Remarks by The Hon. Fred Mitchell
Minister of Foreign Affairs and The Public Service
Commonwealth of The Bahamas
St. Agnes Episcopal Church
Overtown, Miami
7th
August 2005
I
am honoured once more to be with you this morning in Miami.
This is a double honour since this is the official service to
mark our country’s 32nd anniversary of Independence and
also the occasion of a visit from the Anglican Church of St. Agnes in
Nassau from which church this church sprang in the late nineteenth
century. We have a goodly
heritage. St. Agnes in
Nassau is celebrating 160 years of work.
I
wish to bring greetings to you on behalf of the Governor General Dame
Ivy Dumont, the Prime Minister the Rt. Honourable Perry Christie and the
Government and people of The Bahamas to our brothers and sisters and
friends here in south Florida. You
know the connections with this country are very close, and with this
church they are especially close. We
thank you all for the work that is being done in this part of the
vineyard to improve the life of this
state, this country and the welfare of Bahamians and their descendants
who are in Florida.
I
wish also at this time to express my personal condolences to the Florida
community and to the widow of the late Art Teele, a Bahamian woman the
former Stephanie Kerr of West End, Grand Bahama.
I issued a statement shortly after his untimely passing on behalf
of the Government but I thought that it was appropriate to say so
personally in the context of this service this morning.
I repeat the sentiment that I expressed in the statement that Art
was a friend of The Bahamas and of Bahamians.
When I first became Minister, Mr. Teele was one of the leaders in
this community who sought to galvanize the Bahamians and their
descendants in this area to assist in the work of the Ministry.
He was also instrumental in
making necessary introductions to our then new Consul General.
We shall sorely miss him. We
pray for his widow and family.
The
Bahamas is moving along quite nicely.
In it 32 years, there is proud spirit of freedom and progress.
Throughout the country, there is a great deal of pride in being
Bahamian. The country is
also doing well economically. There are several projects which are on
the drawing board for the future and several which are underway.
All of these underscore the progress that the country has made.
As The Bahamas progresses, you will also know
that much of that economic progress is shared with the South Florida
area. You have only to
visit your airports today and see the scores of Bahamians lining up with
their packages bought from South Florida businesses.
That is only part of the story, because the businesses in The
Bahamas have many links of longstanding with Bahamian businessmen.
That is why we must all be committed to hassle free travel
between the two countries.
The
Bahamas is a friend of the United States, and we consider the United
States to be a friend of ours. We
consider the people of both countries to be friends and allies. I think nothing demonstrated that more than the help which
this community gave to the people of The Bahamas during the trying times
when two hurricanes struck the country, particularly our northern
islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco last year in September, back to back.
I want to thank again the community of Florida, south Florida in
particular for all the help and assistance they gave during that time.
Once
again, I am pleased to be back in St. Agnes.
I want to thank Fr Barry for his help in organizing this.
I thank you the congregation of St. Agnes for hosting this
service. I thank Fr.
Patrick Johnson of St. Agnes for taking time out of his busy schedule to
come here along with the members of St. Agnes Nassau. I thank the Consul
General Alma Adams and her staff for all the help she has given in
organizing this event.
I
pray that All Mighty God will continue to bless the United States of
America and the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and all of our people.
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