‘We need to take back our emancipation village’- Bishop John I. Cline

ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI- Declaring that the people of the [British] Virgin Islands have become an arrogant people, high-minded and self-serving, with a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof, outspoken clergyman Bishop John I. Cline has blasted the current state of affairs of the Festival Village, including the type of artistes being invited to perform.

According to Mr Cline, the Festival Village must be taken back, and he sent a stern warning to Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) to ensure this.

“We invite gun-wielding, drug-promoting, gangster-like characters to be featured as guest artistes on our Emancipation stage, on our emancipation village. The colonisers are not doing that to us, we are doing that to ourselves. Lest we forget,” Bishop Cline stated during his ‘Emancipation Sermon’ at the Emancipation Service hosted by the Virgin Islands Heritage Month Committee at the Sunday Morning Well on Sunday, August 6, 2023.

Bishop Cline highlighted that Government has injected some $1M into the Emancipation celebrations; however, there is much to be desired.

It’s ‘Emancipation Village not a bacchanal’- Bishop Cline

The man of the cloth said the festival village should have pictures of “our heroes” so that the people can be educated about their history.

“And then where are our children? What do we teach them? Coney Island? For real? And making it free? Like that is something really good? We need to teach them their history.

“In that same village is emancipation village not a bacchanal,” Bishop Cline stated.