Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Church leaders in Montego Bay, St James, have decided to take to the streets in a desperate attempt to stop the orgy of violence which has engulfed the city.

Montego Bay is bleeding from the effects of murders, extortion and robberies and a least one church leader believes a curse is on the city.

However, Prayer 2000's pastor Harry Walcott believes a spiritual transformation can lift that curse.

"If you behave a certain way, do certain things, we are going to invoke not just man's curse, but the pronouncement of God against evil," Walcott told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday after the church leaders met to discuss the crime problem facing the city.

In the last three years, Montego Bay and adjoining communities have become a den of lottery scams, credit-card scams and a turf for gang warfare.

As a result, the crime rate has spiralled, leaving hundreds of persons mourning loved ones killed by the criminals.

UNITED AGAINST DARKNESS

But the Church, which has been questioned over and over again about whether it is doing enough to cauterise the plague, feels it is time for all denominations to come together and unite against what it has called "the forces of darkness".

"A lot of what is happening to us is outworking of curses that have been uttered, a lot of it by men," explained Walcott, shortly after addressing a gathering of members of several different denominations during the 'Healing the Land' national summit at the Church on the Rock in Reading, Montego Bay.

According to Walcott, "By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted but it is overthrown by the words of the wicked. The blessing of the upright not only has to do with the pronouncements; it also has to do with the work that the people of God will do, bringing about restitution and reclaiming lives in ministering to the poor and those disenfranchised in different ways," an area he said the Church could do much more in.

Aiming to equip and arm a number of intercessors (prayer-walkers) for sustained and strategic intercession at the community level, Walcott said he is urging churches in the tourism capital to set up prayer altars in various communities, particularly those besieged by crime. "The Church must stand in the gap and build up the hedges."

His counterpart, Church on the Rock's pastor Dr Richard Keene, concurred, stating that the Church needs to be in intercessory prayer, not just for the salvation of souls but in order to take authority over negative things that have been released over the communities.

"Generational things - the Church needs to become proactive over these things that have been released already, putting in their place the peace and love of God," said Keene.

LEAVE CONFINES

Like Walcott, Keene believes the time has come for the Church to leave its confines and go deep into the communities.

Facilitator of the session and pastor of the Lighthouse of Faith, Philip Gordon, whose church is located in one of the most volatile communities in the city, Rose Heights, said his area was tagged 'murder capital', but that is no longer the case.

He is already seeing the success of prayer walks, he said, evident in the number of youths that have joined his flock.

"The youths have changed completely; 90 per cent of them in our church are from the community and they are bringing in the adults with them."

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com