Thank you.

Thank you, very much.

You may have seen some television footage on ABS of your Chief Servant, and your humble servant, actually running with the Queen's Baton on Sunday.

I am told that I surprised everyone by actually running with the baton from King George V Grounds to this complex, and then way across the city to the St. John's Police Station.

To be quite honest with you, I little idea that I had covered so much ground.

I simply, and rashly, decided to hold the baton aloft, stick my chest out, raise my head high, lift one foot after the other and keep pushing forward.

I had the confidence, and I remember saying so, that if I faltered, if I stumbled, I would fall into the arms of those who were beside me, and that I would be supported by them.

That, my good pastors and shepherds, is exactly how I feel in your company and in your care.

My belief is unshakeable that should I falter, should I stumble, on the path I have to travel, you will be there to support me, to protect me from falling, and to give me renewed strength and purpose.

Many of you have asked God's blessings upon me when I have worshipped in your congregations.

Many of you asked God's blessings on me before I was called to be the Chief Servant of the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

Many of you have invoked God's blessings on me and my colleagues at the start of every Cabinet meeting.

I shall continue to express gratitude and to give testament to the power of the prayer you have offered on my behalf, good Shepherds.

I again publicly do so, now.

In your presence, with the abounding grace you bring to this consultation, I feel that my cup is full and runneth over.

I feel truly blessed.

My heartfelt thanks, my brothers and sisters.

In the spirit of gratitude and humility that suffused my soul when we welcomed the renewal of our nation in the earliest hours of the morning of March 24, last year, I publicly praise the Almighty whenever I have the opportunity.

In that spirit, I praise God now.

Please join me, brothers and sisters:

To God be the Glory!

To God be the Glory!

To God be the Glory!

Thank you, Reverend Clergy.

Thank you, my Dear Friends.

Thank you, my Good Shepherds.

As God was the Compass to the UPP during our campaign for election; he guides us now, and ever shall be the Compass to the Sunshine Government.

We are here today in unity and harmony.

We share the same vision.

We share the same mission.

We share responsibility for our nation's children, for our nation's elderly, and for our nation's underprivileged.

The same Christian precepts that direct the pastoring of our ministers of religion are at the core of the policies of the ministers of our government.

I believe, as you do, that government must give the greatest attention to the least amongst us.

In this belief, church and state are united in common cause, the service of our Lord.

There are few concerns that our religious leaders deeply feel that I do not share; that my colleagues in government are not acutely sensitive to.

The Sunshine Government is conscious of its obligation to do everything possible to improve the lives the Antiguan people, to put people first.

As always, when I use the expression "Sunshine Government", I do so advisedly.

There is a place in the sunshine for everyone.

This is evident in all we do.

This Consultation is a case in point. We continue to work conscientiously to make sure that the modest resources available to the Government enable the greatest good for the greatest number in the society; particularly for the more vulnerable.

The design of the Personal Income Tax system to exempt seventy-five percent of all income earners is in fulfilment of that obligation.

That was also the case with the removal of a large portion of the consumption tax from the essential daily items for most homemakers.

Through the Empowerment for Ownership programme, we have arranged for easy access to low-interest loans for beginners in business.

Those persons have neither inherited nor accumulated wealth.

They lack the conventional collateral that make would make them bankable risks when measured by standard commercial criteria.

That is the mandate the Government has given for the operation of the Empowerment for Ownership Fund.

In expression of our concern for the vulnerable in our society, the Government has raised the base level of old age pensions.

We are committed to providing at least $1,000 monthly pensions as funds become available.

We will continue to make it possible for families, particularly those of modest means, to clear their personal Christmas Gift Barrels on the payment of One Dollar.

Free School Uniforms for all students in our nation's primary and secondary schools is in its second year.

Government is set to introduce the nutritious school meals programme in nine schools from the start of the new school term.

The nutritious school meals programme will be ultimately be expanded to include all Government Schools.

We are working to improve standards in our education system.

We want to see our nation's children rapidly improve their examinations results.

We are moving to create new school places, in modern, well-equipped classrooms, in an environment of excellence, with strong religious values at its core.

