Return to faith-based living, HC students told

Attendees at the Harrison College Founders Day Service were urged to embrace faith-based principles as the foundation for a good life in a country beset by increased violence.

The Honourable Reverend Captain Joel Cumberbatch sounded the clarion call to all who attended the Founders Day church service, to let morality and spirituality guide their education and personal development.

In delivering the feature address at the service, which was held on Thursday at the Cathedral Church of St Michael and All Angels, Cumberbatch said there was a worrying decline in religious affiliation in Barbados.

“We live in an increasingly secular society, where God is being placed on the back burner in some instances. And where worship of God and church attendance is placed on the back burner, or no burner at all.”

He contrasted past and present attitudes to church attendance and religious affiliation.

“In this modern era, we say to our children, some of us that is, and I would like to think that it is still a minority. We say to our children, go to church if you feel like, or when you feel like. In many instances, there is no modelling in this regard, since church life, and things sacred, are not a part of the experience of many parents and many homes.”

The former teacher said that during his 26 years in education, he has seen a significant decline in students who regularly attended church.

“Less than about a third of the students from each class went to church, or had any kind of religious affiliation or association. My friends, history cannot exist in a vacuum—that is so well known. School life, in a real sense, is a microcosm of what happens in the wider society.”

The reverend said a survey conducted a few years ago showed that a significant number of people did not attend church or have any religious affiliation at all.

“I must admit that as a church, a community church, we have our work cut out to address this downward slide in our society. And the truth is COVID-19 has worsened that situation. In many of our settings across Barbados and across the region, which I have traversed with some frequency, there is a significant absence of young people in church,” he said.

He cited the lack of interest in religious education in schools as further evidence of this decline, since it is often the first subject dropped when students are given the opportunity.

Reverend Cumberbatch has appealed to Barbadians to return to the fundamentals, in schools and in social groups.
(LG)