Church must form community ties – priest

The church must look towards understanding and creating partnerships in the communities where they are based.

Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Incarnation in Long Island, New York, The Very Reverend Dr. Michael Sniffen suggested that for too long churches have done the bare minimum for their communities in the name of charity, but this could only take it so far.

As the featured speaker at the  Annual’s Dean Lecture on ‘The Spirituality of the City’ hosted by the Trustees of the St Michael Centre for Faith and  Action,  he said: “The church has a vocation in these places not to see problems as two-sided, that someone is wrong and someone is right.

“We need to develop a sense of the giftedness of all of us, that all of us need help and all of us have something to offer. That is what we talk about as the shift from charity to solidarity. Too much of the church’s life has been characterized by making drops in the bucket and congratulating each other. 

“If we spend our time and energies being at the table when decisions are made about the very nature of our communities, whether these be urban or otherwise, and then partner with people wherever they are by saying that just as in the scripture where God said ‘He will never leave us or forsake us’, that the church will never leave you or forsake you when we are talking to the community in which we find ourselves,” he advised.

Also addressing those gathered at the Courtney Blackman Grande Salle in Bridgetown on Thursday night, Minister of State in the Office of the Attorney General with responsibility for Crime Prevention, Corey Lane thanked Dr Sniffen for underlining the importance of faith and action, and said efforts must be tripled to ensure that young people are once again rooted in spirituality.

He stressed the importance of this as many reformed gang members have said that going back to their Sunday School teachings helped them in their transformation away from the negative life. (JB)