Pastor calls for prayer, changes, tolerance in 2013

AS MEMBERS of the cloth continue to pray for the nation, Dr Merrick Walker, pastor of the Washington Gardens Seventh-day Adventist Church, St Andrew, has indicated that radical changes are needed to bring forth prosperity in 2013.

"It is a matter of observing the shortfalls in relation to the quality of life and morality. Something must be done and I believe that prayer will lead to action. We must do more than pray of course, but prayer is powerful and it has been the architect of change throughout time," Walker told The Gleaner yesterday.

To this end, the Adventist pastor has called upon God to help him as a church leader to be a model of the ministry of Christ:

"To heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives ... to set at liberty them that are bruised," (Luke 4: 18 King James Version). It is God's desire that people are liberated mentally, spiritually, financially, and socially to the degree of alleviating suffering.

There is too much poverty, immorality, and mental slavery in Jamaica. I would really like to do more for people in 2013. I pray the same for all church leaders and their organisations. Too many persons are blaming others without doing much to grow our nation," he noted.

Serious problems

The clergyman, who is also president of the the East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Ministerial Fraternity, said the nation is in serious problems, as it relates to poverty and morality.

"Whatever is done must begin within the heart and when the heart is open in prayer, it is more receptive for change. It is essential that a man prays about something and believes in it; until we seek to pray and believe, then the change will not come," he added.

The pastor also said he prays that people with diverse religious views will be more tolerant of those who hold views contrary to their own.

"Each person is entitled to his or her views, and must not be subjected to physical or verbal abuse or other sort thereof because of such views. Views lead to practice and whenever practice is illegal, then that is a matter for the police. Tolerance does not mean the acceptance of a different belief," said Walker.

He added: "I pray that God will grant our national and community leaders the will, the wisdom and the wherewithal to fix our nation ... ."