Jamaica’s Independence Day Proclaimed in Maryland
By: , August 2, 2023
Photo: Derrick Scott
Senior Pastor at the Webster Memorial United Church in St. Andrew, Rev. Astor Carlyle, delivers the sermon at a thanksgiving service to mark Jamaica’s Emancipation and Independence, at the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park, Maryland, on Sunday (July 30). Listening are Rev. Dr. Bertram Melbourne (second right), Dean of Howard University School of Divinity and Rev Dr. Kortright Davis.
Photo: Derrick Scott
Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States (US), Her Excellency Audrey Marks (right), accepts a Proclamation from Joyce Moore, mother of the Governor of the State of Maryland, Wes Moore, declaring August 6 as Jamaica’s Independence Day in Maryland. The Proclamation was presented at a thanksgiving service to mark Jamaica’s Emancipation and Independence at the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park, Maryland, on Sunday (July 30).The Full Story
August 6, 2023 has been proclaimed Jamaica’s Independence Day in the State of Maryland.
Ambassador to the United States (US) Her Excellency Audrey Marks, received the Proclamation, which was signed by Governor of the State of Maryland, Wes Moore, at a special thanksgiving service to mark Jamaica Emancipation and Independence at the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park, Maryland, on Sunday (July 30).
The Proclamation congratulated the people of Jamaica on the country’s 61st anniversary of Independence.
“The State has drawn strength from the diversity of our people, and today we honour those who trace their roots to Jamaica for the many ways in which they have contributed to the richness and triumph of the State of Maryland,” the document read.
“In celebrating Jamaica’s Independence Day, we renew our commitment to developing and enhancing people-to-people business, professional, educational and cultural exchange opportunities between Maryland and Jamaica,” the Proclamation said further.
Senior Pastor of the Webster Memorial United Church in St. Andrew, Rev. Astor Carlyle, who delivered the sermon, called on Jamaicans to raise their voices against injustice, discrimination, and corruption and “like Sam Sharpe, Nanny, Paul Bogle, Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley, stand up for your rights.”
He said they must be willing to “sacrifice comfort and convenience on the altar of principle to ensure that truth and right win and give up privileges today so that [our] children and grandchildren may have a better life tomorrow”.
Rev. Carlyle argued that “merely complaining or courting a cavalier attitude are not options for people who have ambitions of a nation being proud and strong. Merely diagnosing or, worse, distancing ourselves, are not options for people who are concerned about the kind of society we bequeath to our children and grand-children, nieces and nephews”.
He said, “Rather than sitting on the verandah of diagnostic discourse, or in the grandstands of prescriptive complaint” they must find “tangible and transformative ways through community organisations and programmes to impact the minds and lives of unattached youths, many of whom find solace in the shaky shelter provided by gangs”.
Rev. Carlyle applauded the diaspora for their contribution to the country’s development through remittances, health missions and support of their alma maters and urged them to use their “sphere of influence’ to help “stem the influx of guns into our small and vulnerable island home”.
He told the congregation that “each of us, and all of us together – old, young, male, female have a stake in the pride and strength of Jamaica land we love.
“Let us show up, stand up, and speak up, so that Jamaica may, under God increase in beauty, fellowship and prosperity, and play her part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race,” Rev. Carlyle said.
The service was moderated by The Rev Dr. Bertram Melbourne Dean of Howard University School of Divinity and, the offering collected will be donated to the Community for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI) in Montego Bay.