Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
(left) Pastor John Mark Bartlett: Politicians had, years earlier, sown the seeds of what is the present frightening levels of crime.(right)Pastor Errol Holness ... calls for merging of Church and State to fight crime.
AS VIOLENT crime continues to spiral out of control, church leaders and state officials are meeting this morning at King's House in an effort to develop solutions.
Today's scheduled breakfast meeting is being convened by Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke.
It will seek to "arrive at a practical and united approach to achieving greater impact and effectiveness" in this united effort against "the daily escalation of crime and violence and its destructive and paralysing effects," Sir Howard said in a letter of invitation.
The Governor - General said he has invited the Rev. Eugene Rivers III ,who hails from Boston, "where the church and state agencies worked together to significantly reduce violent crime in that city", to address the forum.
But during a Gleaner Editors' Forum held yesterday, church leaders from varying denominations made a strong call for national repentance and public confessions of wrong doing from politicians in particular, who they say have contributed to the creation of the crime scourge which stalks the land.
COLLABORATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE
"The call is to have the country State and Church coming together in a national recognition, in the first instance, that we are a country in deep, deep crisis," said Pastor Errol Holness of Vision Apostolic Ministries, Job Lane in Spanish Town, with the backing of the other clergymen.
"I repeat the call for a coming together of State and Church publicly in this country that we (acknowledge we) have sinned and (that) we have done badly."
The six ministers of religion who were at the Editors' Forum, wholeheartedly endorsed the need for greater collaboration between Church and State to fight crime. The pastors were emphatic that national repentance before God is necessary to move the nation forward and that politicians are not exempt from that process.
"One of the things I find very disturbing is that from time to time, we have certain political leaders in this country who fail to acknowledge that they had anything at all to do with the deep-seated crisis that confronts our society", said pastor Holness. He continued: "Until we acknowledge that we (the nation) are wrong and we have transgressed ... how can God help us"?
Pastor John Mark Bartlett from Pentecostal Tabernacle on Wildman Street in central Kingston said politicians had, years earlier, sown the seeds of what is the present frightening levels of crime.
He said: "I believe that for years this country was systematically polarised by the powers that be. It did not happen by accident, especially Kingston, St. Andrew and Spanish Town. We have sown to the wind and we are now reaping the whirlwind."
Pastor Bartlett also called for a forum where persons can truthfully state their role in fostering the high levels of crime. He stressed, however, that when a person openly confesses his or her role in wrongdoing, that act should not attract a sanction.
"We can't just have a call for truth, it has to be truth and reconciliation," said Pastor Bartlett.
