By John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Alfred Reid, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, addressing the congregation at the Kingston Deanery-Day Service yesterday at St. George's Church, East Street, central Kingston. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer
THE RT. Rev. Dr. Alfred Reid, Anglican Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, yesterday launched a blistering broadside against the Church in general for what he said was its failure to provide moral leadership to a troubled society.
Speaking at the 12th Kingston Deanery-Day Service at St. George's Anglican Church, central Kingston, under the theme, 'Urbanisation and Mission', Bishop Reid, in outlining what he called the scourge of white-collar crime, drugs, prostitution and corruption, said that while the Church was confining its moral imperatives to "who is sleeping with whom ... the big criminals of this world know that they are safe from any real scrutiny from the church, while the world at large is going to nil."
In pointing out the challenges urbanisation posed to the functioning of the Church in modern society, Bishop Reid said the Church must be willing to reposition itself "to challenge urbanisation, to challenge this new system of values, to challenge the supremacy of the market." He said that Christians were guilty of promoting market supremacy which was tantamount to committing idolatry.
According to the Bishop, "So-called evangelism (today) is not aimed at the outsider who thinks in terms of the secular city... it is being aimed at getting people to leave one church and going to another... a complete waste of time."
RAMPANT INDIVIDUALISM
He challenged the Church to "critically analyse the (problem of) rampant individualism", charging that "religious individualism only provides spiritual legitimacy to the capitalist ideology of selfishness and wanton exploitation of others in disregard for the common goal." Bishop Reid said the society had become a place where "the youth are denegrated by racist ideology."
He commended the Rastafarian faith for "having paid more attention to the biblical symbolism... than many of us Christians have done." "A great city is made up of great people and great buildings," he said, and referred to edifices such as the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, as examples which the nation could be proud of. And in a not-so-subtle criticism of the nation's politicians, Bishop Reid said: "We may not be as proud of our parliament building..."
Addressing the congregation from which was absent several highly-placed invited public officials, Bishop Reid noted that true religion was indispensable "if our cities of death are to be transformed into cities of life."
"Every Jamaican should echo that they desire a better country and the desire for a better country will lead us to rebuild this country as well as to look beyond it to that city which has the foundation," he said.
