THE Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a key partner in our society, and has a mandate to provide guidance and counselling to families and communities within the Caribbean. This is even as governments of the Caribbean — especially the Government of Guyana — continue their efforts to ensure the empowerment and improvement of women’s quality of life, and for the excellent delivery of social services, especially throughout Guyana.

That was Wednesday evening’s message from Human Services and Social Security Minister Jennifer Webster, while delivering the feature addressing at the opening of the Caribbean Union Conference Women’s Ministries Congress and Mission of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
The congress, held at the Princess Hotel in Providence, EBD under the theme “Love in Action”, was opened on Wednesday evening, and will close its five-day session today. It had brought together mainly women elders from the Seventh-Day Adventist churches across the Caribbean.
Minister Webster told the gathering that she hoped the congress would introduce people to a new era of thought and knowledge from a woman’s perspective. She posited that she was willing to extending a hand to those who were willing to partner with the government for human development, be they male or female. She also hoped that congress participants and attendees would consider the need to promote behavioural change towards women, and make that a priority of their organizations, since she deemed the present situation unacceptable.
It is within that context that Minister Webster said there is need for a strong partnership with the church, and called on church elders to use their respective influential positions to champion the rights of women and to ensure that same is upheld within their respective churches, communities and homes.
Women in the church, she added, are in positions to influence policies and decisions that can positively affect women, and therefore their assistance is being sought to educate the men in society about how they need to treat women, and that they need to embrace the changing roles of women within each society, the minister added.
Minister Webster told the gathering of Christians that the church has, over the years, become a significant source of women’s empowerment, which has enabled women to take up leadership roles; and for most part, it is often the first opportunity women have of being entrusted with authority. She added that the church socializes women to embrace new gender roles and values.
She also said that men need to understand that they must respect women and adopt a non-violent approach to resolving issues. Additionally, men must play a more meaningful role in bringing up children, ensuring they instill in children key values and morals which should be taught by “love in action”.
The minister pointed out that it is of utmost importance that women remain in society, since they are the ones who instill the values and cultural ethics in other members of the family, especially the children; and, as such, their ability should not be underestimated, especially in regard to bringing change within a society.
The congress was reminded that the role of women continues to change, as they are no longer embracing traditional roles in the home, but are excelling in various public and private spaces throughout the world; and this is increasingly seeing them bridging the gap between men and women as regards their respective roles. The world is at a stage where women can do almost anything that a man can do, the minister added.
The areas women are dominating due to their perseverance are in the judicial systems, engineering, politics, business and other positions which have much influence on the society, and which were regarded as being in the domain of men’s expertise.
Minister Webster said that despite the many systems put in place by governments, and in spite of enacted legislation and conventions for women’s empowerment and development, much more needs to be done.
The minister will be honoured this evening when the Seventh-Day Adventist congress holds its banquet at the Princess Hotel.