Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer
LEFT: Pauline Reid, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry. RIGHT: Pastor Glen Samuels.

Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Gripped by fear, some workers in St. James are now forced to sleep at the workplace, while churches are adjusting the time of their evening worship meetings.

"They fear going back into the volatile communities after 7:00 p.m., so they stay at work until the next morning and those on the early shifts won't come out early in the mornings either," was the alarming statement made by Pauline Reid, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MECCA) during an Editors' Forum held at the Gleaner's Western Bureau last Thursday.

Miss Reid, who represents the majority of the Montego Bay business community, said the situation is having an adverse effect on not only the livelihood of the workers, but businesses were losing man-hours, while at the same time having to close their shutters early and paying far more for security.

At least one information technology company, ACS which employs 1,400 people said that part of its expansion plan is to establish a third shift at its Forepart facility to provide additional employment in the parish, but the fear affecting people has made that idea dormant.

Church not spared

The churches have not been spared from the impact of the violence and Seventh-day Adventist Pastor Glen Samuels said that at a meeting of its parish coordinators last Tuesday, a recommendation was made to move weeknight service from 7:00 p.m. to noon, so that worshippers can attend during their lunch hour.

The Glendevon Adventist church has a congregation of 1,400 and Salt Spring approximately 300. Both churches are located in hotbed areas for crime that account for 25 per cent of the murders committed in north-west St. James this year.

Since the flare-up of violence in the communities there has been a drastic reduction in attendance at evening worship at both churches, Pastor Samuels told The Sunday Gleaner. "Our average attendance was 700-800 persons, but we are down to under 100, and the situation is worsening."

He said that the evening worship service is extremely significant to the church, because his leaders are able to carry out seminars on conflict resolution, group therapy for victims of the families affected by the crime, mentor the youths, and deal with the problems of good parenting and stress issues.

Not afraid to speak his mind, the pastor said that it was time for the Church to take seriously what is currently happening to people's lives. "Religion now has to put on working clothes and get deep into the communities."