By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
From left, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, Dr. Peter Phillips, Minister of National Security, and Babsy Grange, MP for Central St. Catherine, at yesterday's prayer breakfast at Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston. - Michael Sloley /Freelance Photographer
JAMAICA'S POLITICAL, church and civic leaders gathered yesterday for the 23rd annual National Leadership Prayer Breakfast at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston. Simultaneously, members of Jamaicans for Justice, the human rights lobby group, stood outside wearing T-shirts depicting a child behind bars, and passed out fliers to bring to the fore issues which, they said, needed urgent prayer and attention.
They cited the plight of street people in Jamaica, and especially Montego Bay, the mentally ill in prisons, the conditions in children's homes and places of safety, the huge backlog of cases in the courts, the beating of hundreds of prisoners at the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Institution in 2000 and the 27 persons killed in West Kingston in July 2001.
In the hotel, Las Newman, chairman of the Prayer Breakfast committee, outlined this year's theme - 'One Hope, One Jamaica' - telling various clergymen, politicians, media bosses and diplomats that they had an obligation to bring hope to thousands who did not have any.
Also, he said "the downtrodden" should be encouraged not to surrender to despair, and he urged all present to ask God to guide the policy-making decisions of various leaders.
To the more than 500 prominent sectoral leaders, Mr. Newman said, "There is a long line of people who feel no hope... who feel that there is nothing for them on the horizon. I say to them, never give up hope."
He added that Jamaica needed a strong vision of leadership as well as compassionate leaders.
After Scripture lessons were read by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and Edward Seaga, the JLP leader, Sir Howard Cooke, Governor-General, gave greetings.
For a few moments, he took on the persona of a passionate preacher, telling the packed Grand Jamaica suite that he believed Jamaica was on the verge of a "great spiritual revival" and urging the audience to say "Amen".
Sir Howard said it was only in the message of love that Jamaicans would find hope.
Hope was also the main thread of the message delivered by Bishop Charles Dufour, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Montego Bay.
Using several passages of Scripture to underscore his theme, he suggested that Jamaicans needed to learn the difference between "ordinary hope" and "spiritual hope" and he urged them to embrace the latter.
He said that people often used physical signs such as a decrease in crime levels or unemployment to define hope but to Christians, hope meant having faith in God's power.
Bishop Dufour said that too often Jamaicans had gone for a "quick-fix to coerce, to force, to react negatively before any communication is even attempted."
The new strategies would require Jamaicans to be patient with themselves, their fellow citizens and God, because "Christian love requires communication and mutual understanding. These are the first steps to the kind of respect that can transform our nation," he said.
Proceeds from yesterday's Prayer Breakfast will go to children who have been physically hurt by violence.
An eight-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy who are now at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, Kingston, have already been recommended by the hospital to benefit from the committee's donations.
The Rev. Christopher Mason, secretary to the committee, said it was working through the Ministry of Health's Children's Services Division and that contributions would go to help defray medical costs for them.
Last year, almost $118,000 was collected and given to Food for the Poor to help flood victims in Portland. In 2001, $80,000 was collected and given to the Jamaica AIDS Support committee for its HIV/AIDS hospice and children living with HIV/AIDS.
