BY NADINE WILSON Observer staff reporter wilsonn@jamaicaobserver.com Monday, April 21, 2014
EASTER is regarded as a time of hope and joy, but spokesman for the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches (JUGC), Reverend Lenworth Anglin, said the church has been challenged to preach this message in the past year, given the increasing hardships Jamaicans have been facing.
“I have never seen so many needy people in all my life, and they are coming to the church,” said Rev Anglin, who is also the immediate past executive chairman of the Church of God in Jamaica.
“The minister of security says that the crime rate is trending down, but I think there is a higher level of fear now than we have had before. People need to be reassured.
The high unemployment rate is definitely causing some jitters, although the minister of finance is talking right now and trying to appease our minds, but we face it on the ground,” he said.
“Basically people are fearful, people are suffering financially and the cost of living is just too high. People are not earning and then there is the loss of jobs, the unemployment rate is just too high, and so there is a general suffering around, which is evident,” he noted.
Rev Anglin, who was in the middle of preparing his Easter Sunday sermon when he spoke to the Jamaica Observer, said that despite all the struggles, the church has a responsibility to inspire hope and not doom.
This message is even more symbolic now as people around the world take time to remember and commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who endured extreme hardship prior to His death.
Anglin believes this message needs to be preached, regardless of the present struggles, although he is aware that not everyone will be receptive. more
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