The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

THE ENACTMENT of the first Bahamas Methodist “ Big Sing” event was held in Rawson Square, earlier this month to celebrate the 20th year as an autonomous conference of Methodist churches.

“We had about three hundred people come out and support. Everyone said they would like it to be an annual event because this only happens every twenty years. The last time this event was held was in 1993,” said Elmena Bethell, general secretary for the Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church.

“Everything that we do until November, we are going to do it under that theme. And many other events are being planned which will climax in November,  in commemoration of the 20th year as an autonomous conference,” said Ms Bethell.

July 3, 2013, will mark the twentieth anniversary of the birth of the Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church through the passage of the Methodist Act in the House of Parliament. This Act, she said, gave the Bahamas Methodists the right to govern their own affairs, without reference to or from any external entity.  This passage turned a new page in the history of Bahamian Methodism.

Ms Bethell said attendees enjoyed performances by the Queens College High School Choir, The Region Bells, and the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band.

In celebration, Ms Bethell said fellow Methodists gathered in the square as they sang spirited hymns written by Charles Wesley, founder of Methodism. They sang hymns such as “and Can It Be”, “O For a thousand Tongues to sing” and “Love Divine, all loves excelling.” A number of Christmas songs were also included, such as “Hark the herald-angels sing.”

“Then there was that great triumph hymn of Resurrection Sunday, ‘Christ the Lord is risen today:  Hallelujah.” There was a combined choir from the Nassau Region Methodist Churches and singers from near and far, accompanied by the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band,” said Ms Bethell.

Ms Bethell said the performance drew the attention of many Bahamians and tourists from the ships docked at the pier.

Ms Bethell said the church’s overall theme this year is “Twenty years moving forward in Christ.”