Ceila Morgan, News Coordinator
BARTLETT
Today, we continue to profile recipients of the prestigious Gleaner Honour Award. The Pentecostal Tabernacle on Wildman Street, central Kingston, gets the award for voluntary service.
THE STREETS are strewn with garbage, the stench from a nearby gully permeates the early morning atmosphere while sewage from a broken main courses lazily along the roadway.
A child, barefooted and barely three, darts from a dilapidated building she calls home while several men congregate at a nearby bar. A woman, in her 60s, sits at her fruit and goodies stall before preparing for work, while her 18-year-old granddaughter stands nearby.
Just a few metres up the road, the sounds of praise and worship bellow from the Tabernacle.
Located in the heart of central Kingston, Pentecostal Tabernacle has, like most religious organisations, sought to address the needs of members of its immediate community and, by extension, the wider society.
Since its inception in 1949, the church, located at 66 Wildman Street, has in recent times been forced to step up its community outreach programmes in a bid to address the escalating levels of violence in its immediate and surrounding inner-city communities.
Data out of the Statistical Division of the Police Commissioner's Office indicate that in 2000, 63 people were murdered in the Central Kingston Police Division.
By the following year, the figure had climbed to 76 and in 2002 to 82.
The murder rate fell to 44 in 2003, and picked up by one in 2004. Up to November 8, 50 persons were murdered in the police division.
According to John Mark Bartlett, pastor since 2004, the thrust towards community ministry intensified over the past few years.
SIDEWALK SUNDAY SCHOOL
Citing the frequent outbursts of violence in Central Kingston, he recalled that the church under the leadership of then pastor, Winston Stewart, "made the decision in 1999 to begin prayer on the streets of the community, starting with Wildman Street, Rum Lane, James Street, Text Lane and Smith Lane."
The street prayer programme later evolved into community Sunday school ministries in communities in East Kingston, Hannah Town, Duhaney Park, Waterhouse, Gretna Green and Buck Town in St. Catherine.
Hannah Town resident Max claims the programme has helped to reduce the levels of violence in his community.
"Mi tell dem fi go to di Sunday school same way, nuh matter how dem stay. Mi haffi sey di Sunday school do good inna di place. Yuh si when di violence a gwaan it bruk down di community. Di big yute dem nuh go but dem wi stay pon di corner and listen still."
There are now three sidewalk Sunday school programmes in operation in the community.
