Anglicans head into Synod and AGM

As Anglicans head into their 117th Session of Diocesan Synod next week, Bishop Laish Boyd is expected to deliver a Charge that will affirm and encourage, and criticize where it is warranted, while at the same time, offering commendations where deserved.

Boyd said his Charge will focus on this time of pandemic, one that is new to the people of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“It’s a message for now,” said Boyd, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The theme for the Synod is the age-old truth that “God is still God, and that we are still the church” – no matter the challenge, which he said ties in to the fact that the church and the people are continuing to press on.

“The challenges are just for a season,” said Boyd. “These are challenging times, but we are pressing on, and will continue to press on because there is still hope. This is just for a season.”

The Synod, the annual general meeting of the diocese, will be held November 16-19, and will convene with the customary Opening Eucharist on Monday, November 16, at 4:30 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral, to which the public is invited. At the service, the Anglican bishop said, all of the standard COVID-19 protocols – social distancing and hand sanitizing – will occur. The service will also be broadcast live on ZNS television and radio, and streamed on Facebook and YouTube.

For this year’s Synod, no Anglican clergy or lay delegate from outside of New Providence will be required to travel into New Providence. At the opening service, clergy and lay delegates from New Providence parishes will represent all other delegates, according to Boyd.

The business sessions will be conducted virtually.

Boyd said the message he will deliver in his Charge will be timely and important because the country has never been in this place before. As such, he said it’s a message for now, and important to him because it is for now.

“I don’t normally say which topic I’m going to be dealing with in my Charge, however, I will be saying some things about COVID-19, our response as two countries and also saying some things about the economy and tourism. And I will be saying something about food self-sufficiency,” said the Anglican bishop.

“One of the things I will focus on is the fact that as a church, the Christian church – if you look at the whole landscape, the church, and not just the Anglican church – has responded so well and mutli-facetedly to the COVID-19 reality. The sum total of leadership has been phenomenal if you look at everything denominations are doing,” said Boyd.

The Anglican bishop is expected to note that the church has to continue doing what it has done in the face of the challenges presented by COVID-19.

“While COVID presented challenges, God is still God and the church always adjusts and continues being the church,” he said.

“We really need to just press on in the face of this pandemic. And we have to remember that no matter what governments may do…and governments have done various things, the real front line in this fight against COVID is the individual.

“We have to be sensible and manage ourselves and our environments. We have to do that in our individual lives and circumstances.”

In his Charge, Boyd is expected to remind people that they have to keep and observe the COVID-19 protocols.

Five days out from delivering his Charge, Boyd said it is just about written, and that he is using these last few days to tweak and tidy his message. He admitted that he will be working on it up to the last minute on Monday.

The Anglican diocese’s business sessions will take place via Zoom, November 17-19. According to the bishop, there was a variety of ease and difficulty with the transition to the virtual platform.

“There were various degrees of ease and difficulty from congregation to congregation and individual to individual as leaders had to fashion response and action,” said Boyd. “There were some congregations and leaders, and some circumstances where it was easy and some where the transition was a steeper learning curve.”

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