Anglicans celebrate Year of the Family

The Anglican Church in the Province of the West Indies at the 36th Provincial Synod held in Guyana in December 2009, declared 2011 as the Year of the Family, with the month of June designated as “Family Month”.{{more}} The Ethos of year and the month being to emphasize the importance of the Family in the context of Christian living; to support and promote family centred activities.

In a release, the Church in the Province of the West Indies acknowledged that in Caribbean societies the family is characterized by various forms and structures: nuclear family, extended family, the blended family, households headed by single women, single men, grandparents and siblings. The Church should play the leading role in affirming and upholding the dignity of all persons. The Church advocates the Christian ideal of one man and one woman legally and sacramentally joined in matrimony, and encourages persons who have been married according to the laws of the land to seek the blessing of the Church. The Church, therefore, should actively encourage and promote the Christian Family through education and practice.

According to the release, the Church in the Province has acknowledged that the breakdown of family values within family life and the existence of significant social inequalities in the region have led to the emergence of a pool of alienated, marginalized youth who have become vulnerable to the recruitment efforts of organized crime.

The Year of the Family was launched in the Province of the West Indies on Sunday, January 23, with the theme “Building Strong Christian Families”. The Resolution was presented to the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines through Ralph E. Gonsalves, Prime Minister, who presented it to the House of Assembly as a document of the house on Monday, January 24, 2011.

The Church in the Province of the West Indies is the Anglican Churches in the following Dioceses: The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba, Barbados, Windward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Belize.