Is Heaven going to help us?

One of the hardest aspects of moving to Barbados has been to deal with some important questions about religion. Simply put, I am an Anglican struggling to find a happy home with that congregation in Barbados. I was baptized, educated, worshipped, married, had my children christened, served in that branch of the Christian faith (or the US equivalent in the Episcopalian congregation). Finding an Anglican church in which to worship has been like a lot of other things in Barbados: a lot of promise on the surface but once one digs a little deeper there's a lot lacking. Maybe I should have tried every one of the Anglican churches, but I also like to feel that the physical location of a congregation near to where I live is also important, so I don't want to have to drive to St. James, or St. John or St. Lucy to worship. Having tried a good half dozen churches in St. Michael and Christ Church areas we felt that nothing much was different.

Many things explain why the Anglican church in Barbados does not appeal, one of them being the form of service that seems to remain popular here. Some funky racial issues seem to be played out in some of the churches, that make me feel uncomfortable. The services appear very stiff, very formal, less family-oriented than what I have experienced almost all of my life (from England and in the US, and occasionally in The Bahamas).

I am not so riven by the ability of the priest to preach a "good sermon". Sure, I like to feel that if you are going to talk to me from anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour you had better have something that will keep my attention. I feel intelligent enough to know rubbish when I hear it, and dressing it up with volume and grand gestures doesn't change it. What I like to hear is something that provokes me and other parishioners to ask how I can be a better person and help others to also be better people. I also like to feel that the church has some notion that it has a role to play in changing things from bad to good, from worse to better, from worst to best. I, personally, have not felt that the Anglican church in Barbados has been doing much in that change business. I have not seen or heard much from the priests and congregations that they have any sense that they need to really engage in change, not just by talking about how terrible the world has become and wish that more people would go to church or read The Bible. But hearing that from one-on-one or group contact with people in difficulty--youths, aged, criminals, drug abusers, physical abusers--or from some well-argued principles challenges is really engaging in the process of improving things. The most involved discussion I have heard was about the appallingly high cost of turkeys ahead of a possible Christmas dinner and pleas to any in the congregation who might be able to get turkeys at a reasonable price. I could put that down as "tackling cost of living issues". The major issue that a church congregation was asked to focus that I heard was on was the need to pray for the West Indies team ahead of some key games during the Cricket World Cup and to show our support by having a special service the day before the game in Barbados.

I don't want to see people treat me as a new entrant in a church as if I am an alien: welcoming me means more than singing a nice welcome ditty and getting me to stand up and say where I have come from. It means offering me a hynmal and helping me through the liturgy as practiced in that church--because it is different from church to church. It means recognizing me as a stranger and making strides to make me a friend. It means not lecturing me for not having my own hymnal. It means trying to get to know me and my family and to ask us if we are having problems with our move to Barbados; showing an interest in getting us engaged in whatever the congregation is doing--if anything. It means following up on promises to come and bless our home. The absence of these things does not offend me, personally; I have been through many instances of the sweet smile being the most that is offered. They do upset my wife extensively. She decided, after forays into various Anglican congregations reasonably close to where we were living, that they had nothing to offer her. She found a Catholic church that has many good points in terms of what it offers in a broad social sense, not least, a solid place for children in the service. She likes the priest too, who is himself a converted Anglican, and his willingness to put out challenging arguments.

My wife is spoilt in a sense, coming from one of the most welcoming parishes I have ever met. Her family worship in an Anglican church in Nassau that her family helped found. It's a church whose services are joyous--singing praise and worship, having a special blessing for the children, celebrating every birthday, anniversary, scholastic achievement, with dynamic priests who have challenging views on many issues. The church is full to the brim every week. I am not one for long services but after three hours at this church I am not thinking about the time I spent, but about the challenges that have been set in front of me, occasionally the painful testimonies that I had heard--though these are not regular or needed, but are representative that people feel that they are ready to expose themselves and fall into the arms of their fellow worshippers. They are not an especially liberal-thinking congregation, such as we had in Washington, DC: I could say their views are typically Caribbean.

