Kingston, Jamaica…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
The streets of Kingston and St. Catherine in Jamaica shook on Saturday, Nov. 6, as more than 10,000 Seventh-day Adventist men, women and children marched together with a message of hope and family unity. The Adventist church organized the march, the largest such event ever to take place on the island, to kick-off a special summit to counter the alarming rise in violence in the nation over the last year.
“It was rich,” says Pastor Eric Nathan, Family Life Ministries director for the church in east Jamaica, who organized the event. “Members from the western tip and eastern tip of the island came in busses, cars and motorcades to march with signs and banners in order to create a consciousness to end spousal abuse, child neglect and for men to stand up for integrity and decency.”
The summit, themed “Men – Agents of Change,” took place in National Heroes Park in Kingston at the end of the four-mile march. Thousands gathered in the park to hear a message from Patrick Allen, president of the church in the West Indies, as well as Dr. Herbert Thompson, president of Adventist institution Northern Caribbean University, and Dr. Barry Chevannes of the University of the West Indies. There were also musical presentations from a 300-member all-male choir, as well from other musical groups from churches throughout Jamaica.
Nathan says the goal of the summit was to encourage Jamaican boys and men to get educated as a way of putting an end to the violence. He solicited the commitment of the men to volunteer two hours per week to help mentor inner-city boys. Some churches already offer homework assistance to hundreds of children, but Nathan expressed the need for more education centers plus more volunteers to staff them.
“We wanted to recognize the crime that’s plaguing our country which stems from broken families,” he says. “Boys are left to be influenced by guns. Illiteracy is part of the problem. We want to say to the young boys…to remain in school, to not choose gangs or violence. We guarantee they will live longer than those who join or remain in gangs.”
P.J. Patterson, Jamaica’s prime minister, attended the summit and commended the Seventh-day Adventist Church for its efforts in promoting moral values, and asked the church to remain united with the government against crime and violence.
The summit, which was covered by the national media, concluded on Sunday, Nov. 7, with seminars covering the role of the man at home and the workplace, men’s health issues, conflict resolutions, family issues and how to transform boys into men.
“We should not sit back,” says Nathan. Church organizers are already planning for a men’s summit next year, to take place in the national stadium.
Nestled in the Caribbean Sea, Jamaica has over 205,000 Seventh-day Adventists worshiping in 586 churches.
