Mind & Spirit - Church year in review 2005
published:
Saturday | December 31, 2005
- Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke (right), Chancellor of the International University of the Caribbean (IUC), is accompanied by Pro-Chancellor Irene Walter (centre) and President Rev. Dr. Maitland Evans as he officiates at the official launch of the institution on November 24.
Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
IT'S THE season for looking back at the top news stories of 2005. Today Mind&Spirit looks back at some of the top local church events of 2005.
One would be hard put to argue that the single most important news event in 2005 was the opening of a university by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on November 24. This educational organisation, the International University of the Caribbean, represents a synergising of three of the church's institutions the Mel Nathan Institute, Knox Community College and the Institute for Theological and Leadership Development (ITLD). It has its main campus on Lady Musgrave Road, in Kingston. But it has other satellites in Mandeville, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Port Antonio, and Grand Cayman. The university offers a range of liberal arts and theological courses. It has as its president, the Rev. Dr. Maitland Evans.Then in no particular order, Mind&Spirit would like to suggest the following as the other events that topped the local religion scene.
Two members of the Missionaries of the Poor, Marco Laspuna, 31, and Suresh Barwa, 22, were killed at about 9:00 pm on Thursday, October 27, as they washed dishes after supper. Initial reports suggested that the brothers were killed by a single bullet. There was speculation that it was a stray bullet, but the prevalent view is that the two were murdered. So far, no one has been charged in connection with these killings.In March, there were media reports concerning Overcomers Christian International, a church led by Bishop Joseph Ade-gold and his wife, Rev. Grace Ade-gold. The Ade-golds had received loans from members for the enhancement of the ministry of the church, but then there was controversy concerning the extent to which repayment of these loans has occurred. Some leaders at Overcomers Christian International and other supporters of Bishop Ade-gold took out a full-page advertisement in this newspaper giving their perspective of the sequence of events that precipitated the controversy. They argued that the Ade-golds had acted in good faith and above board and that the couple continues to enjoy their confidence.Journalist and religion commentator Ian Boyne scored big when in March he began a weekly television show, 'Religious Hardtalk'. The programme is aired on TVJ on Tuesday nights at 8:00 pm and rebroadcast on Wednesdays at 9:00 am. 'Religious Hardtalk' was first aired on Radio Jamaica in 2002 on Sundays. No doubt the success of that broadcast has gained it a foothold on primetime television. The radio version of the programme continues. By having a presence on radio, television and a column in this newspaper, Ian Boyne is arguably the most influential journalist in Jamaica.On Saturday, December 10, another entity was added to the pantheon of local media houses with the official commissioning of Bless-TV. The station had been broadcasting unofficially since 2001 in Portmore through the Starcom Cable Network. The station has a small studio that operates from the house of a Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) member at little or no cost to the Portmore SDA churches. Its transmission also covers Spanish Town and its environs.Hitting local bookshelves in 2005 was She-Devils and Sex-Demons, a work by family life counsellor and evangelist, C. Ray Campbell. According to the author, the book was designed to educate and warn men - particularly husbands and male pastors - that, as it was in biblical times, some women are on the prowl, having tapped into the demonic, to have sexual relations with them. A 'she-devil', Mr. Campbell said in an interview with The Gleaner, "is a woman who uses demonic influence to overpower the natural capacity of a man to resist sexual temptations and in general to bring ruin to a man's influence and standing in the community." Mr. Campbell's book generated a mini-firestorm of dissension from feminists and women's groups.On Friday, July 15, in a ceremony at King's House, churches in Jamaica made a quantum leap in their commitment to pursue unity. The heads of the island's major church umbrella groups signed a memorandum of understanding in which they agreed to collectively support and oversee an initiative, which would facilitate and coordinate spiritual, social and economic measures to curb the murders and other serious crimes. The church's resolve to deal with crime was bolstered by the visit in March and April of the Rev. Eugene Rivers III, a Boston pastor who, working with other clerics and the police, has made great progress in curbing crime in that city. His model has been adapted in more than 50 cities in the United States and it is gaining a foothold in Europe and South America. A conference to discuss Rev. Rivers' model was held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston, July 22-23. That conference was sponsored by the Greater Grants Pen Ministers Fraternal.On Saturday, April 9, the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators Caribbean received a significant boost as this regional para-church organisation officially opened its new offices at 20 West Avenue, Kingston 10. It shares the campus of the Jamaica Theological Seminary (JTS) and the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology (CGST). Formerly, the Wycliffe Caribbean head offices were located in Trinidad and Tobago.According to John Roomes, chief executive officer: "The building gives us room to develop the organisation and to provide quality services to our churches as we seek to facilitate them in raising up Caribbean missionaries to go and help in providing translated scripture to the Bible-less people groups."
The offices will be providing a base for executive, financial and personnel management, a hub for digital communication media development, a source for the dissemination of mission-related information through a network of resources, including the Web. It will also have a reading/research library, low-cost book sales and the provision of a variety of videos, CDs, DVDs, brochures, etc., all in order to help our churches develop a mission-focused ministry and to usher hundreds of individuals into missions. This will also provide a base for the Wycliffe Jamaica team.
The Rev. Canon Dr. Robert Thompson, rector of St. Andrew Parish Church was consecrated and dedicated as the Anglican Suffragan Bishop of Kingston on May 31. The office of Suffragan Bishop had been vacant since the death of Bishop Herman Spence in 2001.Instead of naming a 'Person of the Year' for 2005, The Gleaner Company on November 28, broke with previous trends and named five faith-based organisations as joint top recipient of its annual Honour Award. These organisations are: The Salvation Army, Food for the Poor, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Pentecostal Tabernacle Church in downtown Kingston, and the St. Andrew Settlement, an outreach in Majesty Gardens, pioneered by the St. Andrew Parish Church.Responding on behalf of all five awardees, Anglican Lord Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Alfred Reid said, "I accept the award not only on behalf of the five organisations, but for all the faith-based groups doing work across the country, especially those in the rural areas which may not receive the attention they deserve." Bishop Reid said that, given the islandwide networks they command, churches are in an ideal position to provide help to the helpless, wherever they are. He praised The Gleaner for initiating the Honour Awards. "These awards celebrate goodness, kindness and humanitarianism as qualities that define us as Jamaican people," he said.
Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com
