The Friendly Church
This month we celebrate our heritage. We have set aside some time as a nation to remember our national heroes and heroine, as well as honour those across the nation who have contributed to the growth and development of our country.
What makes these persons stand out as heroes and heroine is their selflessness, willingness to sacrifice their lives, their commitment to the values of freedom, justice and solidarity with the neighbour.
“Going back” is a very huge part of many lives currently.
Many are going back to school, the same school, or a different school; others are going overseas, while still others are returning to their jobs after a break. There are a few others who will also be going back, not physically but mentally as they retrace their steps to a path, they took many years ago. I want to explore the many sides of “going back” in our Pastor’s desk reflection this month.
As a child, I remember a particular trip with my family to Ocho Rios, Saint Ann. As we travelled through Fern Gully, and at the urging of my younger brother, my father agreed to turn off the car headlights briefly to show us how dark the area really was. Even though it was only for a few seconds, I can remember that my brothers and sister were terrified. To this day, I think that was the darkest environment that I have ever been in. The thick canopy of the rainforest completely blocked the night sky and stars, and there were no other vehicles either oncoming or behind us.
Dear family, last month was child’s month and we continue to celebrate our family during this month as well, and today I want to talk a little more about the family and sexuality education.
Sexuality education in the family
“If children learn of sex as a relation between their parents to which they owe their own existence, they learn of it in its best form and in connection with its biological purpose.” Bertrand Russell – Marriage and morals.
“When intimacy is divorced from sex, then power takes over” – (unknown)
“Fostering is not about us. It never was and never will be. Foster care is about serving, loving on others, and being the one constant in a child’s life when they are going through a really hard time.” - Jeremy Garman
What do you know about Foster Care? Would you want to be a foster parent? Or have you had foster siblings and what was it like? Would you want to keep the tradition in your family? What stories have you heard about foster children and how have those stories influenced your attitude to fostering children?
During this month we celebrate passion Sunday, Holy week, and Easter. This season marks for me the treatment of the innocent and the triumph of good over evil.
Indeed, the arrest, trial and murder of Jesus by Roman leaders, aided and abetted by his own Jewish religious leaders, is nothing less than barbarous, cruel treatment of the innocent. Pilate’s wife stoutly warned him from a dream received to have nothing to do with that man as he was innocent. Pilate, instead of protecting the innocent, washed his hands of any possible accusation and supposedly of any involvement.
Lenten greetings friends
The JBU is meeting this month for its 173rd General Assembly under the theme, “Keeping Faith with the Word in an ever-changing World - Embracing the Mystery”. In my reflection on the theme and in keeping with the social focus for this month which is love, because of Valentine’s Day, I thought we could focus on the mystery of Redeeming love. It is no doubt that this is a mystery to be embraced, the fact that God could love the unlovable, the unfaithful and the unlovely.
Mystery
As we face a New Year
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away; (Eccles. 3:1,6)
We look back on the year 2022 with gratitude and look forward with hopeful anticipation. The Year 2022 has, for many of us, been a year which presented us with multiple experiences.
Losses of life
The themes of Advent are very real, Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. They address issues that were not only current for the early Christian community but continue to impact us in this century.
Advent HOPE.
For a people who were exiled for 70 years, losing their land, their homes, their temple, and their national leaders, hope of the restoration of these losses and a political leader to defend them against their enemies was a real project. The words of hope offered by the prophet Isaiah were welcome and timely,