Letter of the Day | All churches are not equal

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The ongoing pandemic and all it entails continues to affect all of us, individually and collectively. The Government’s crisis response, beginning with the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) of March 2020, is worthy of mention and I applaud the hard work of the various ministry leaders and their teams.

I have taken note of numerous global reports of citizens’ reactions to ‘restrictions’ imposed by their respective governments and I am pleased that here in Jamaica we have done very well at compliance.

There is, however, a sore point that has become an issue of great concern to the church (I speak from observation at the church of which I am a member).

The various orders under the DRMA, since March 2020, have greatly affected the day-to-day operations of every church, as with all institutions. The records will show that churches have played their part and continue to do so in adhering to the tenets of the various orders.

Under the current order, the attendance number for churches, regardless of size, is capped at a ceiling of 100 persons. This, I believe, is a very unfortunate situation and one that has not gone down well for me and many others. My church has a membership of over 1,000 and it is my belief that special consideration must be given to churches which, in observation of all protocols, can comfortably accommodate more than 100 persons.

All churches are not equal and what is good for the goose in some cases is not necessarily good for the gander.

There is not a great number of large churches on the island, and so I believe it would be a simple matter for the prime minister and his Cabinet to assign a special team to visit these churches and approve them for numbers that they can accommodate.

MUCH MORE

The church is more than a meeting place. There is a very sad rhetoric related to the use of the church’s income that many seem to be convinced of as truth. The demography of my church has a great percentage of elders (over 70 years). Many of them are not in positions to care for themselves and rely on provisions from the church to supplement their daily needs, to include medication and paying of their bills.

We also support a home for the aged in the community, and as a large church, we contribute to the operations of smaller churches in the various church districts across the island. The church is a fully functioning institution that employs workers and pays its bills.

The church remains the heart of every community and care must be taken to ensure that there are no spokes in the wheels as a result of narrow-mindedness.

ANN MARIE BROWN