Monrovia – Mother Bishop Mai Roberts of the Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ on Saturday turned 95 years old, and her family and church celebrated the life of a woman that has sparkled with the love of God and country.
Born Mai Barclay to a humble mother, Sarah Reeves and a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Anthony Barclay Sr.— her father was the son of former President Arthur Barclay — she joined the Faith Healing Temple in 1971 as a minister to under its founder, the legendary Wilhelmina Bryant Dukuly.
She took over as head pastor of Faith Healing Temple following the demise of Dukuly in 1990 amid huge doubts over whether she could ably fit in the shoes of the outspoken Dukuly. She did and resoundingly too.
During the 1990 crisis, Mother Roberts refused to depart the country despite having the opportunity to do so.
Turning the Faith Healing Temple into a sanctuary, she accommodated a host of internally displaced people who had fled their homes from the carnage of the crisis.
“One of the most remarkable things that she did was that she chose to remain in Liberia during the civil war, leaving her Congo Town home for the church on Bushrod Island,” recalled her son Rev. Charles B. Roberts also a minister of the Faith Healing Temple.
“She risked her life because she received a message from the Lord that she should remain and stay with her flocks.
She made a sacrifice for the distressed,” Rev. Roberts said of his mother.
Between 1991 and her retirement in few years back, she in deed stepped in the footsteps of Mother Dukuly.
Keeping with the church’s radio broadcast tradition, Mother Bishop Roberts trailed listeners with a soft-spoken voice of evangelistic Christian doctrine.
The radio broadcast, which had been familiar with the church from its founding, took to a new height.
“‘This is the day that the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it,’” she would begin every broadcast sermon aired twice weekly.
The radio broadcast is still aired today.
Mother Roberts was ordained bishop of Faith Healing Temple in 2006 by members of the Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ, a sister congregation to the Faith Healing Temple.
Family members, including her four biological children, on Saturday gathered at her Congo Town home to celebrate her natal day.
Some came from the United States and others from Sweden to celebrate the woman they call Mormor for “mother’s mother” in Swedish.
Faith Healing Temple itself had a thanksgiving service in honor of its retired bishop on Sunday.
Prior to that, Bishop James Curry of the US-based Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ addressed a news conference on last Friday at the Boulevard Palace in Sinkor as part of her 95th birthday celebration.
Mother Mai Roberts and family have been good friends to the family of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Both the prelate and the President have the same birthday on October 29, just that the former is 17 years the senior of the latter.
“I am blessed to be the son of Mother Bishop Mai Roberts, Bishop of the Faith Healing Church of Jesus Christ,” her son Rev. Charles B. Roberts said in an interview with FrontPageAfrica.
“It is so hard to say so much about someone so great.”
“She’s been an excellent mother, not only for her own children but also many people. If I would have to capture it in one phrase I would say she has exemplified the love of God.
She has demonstrated God’s love within the home and beyond the home, within the community, within the Church and within the nation. She will be remembered for reflecting the light of God.”
“I feel very great about my mom. She’s done a great job, and all of her children appreciate her very much,” added Wokie Weah, her last child. “
She is my mother I see her first as my mother. She has been a wonderful mother.
She has taught me very well and I follow her advice. I also appreciate her role as the Bishop of the Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ.”
“I see her as a woman of great courage and she has stood for things.”
A neighbor played out loud a happy birthday song on a stereo set at a shop nearby. Sitting in wheelchair, the aged prelate watched attentively as this reporter spoke with her children.
She sported a white sparkling lace suit. “I feel great. I feel satisfied that I did what I could do. Yes, [I see a good future for Liberia],” she said.