The $25 Million High School of Excellence funded by the Stanford Group will be a definitive leap in that direction.

We have changed the character of governance in this country with integrity in public life legislation.

We have given every individual new entitlement with the Freedom of Information Act.

Some of our neighbouring countries, and countries beyond, consider what is happening in Antigua and Barbuda is nothing short of an ongoing miracle. Despite our country's financial hardships, only oil-rich Trinidad had a better rate of growth among the nations of the region last year.

We continue to struggle for the rebirth, unity and harmony that will permit our people to take Antigua and Barbuda to its full potential.

With all that we have been able to accomplish, with all that we are attempting to achieve, with all that we envision, I readily concede that miracles are well beyond the competence of the government.

Whatever credit we are given, we will never be able to feed the nation with the proverbial five fish and five loaves of bread.

Thankfully, we are succeeding in making a little go a long way, and in moving the society in the right direction. However, our country faces determined forces bent on provoking discord and igniting tensions in our society.

The society continues to be under assault from people who are responsible for nothing, who hold themselves accountable to no one, and who condemn and criticise selected targets with palpable ill will.

Their vocation is sowing discord, igniting tensions and vilifying individuals and institutions in utter disregard for consequences of their conduct.

Those demagogues dominate a number of local radio programmes.

They use the anonymity of the internet.

They use poison-pen missives.

They come in various guises.

They engender disrespect and destroy values in our national community.

They are as destructive to the society as the movies and music loaded with gratuitous violence and sex, and ostentatious affluence.

Those forces have the capacity to inflict severe damage on any society.

Our young children and our teenagers are perhaps the major casualties of such negative media influences.

This must surely be a factor in the death of respect for people, all people, in the society.

In the face of all of this, we are on common ground, good shepherds.

One powerful option, with which you are especially equipped, is prayer.

Your voices are already raised in perpetual prayers.

It may be that it is necessary for our clergy to mount a crusade to teach more of our population to pray.

I beg of you, good shepherds, that even as you intensify your prayers for our people, you teach more persons in our land to pray every day.

For the meek as for the mighty, for the saint, as for the scoundrel, prayer is the language of the soul.

I urge you to help all in our land to use that language more freely, and with abiding charity.

Reverend Pastors:

I call upon you for more than more prayer.

I repeat my call at our first National Ecclesiastical consultation for you to partner with your government in special action programmes in a number of areas that you have identified for discussion today. I will defer those items to the inter-active session that is purpose of this consultation.

I will, however, remind you of my appeal, last year, for a strong and enduring partnership between the Government and our religious community, which focuses on the alarming number of our country's youth who are at risk.

That partnership is even more urgent, now.

I raised with you at our inaugural consultation, last year, the destructive power of the gangster images, the sexual obsessions and the seductive but unrealistic lifestyles portrayed on American television and brought into our homes, courtesy of Cable television.

Reverend Clergy:

I am aware that there has been contemplation among some of you of a code of conduct that would hold media accountable for stated standards of decency, truthfulness and morality.

I agree that such standards should apply to all media content, including outdoor advertising.

Indeed most countries embody such standards in broadcast licences, and in other regulatory instruments.

In other situations, groups and institutions of civil society have organised themselves as monitor mechanisms to ensure essential responsibilities in the selection of media content.

Such groups have been demonstrably effective in their capacity to impact media revenues from audiences and from advertisers. In some situations, media have opted for stringent self-regulation.

That, in my view, would be the ideal situation.

It is possible to legislate private and public behaviour in a society.

It is a more difficult proposition to attempt to legislate morality.

Fortunately, the religious community possess sufficient influence to make a decisive difference in these matters.

There are many matters that we are about to discuss for which the Church and the Government must, of necessity, form strong partnerships.

I look forward to those discussions.

I give you my word that while I readily render all things to God, at no time during our open discussions will I call upon this conference of pastors to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Brothers and Sisters:

I thank you for your desire to make Antigua and Barbuda a more united nation, a more compassionate nation, and an increasingly faith-based nation.

I am anxious to work with you towards these objectives.

With God's blessings, together we shall succeed.

Digital photos by Maurice F. Merchant