By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter 
Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke leads a discussion on the idea of justice at his weekly meeting of persons of various religious faith. - Winston Sill/Staff Photographer
IT IS 6:00 p.m. Thursday, January 29, 2004. Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke plays host at Kings House to a range of persons with very different worldviews. It is a weekly meeting of persons from
various religious backgrounds an inter-faith
fellowship.
Sir Howard, surrounded by 12 persons, some dressed in non-western outfits, welcomes this reporter and other first-timers. He explains the purpose for the meetings. He stresses that with so much strife and intolerance in the society, the group, as small as it is, serves to bring illumination amid the moral and spiritual darkness that pervades much of the nation.
The group, representing such faiths as Islam, Hindu, New Age, is comprised of persons seemingly 50 and older, speak freely some with strong accents betraying their Asian heritage.
The Governor-General, a lay leader in the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, stresses that the group does not seek to proselytise or to pontificate as to which religion is right and which is wrong. The group, he says, seeks to promote tolerance in the midst of differing outworkings of one's faith. He makes the point that the meeting seeks to highlight those areas where there is congruence, unanimity and commonality. The pot-pourri of perspectives in this regard, he hints, is mutually enriching and beneficial.
This week, the group, seated somewhat encircled, discusses for its topic this evening, the idea of justice and truth. The discussants calmly and assuredly delve into the ontological, epistemological, the pragmatic and the commonsensical. There is no designated sequence or hierarchy of speaking order. The views are listened to with mutual reverence. Participants allude to the Bible and other sacred literature as they generously serve up wisdom on a platter for the open minds. As it turns out, the discussion focuses more on justice than it does on truth.
The consensus is that the pursuit of justice is not the exclusive responsibility of the state but also an individual and community obligation. The pursuit of justice, the meeting concludes, is a lifestyle obligation, and it is manifested even in such things as feeding the hungry, giving fair day's work for fair day's pay. The meeting seems to agree that the pursuit of justice, and indeed many religious values, is stymied by the decline in the influence of socialising institutions such as the family, the church and school.
This exercise lasts for an hour. The group then in unison recites a generic inspirational prayer. The meeting closes with an individual offering a prayer, this time said by a former Jesuit. The Governor-General thanks everyone again for coming. Evidently happy at the content of the discourse, he relates, as if giving away a trade secret, "Sometimes I go somewhere and I give a speech and people come up to me and afterwards and say 'Good speech'. It is right in here in this group that I get the ideas and the thoughts for the speech."
