Adventist leadership in west Jamaica pledges more community involvement

MONTEGO BAY, St James — THE leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in western Jamaica has pledged to become more involved in the parish of St James through social intervention.

This will involve the use of some of its churches — outside of the regular Sabbaths, Sunday and Wednesday night services — in some of the inner-city communities of Rose Heights, Mount Salem, Flankers Canterbury and Norwood. The initiative is to provide academic, counselling and other humanitarian outreach to these areas.

“So far we have engaged a number of churches in the Montego Bay basin, and a number of our members who are medical and academic professionals have given their commitment to give their time in free medical assistance and tutoring to those in need,” said Pastor Glen O Samuels, the newly elected president of the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Pastor Samuels was speaking at the Service of Installation for the new administration of the Adventist Church in Western Jamaica at its conference centre in Mount Salem, St James recently.

In addition to what the churches will be doing, Samuels said “the staff at the conference headquarters has made themselves available once each month to leave their desks as a team and go into the community to give hot meals and prayers with those in need on the streets”.

He said: “We believe that God didn’t call us only to sit by desks, but to live it, so that struggling humanity will understand that there is a God who cares.”

In his address to the congregation, Member of Parliament for North West St James Dr Horace Chang said, “The entire western region owes a debt of gratitude to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in this region.

“The work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is not only in bringing the gospel, but their work in education is outstanding. You have provided moral leadership in the communities in difficult times. The communities we represent in Montego Bay offer many challenges and the church was there to assist and guide us through them.”

The conference will also focus on family wholeness as a part of its strategic plan to touch the lives of people and improve the social and moral fabric of not only St James, but the other parishes of Westmoreland, Hanover and St Elizabeth, which are a part of the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

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Adventist leadership in west Jamaica pledges more community involvement

Three sentenced for lottery scam involvement

Three persons including a minor have been sentenced after pleading guilty to being involved in the lottery scam.

Tafarie Haddad,19 and Denise Sutherland,36, both unemployed of  Santa Cruz in the southern parish of St. Elizabeth pleaded guilty to breaching the Law Reform (Fraudulent Transactions) (Special Provisions) Act and sentenced to two and three years hard labour respectively.

The minor was sentenced to three years probation for Knowingly Possessing Identity Information.

They were sentenced in the St. Elizabeth Circuit Court on Monday.  

They were arrested on November 29 last year after the police searched premises in Santa Cruz.

A book containing names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers of  persons living in the US along with Western Union and MoneyGram receipts were found.  

Eleven lottery scammers have been convicted in St. Elizabeth since last month.

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Three sentenced for lottery scam involvement

JFJ seeks to clear Osbourne of any involvement with sex ed programme

The Board of the human rights lobby group, Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), has moved to distance Kay Osbourne, its current executive director, from any involvement with the now controvesial sex education programme that was introduced in six privately run children’s homes.

JFJ, in a statement released late on Friday night, said it had been forced to respond after it became aware of a letter, “issued to the press, which seems to place responsibility for the content of certain questionable modules,” on Ms. Osborne, who assumed the position of executive director on April 2, 2014.

The JFJ Board said while its internal review of the project “Healthy Sexual Growth and Development in Marginalised Youth: Rights, Responsibilities and Life Skills” was not yet complete, it needed to make it clear that in its review to date, “Ms. Osborne had nothing to do with the development, implementation, preparation and/or approval of the content of the modules, nor did she have oversight of any aspect of the project.”
The project was “designed, negotiated, and contracted by Dr. Carolyn Gomes with funding arranged by Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVCC),” the JFJ Board said.

Furthermore, the release affirmed, the implementation of the project began in October 2013, under the direct guidance of Dr. Carolyn Gomes, who was then Executive Director of JFJ.

Dr. Gomes resigned from her post with JFJ on December 20, 2013 to take up a new post as Executive Director of the CVCC.

Following her resignation, Dr. Gomes was reappointed to the Board of JFJ where she continued as a Director until her resignation in June 2014.

“At no point during this period did Dr. Gomes, either in writing or verbally, indicate to Ms. Osborne that JFJ was implementing a project of this nature. It is therefore wholly inaccurate to attribute responsibility to Ms. Osborne for the content of the modules or for her to bring that content to the attention of the Board of JFJ,” the statement concluded.

Public debate

The sex education programme became a matter of significant public debate, after it was revealed that its contents included, among other items, discussions about anal sex and oral sex, widely deemed inappropriate, especially taking into consideration the age of some of the children. It took on greater national significance, in part, because the revelation of its contents coincided with a wider debate concerning whether there should be more tolerance for homosexuals in the Jamaican society.

The matter is under investigation by several agencies of government and the Attorney General has been asked to determine whether legal action could be taken against anyone who was involved.

JFJ has already apologised for the manner in which it went about administering the programme.

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JFJ seeks to clear Osbourne of any involvement with sex ed programme