THE Bahamas needs to return to its strong sense of church community, says Prime Minister Perry Christie.

Mr Christie was addressing the 201st annual session of the Bahamas Turks and Caicos Islands Conference of the Methodist Church at Wesley Methodist Church, Malcolm Allotment on Sunday.

He said: “We need a return to the strong church communities that many of us grew up in. Those church communities were extensions of our immediate families. They provided guidance for those who were lost; shelter for those who needed homes; actual and spiritual sustenance for those who needed to be fed.

“And today, we still have so many in The Bahamas who need these things and they desperately need a loving community to help sustain them.”

Mr Christie said too many people who were angry, lonely or depressed were turning to drugs, crime or self-harm to relieve their problems.

“I believe, that with a renewal of church communities, we can tackle this problem and provide some comfort, some answers and some relief,” he said.

He said the church community was not just the congregation gathered each Sunday.

“Outside these walls, up and down Malcolm Road is also your church community. There are people right out there who need an invitation to come in. They need your church leaders and your congregation to go out to them and become a part of their lives. Renewing the church community is essential and it must become an integral part of the wider community.”

He challenged the Methodist Church to ‘become known across The Bahamas for your missionary work.’

“Familiarise yourself with the plight and the condition of the poor. Today, too many of our churches are isolated from the communities that need them most. People outside this door must become familiar with the names and faces of the church leaders,” he said.

In The Bahamas’ 40th anniversary of independence year, he said the church needed to be a big player in the next 40 years.

“Don’t wait for others, go out and work your miracle. If we want more kindness and love in our community, we must be kind and we must love others. If we want to end poverty, we must change our attitude towards the poor. We must embrace them and help them to alleviate their suffering. So while we celebrate, we look to a renaissance of our old time Bahamian values, a renewal of ourselves, our Christian commitment to be involved in the lives of those who truly need Christ’s love and forgiveness; we look to a renewal of our church community.”