DLP urged to recognise need for healing within its ranks

By Ryan Gilkes

The opposition Democratic Labour Party has been urged to recognise the need for healing within its ranks, and a concerted effort to reconcile and unite the party.

The plea was made by Senior Pastor with Restoration Ministries International, Apostle Dr David Durant, as the leadership of the political institution, including Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne and the party’s President, Dr Ronnie Yearwood, attended a Service of Healing at the Gunsite Road Church on Sunday.

Durant highlighted the importance of divine guidance, wisdom, and direction from God as the DLP moves forward in its healing process, which he said the party must start now.

“The act of healing, of necessity, must include the inevitable elements of reconciliation. It must include an unequivocal, unqualified expression of remorse and regret, and a show of magnanimity, in a spirit of forgive and forget for the longer good or the better of the nation, for the benefit of the particular organisation or group or even Church. The urgency and importance of this effort need to be recognised as such. It needs to be handled sensitively, selflessly.  It ought to be handled maturely, and generously, and ought to be resolved amicably,” Durrant said.

“Prudence or wisdom demands that division and blatant disunity not be ignored or pushed under the carpet. For its implications can be detrimental to the survival of a party of a church, of a group, of an organisation … and of course, it will have negative impacts. The DLP was caught in a whirlwind of public opprobrium recently as it relates to the acceptance or non-acceptance of the Opposition Leader, the Honorable Ralph Anthony Thorne, MP for Christ Church South. But good wisdom prevailed, and that matter was settled. and now he’s here this morning in a church setting, reaching out to God and calling out to God. And of course, I’m trusting that his heart is so set that he’s trusting not in his own self or his own senses, but he is united with the President, the General Secretary, with all the others to really forge the way ahead through a united front to be a formidable force,” the pastor said.

He stressed that the act of healing must include elements of reconciliation, unequivocal expressions of remorse, and a demonstration of magnanimity, fostering a spirit of forgiveness and forgetting for the greater good.

“… a national effort to stabilize, placate, heal, and to move forward is the order of the day or the need of the day.  Burying the hatchet and closing ranks could provide a stable platform within an organisation to tackle the ominous, daunting, multifarious, and the challenges it faces, with confidence, with faith, with a sense of determination, with a sense of hope, with a sense of great strength — knowing that it is not by power, but by my Spirit and as we trust God as we look to Him, God will help us to navigate through the turbulent waters.

“This party has the wherewithal and the good sense to move back from the brink of disaster and move forward in a spirit of togetherness, maturity, selflessness, and political acumen.  All it needs is a selfless display of humility, loyalty, commitment, and the indomitable will to pursue whatever has to be done for the upliftment and the building of the organisation … putting the organisation first. And most of all, trusting God in the midst of it because the anthem says. ‘the Lord has been the people’s guide’, and we need to see that being a reality and not just a favourite sentence, or part of a verse in the national anthem,” Durant added.

(RG)