The Rt. Rev. Michael Maxwell, Anglican Bishop of Barbados, has called for peace amid competing political parties as the nation faces another election called by its Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.
The bishop invoked the language of Scripture and the Book of Common Prayer in urging voters of the Caribbean island nation to choose a manner that “honours God and respects the dignity of every citizen, including those of the opposing political parties.”
“We encourage all involved in the electoral process to be virtuous, orderly, trustworthy, ethical, and sincere in their words and actions, as they seek the votes of our people,” Maxwell wrote in a letter addressed to election participants and dated January 27. “To be virtuous is to walk in integrity, allowing truth and righteousness to guide every promise that is put forward or every position taken.”
The prime minister, who is in the last year of a five-year term, seeks a third term. She led the Barbados Labour Party to landslide victories in 2018 and 2022.
Barbados has a population of about 304,000, the CIA World Factbook says, and about a quarter of its people are Anglicans.
The election is primarily between the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party, but smaller groups—the Bajan Free Party, Friends of Democracy, the People’s Coalition for Progress, and Reform Barbados—offer alternatives.
Using the language of the Apostle Paul, Bishop Maxwell urged Barbadians to focus on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure” (Phil. 4:8-9). “Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”
He added that to be trustworthy is to speak truthfully and act honorably and that to be ethical is to stand “for fairness and justice, walking humbly with God as the prophet [Micah] teaches.”
Maxwell, born in 1971, is the 14th Anglican Bishop of Barbados. He was consecrated in January 2019. Before he was chosen by the House of Bishops of the Province of the West Indies, he served as an independent Senator—an appointment by the nation’s governor.
Caribbean Life has reported that the status of voter rolls is in dispute. Opposition leader Ralph Thorne and the Democratic Labour Party have sought to delay the election because they say hundreds of eligible voters are missing from the rolls.
Thorne said the prime minister “has rushed ahead of the commission and called an election before the list is completed. Something is rotten in the state of Barbados today. This has thrown the whole thing into disarray. That is wrong.”
Jerome Walcott, the Barbados Labour Party’s general secretary, responded sharply to those claims.
“You call for an election, and when it comes, you’re not ready and you cry,” he said. “I don’t know. We’ll see how that goes, but as far as I’m concerned … the election is on the 11th of February, and we are ready—red and ready.”
Political analyst and pollster Peter Wickham told the Caribbean Media Corporation that he expects no surprises from the election.
“The outcome, I don’t believe, will surprise anyone, quite frankly,” he said. “The conversation we are having these days is whether the opposition can actually gain a seat or two, but the likelihood that they would win, I think, is really quite low in the minds of people.”
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
