On a weekly basis, you will find them at services in the Methodist Church, an Evangelical Ministry, an Anglican Cathedral, but once a month they come together on Saturday afternoon to celebrate the shared tenets of their Christian faith and to put into practice the charity it teaches.
“Aglow” is a non-denominational fellowship with some 4,600 chapters worldwide, including the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
Originally “Women Aglow,” the organization was founded in 1967 by four women in Seattle, Wash. A few years ago, it became Aglow International, and local chapters have begun to welcome men into their ranks.
“We are right now still mostly women. We have not branched off into the men yet,” said the Rev. Janice Connor of the Bethel Christian Fellowship, who has been president of the St. Thomas group for about three years. However, she added men are welcome and said her husband – also a pastor – sometimes attends meetings.
She described meetings as following the general pattern of many Christian services. There are opening remarks, praise and worship, Scripture reading, testimony from any members who wish to share a problem or an experience and, finally, a brief sermon and then an informal gathering in fellowship.
“We have about 25 to 30 members who come regularly,” Connor said. Many more take part in the community service that Aglow provides.
“We have an outreach to the homeless,” Connor said. A recent project involved assembling and distributing care packages of food and toiletries to the homeless. The group also periodically donates food to the Bethlehem House Shelter and gifts, such as bedding, to the Sea View Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility.
There are Aglow ministries also at the Lucinda Millin Home, the Queen Louise Home for the Aged, and the Salvation Army, said Doris Smalls, former president of the St. Thomas chapter and now area president. Another popular project involves providing school supplies to the children of people who are incarcerated.
As area president, Smalls is responsible for Aglow in St. Croix, St. John, and Tortola, as well as St. Thomas. Both St. Croix and St. John used to have active chapters, she said, but currently both are dormant. She said the group revitalized the Tortola chapter by holding Aglow teas, and it plans to do the same soon on St. Croix.
The Virgin Islands group started in the mid-1970s, Smalls said, making it one of the earlier chapters of Aglow International. The first county in the region to establish an Aglow chapter was Guyana. Today approximately 20 Caribbean countries have chapters.
One of the largest Aglow functions on St. Thomas last year was a prayer breakfast, attended by about 130 people. It was in part a fundraiser for the October 2012 Eastern Caribbean regional conference, which was hosted by Antigua, Smalls said.
“The Antigua conference was excellent,” she said. “Six from St. Thomas traveled” to it. The St. Thomas club also handled registration for the conference. It featured speakers, training, a parade of flags representing the various national participants, and a special message from the governor of Antigua & Barbuda.
Smalls stressed that Aglow is open to all Christians. Visiting speakers are specifically asked not to speak about a particular denomination.
“We were never taught to leave our church. What you learn in Aglow you take it to your church,” she said. “We are here to praise God and to worship God and to glorify God. We are open to all churches.”
