congregation the BLP would return to its political roots and must “put people first.” The opposition would focus on the environment, housing, the economy and the “fight against poverty. “
The “key battles that we will continue to fight,” she said would be to prevent the “gap between ‘the haves’ and ‘the have-nots’ from widening” in Barbados as it had “in so many developed countries.”
“At this present time, you are in the office called the Official Opposition and biblically speaking you are therefore the watchman. You are to blow the trumpet when necessary and give warning when needed,” Fr. Watson said.
“For when the time of reckoning comes, you, my friend, will be judged on how you kept watch, what you did or did not do with the trumpet, or whether you warned or did not warn the house of Barbados,” he said.
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