We were spoilt in the US by a church whose congregation really cared about a lot of issues and engaged actively in trying to help people overcome problems. Whether it was a feeding mission; or it was other forms of community outreach. Whether it was a long and bruising process of changing the physical structure of the church and transforming the mission of the congregation. Whether it was mounting annual phone calling drives to get each parishioner to renew a financial pledge. Whether it was a retreat for the congregation; or it was a thinking weekend for the Vestry members.

But while a place of worship for me is important, if I cannot find one that sits within my fundamental faith, I don't think I can change the faith and be comfortable, so it's harder for me to feel that my answer is to move to a branch of religion with which I have fundamental differences. In the same way that I do not feel that my spiritual or religious guidance and answers lie in Islam, or in Buddhism, or in Hinduism, or in one of several evangelical branches of Christianity. Like many Caribbean persons I have friends and family who worship across the spectrum of Christian faiths--Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Moravians, Church of God, Jehovah's Witness, etc., and in other religions. But, like being raised a vegetarian, one does not just swap over to being a meat eater because your local market has a poor selection of vegetables. One has followed a life style, maybe forgetting or not even knowing the real reasons, but it's been a part of life. Your physical and mental state have reflected that life style. While I would never criticize anyone for, or try to convert anyone from, the religion they follow, I do not feel the urge to follow another branch of religion. Maybe that's my personal mistake. (One view held by some is to abandon organized religions--see link. The world is big enough to encompass many views.)

More broadly, when I listen to the "voices" of the Anglican faith in Barbados--which are in fact rarely heard here--I hear nothing much that tells me that they are engaging many people, or are much in touch with the current realities of Barbados. The average Anglican congregation I have seen is made up of middle-aged women. It's like on a Greek island, where all the men were killed in the war. Where are the men? Where are the teenage youths? True, this is not just an Anglican problem, but I think it has become a greater problem for Anglicans. When I go past The People's Cathedral on any day that they have services the church is full and the congregation is in full voice, and a broad cross-section of the (admittedly black) population is in evidence.

Some of the Anglicans' problem may be that there has not been enough attention paid to communication and what that needs to be in the present times. I find appalling that the Anglican Church's website has its most recent edition of "Anglican News" as Easter 2007! That the article that grabs my attention is entitled "The heading power of Jesus"... Barbados may need to enlist him this afternoon against the the US to qualify for soccer World Cup 2010: many of us have heard the old joke "Jesus saves, but Pele puts in the rebound...". These things show a total lack of care about what message is being sent out or taken notice of. When I look on the site under "Youth" all I see is a picture and the words "Anglican youth arise! Proclaim a new dawn". That's it? That's how my child is going to navigate through the minefield of modern life? I look for the "Thought for the day", I get:

Seek the Lord, while He may be found,
call upon Him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways and evil men their thoughts:

Let them return to the Lord, who will have pity on them
return to our God, for he will freely forgive
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways. This is the very word of the Lord.

Good thoughts for the converted and intitiated perhaps--if they can understand some or all of it--but nothing to draw in anyone new. But it was from January 10, 2008! The world has stood still since then?

A quick search indicated that the Anglican church was the first official religion in Barbados. Today it accounts for 33 percent of church going members, dramatically down from 90 percent reported in the late 19th century. There is a competition going on for faith and the Anglican Church has been losing badly--poorly enough to be relegated and certainly badly enough for teh management to have been dismissed many years ago. Sure, there is no reason why its position should have remained so high over more than a hundred years. But is it really trying hard to hold onto or even grow a flock or following? Is it really at a loss to know why people are streaming to other places? Does it care? I don't have the answers but in my gut I sense that it has lost its way and cannot find it with the current team and management. Are there dynamic persons in the faith waiting to burst onto the scene? I hope so. If any of them are reading this, please tell me that I have reason to have hope.