Your Organization
Newsletter Date Volume 1, Issue 1
ASSEMBLY DAILY REPORTER
Wednesday 22 February 2017
P
resident Dick spoke to the topic, Giving freely, using Matthew 10: 8. He urged congregants to stand up, step up and make a difference in Jamaica by becoming the voice of the voiceless and exposing, naming, shaming and challenging oppressors and anything that defy or deny abundant life . He challenged us to not only exposing deception, oppression, and exploitation but to preach the Word of God, in season and out of season.” Social action and justice
President Dick asserted that proclamation could not be confined to preaching from the pulpit only, but it must include Christian Education, “taking time to disciple people … enabling them to disciple others …; making ethical choices and discerning right from wrong.” Proclamation, requires involvement in community and country through social action and social justice and seriously engaging in advocacy. “We must be emancipation loving, justice seeking Believers based on equality of all and justice for all. We need to declare a message of liberation. This means we have to engage in advocacy. We need to advocate on behalf of persons who are lost, left out, left behind and considered losers and become the voice of the voiceless,” the president declared. Thus saith the Lord
Like Moses to Pharaoh, the JBU President thundered from the pulpit a litanic oracle of “thus saith the Lord: let my people go,” pointing to issues of social oppression and appealing to governments and community dons: “So thus saith the Lord, to dons of garrison communities that hold people to a code of silence and an oath of secrecy and a life of seclusion: Let my people go; so thus saith the Lord, to powerful people who charge high fees, unconscionable taxes and unreasonable tithing Let my people go; so thus saith the Lord, to a society which has allowed and co-operated with 500,000 persons in squatter communities, which are not organized and lack adequate institutional support: Let my people Go; so thus saith the Lord, to the Israeli government which is an occupying power over the Palestinians, who live under inhumane conditions in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem: Let my people Go” The president further urged congregants to recognize the efforts of people who try to make a difference in their own little way. Lift them up; love them “Celebrate informers who report criminal acts: lift them up; applaud
sanitation workers who work so that our environment can be healthy: lift them up; honour those who work with persons who are diseased, dying and face discrimination: lift them up; praise warders who live and work in the maximum prison facilitates that are inhumane: Lift them up; pray for those who live and work in areas where the air quality is awful: lift them up and honour those who enhance worship and witness, such as our musicians: Lift them up!”
He concluded by encouraging us to show love to victims of violent crimes; those whose loved ones were brutally killed; pregnant women, persons with disabilities on the PATH programme and persons who do not earn a livable wage and lack the necessities of life.
We want a moral agenda...
P
resident Dick called for a moral agenda asserting that the Government’s much touted growth agenda is not sustainable without a companion moral agenda. This agenda he said must include a moral vision and moral values around which we need to build consensus as a country.
Without this moral agenda, Rev Dick argued, the murder, mayhem, lawlessness and vigilante justice would prevail, thus crippling the growth agenda. According to Rev Dick, the moral agenda ought to have equal prominence as the growth agenda and should have an adequately resourced strategic plan and personnel to see to its oversight. The JBU president acknowledged that the society is in a need of serious re-ordering and reengineering, “if it is not to descend into further disorder and decadence, of the most disastrous proportions;” therefore there is a need
for a growth agenda. However, in his estimation, prosperity should not be seen only in economic terms “but prosperity ought to be a means to live well and to live within our means and live well with each other and to live well with the natural environment.” He pointed to seven components that should help form the framework of the moral agenda: (1) zero tolerance on corruption and sexual assault; (2) enforcement of the legitimate laws; (3) equality of all before the Law; (4) encourage solidarity and simplicity and so share with persons who are less fortunate; (5)value all human life as sacred and special; (6) access to the basic goods and services, opportunities and resources for all to live in decency and die with dignity; and (7) emphasize the totality of human life for the betterment of people. The moral agenda, Rev Dick iterated, would require the input of the Church, which he stated has a moral legacy informed by religious tradition and folk wisdom, to pro-
duce policies and actions committed to the cause of the common good.
Rev Dick warned Jamaicans against what he described as deep -pocketed, manipulative string attached, self-centred, selfaggrandizing, three-card trick giving, where the ‘rich rogue’ givers “promise much, delivers next to nothing and extracts more in return, enslaving the receiver in their debt.” In his estimation, this kind of giving is a garrison tactic that keeps the receiver - person or community, or country - enslaved to the giver, who must do the giver’s bidding all the time. “Be defiant and resist any don, politician, scammer and anyone who gives to create an unwholesome dependence. Resist any country who gives aid to Jamaica in exchange for slavish support of its geo-political ambition,” the Baptist preacher implored. He also urged Baptists to marshal all their God-given resources to achieving the mission of liberation and transformation, emphasizing the need to stand in compassionate solidarity with victims of violent crime, sexual assault, physical and emotional abuse.
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The Pastor as a scapegoat
R
ev Dr Maitland Evans was the guest speaker at the Minister’s Conference. He was of the belief that scapegoating isn’t what you do to yourself is what others do to you.
Pastors, he added, are victims of misinterpretation and misunderstanding of their roles and that has made life difficult for them. Nevertheless, they still need to find a way to stay focused and constantly renew the essentials of their calling. What is the essentials of their calling? A difference making identity grounded in their creation and empowered by the goodness of God that allows them to rise above their limitations. Pastors, he said, must be self-aware and must understand their own differences and vulnerabilities before attempting to take on pastoral care of others. Some people go into the pastorate for the wrong reasons and as a consequence make choices that are not congruent with the essentials of the Calling.
T
he Opening Service of the 167th General Assembly of the Jamaica Baptist Union started precisely at 7:00pm at the Calvary Baptist Church, with the processional hymn, When I look at the heavens… and Yes a certain Karl did look up to the heavens. The leader, the “not-so-young,” yet technologically savvy Rev GenSec was on his usual form, but sharper this time, with the canned welcome, capturing vignettes of memorable moments impacting the life of the church in 2017, including the Green victory; the lightening Bolt triple victory and the Trumped shocking victory...and yes our victories and triumph in Jesus Christ. Ms Vanessa Burnett, UTCWI student, read the Old Testament Scripture: Genesis 18: 1-8 and Rev Dr Clinton Chisolm read the Gospel in the Jamaican Creole: Matthew 10: 1-10. Oh yes the Combined Choir from the West was simply magnificent with their interpretation of the very popular Here I am Lord.
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Stage set for the presidential address excerpts of which are paraphrased on pages 1 and 2 of this publication, but suffice it to say someone suggested that the Presi thundered like the oracle of God giving freely of his wit, adding a little drama here and there...er did anyone see how he held that teacup? Twas sheer brilliance I tell you! Sheer brilliance…! [ok so I am a tad bit..un-objective] Seriously, it was indeed “thus saith the Lord,” and we open our hearts and our hands too to receive what God gave him to give us. The Local Organising Committee led by Rev Everton Jackson ought to be applauded for pulling out all stops to bring to us an incident and glitch free opening ceremony. Montego Bay’s finest civic leaders...and Kingston’s and St Catherine’s too came out in their numbers to celebrate with our beloved Union. And I saw the said Karl who had looked up to the heavens, look up again and this time breathe a rather deep sigh of relief...even as his eyes mouthed, “tomorrow is another day…” We wait.