By Theresa Goodwin
On the day that the entire nation will pause to observe the country’s 40th anniversary of political Independence, a group of religious leaders will launch a 14-day session of prayer and fasting.
The group, formally referred to as Kingdom Leaders is pushing for religious exemption from the governments mandatory policy, freedom of personal faith conviction, individual sole liberty and due regard for official church constitution/regulations.
They are of the view that other religious bodies other than the Rastafarians should be exempted from the policy. It should be noted that other groups such as the Seventh-day Adventists have already indicated publicly that they will not be approving any exemption from the mandatory policy.
Bishop Charlesworth Browne, who spoke on the behalf of the group, said over 20 religious leaders attended a meeting Thursday night and have all agreed that prayer and fasting is the most powerful tool they have at their disposal.
“From Monday, November 1 to November 14,th we have declared it a period of prayer and fasting. This period is going to be efficacious. What we are also asking people who have been affected by the mandate to join us in that time of prayer and fasting.
“We have determined that we are also going to gather again next Thursday mainly to get feedback on a document we have dispatched,” Browne said.
Some of the points that will be covered during the 14th day period include the importance of the word of God and his role in individuals’ lives, fear that exist in the country, validating the power of God, the welfare of the church members to include the education of children, and not subjecting the church to unjust/ungodly laws.
“They [the authorities] need to perish the thought that they will make laws and the church just has to fall in line. No way! The church is not subject to unjust and ungodly laws and the people in authority should know that. The church is more powerful than anyone thinks and we are going to show them,” Bishop Browne stated.
The government implemented the vaccine mandate for public sector workers about one month ago in an effort to encourage the public to get inoculated to increase their defense against the Covid-19 virus.
A number of business places have also adopted a similar policy and efforts are now being made to get more private sector entities on board.
The latest information shared by the Ministry of Health, on October 28th, showed that over 49,000 people were have been fully vaccinated, while a little over 4,000 people have received one dose of an approved vaccine.