Guest Speaker at the 2024 Emancipation Service, Bishop Shawn D. Bartley called on [British] Virgin Islanders to speak up and out looking towards their past to have a great future. Photo: VINO

Some of the persons who attended the Emancipation Service on Sunday, August 4, 2024, at the Sunday Morning Well in Road Town. Photo: VINO

From left: Acting Governor David D. Archer Jr, Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7), Outgoing Chairman of the Virgin Islands Heritage Month Committee Reverend Dr Michael A. Turnbull, Junior Minister for Culture and Tourism Hon Luce D. Hodge-Smith (R4), and Bishop Shawn D. Bartley. Photo: VINO

Some of the persons who attended the Emancipation Service on Sunday, August 4, 2024, at the Sunday Morning Well in Road Town. Photo: VINO

Outgoing Chairman of the Virgin Islands Heritage Month Committee Reverend Dr Michael A. Turnbull gives remarks at the Emancipation Service on Sunday, August 4, 2024, at the Sunday Morning Well in Road Town. Photo: VINO

Bishop Bartley, a Jamaican native living in Philadelphia, United States, was giving the sermon at the Emancipation Service on Sunday, August 4, 2024, at the Sunday Morning Well in Road Town.

Responsibility to next generation

As the 70th anniversary of Emancipation Festival is being celebrated, Bishop Bartley said beyond the festivities attention must be placed not just on the present but the past, knowing there is a responsibility to the next generation of Virgin Islanders.

“We must embody the cultural relevance that celebrates true artistry and true dance and true parades but we must not get lost in the dance and reggae and soca and parades. We must look forward to the responsibility to make sure that the next generation feels what you feel. The mantle can only have meaning when we recognise we are stronger together,” the Bishop said.

Reading from the text in 1 Kings, he said Elijah passed on the mantle to Elisha who accomplished twice as much as he did, and so the mantle must be passed on to the next generation who must stand on the shoulders of their elders in order to do more.

The shackles are ‘coming off our minds’- Bishop Bartley

The people of the Virgin Islands, he said, should be constantly reminded by the rolling water and crashing waves of the sea that though the forefathers came in ships shackled, we are now a long way from that.

“Now we are stronger together and the best thing that ever happened was our emancipation, because now that the shackles came off our hands and came off our feet, it’s coming off our minds, and it’s coming off our spirits. And when a man’s mind and his spirit is free he is free indeed,” Bishop Bartley declared.

Among those at the service were Acting Governor David D. Archer Jr, Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7), Minister for Health and Social Development Hon Vincent O. Wheatley, Junior Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Dr the Hon Karl Dawson (R1), Junior Minister for Culture and Tourism Hon Luce D. Hodge-Smith (R4), Opposition Leader Hon Ronnie W. Skelton (AL) and Second District Representative Hon Melvin M. Turnbull.