Jamaican churches are willing to consider banning funeral services from their sanctuaries and restricting them to burial sites, to counter the growing trend of mourners who wear flesh-exposing attire, smoke marijuana and display rowdy behaviour in or around churches.
By Vivienne Green-EvansSeveral leading churchmen warned of a likely change in the way funeral services are handled, in interviews with the Sunday Observer. The warning comes in an Easter weekend when Jamaican churches are commemorating the death and burial of Jesus Christ, in common with millions of Christians across the globe.
"People, whatever their backgrounds, need to be buried in a solemn way. Sometimes if the person is a notorious criminal, we could consider having the funeral at the graveside. It's a case by case decision that has to be made," said Roman Catholic Archbishop, Lawrence Burke.
The church's warning also followed a recent declaration from the East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, annoyed at the problem being experienced by some of their churches, that they planned to meet to decide on how churches should handle such services in the future.
Any decision by the Adventists to insist that mourners stick to a dress code or go elsewhere, was likely to get the support of all churches, said Rev Roderick Hewitt, a vice-president of the umbrella Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC) for the county of Surrey.
"If that's what the Seventh-day Adventist is calling for they can be sure of all churches more or less giving their full support," said Hewitt, who is also moderator for the United Churches in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
His point was that just as other institutions, including dancehalls, have their unique dress code, the church sets its code, and had the right to enforce it.
"The courts ask you to dress in a way that is deemed to be respectful of the institution. When you are going to school you are asked to do that, when you are going to work you're asked to do that. I don't see what's all the fuss about. A church has the right to set minimum standards of what it deems to be acceptable. The churches are not asking for anything uniquely different."
He suggested that the Seventh-day Adventist churches are more likely than others to experience such problems, partly due to their location, but mostly because they are able to hold funeral service on a Sunday, which makes them first choice for many families.
"The point is that it's the decision of each church leader whether they want to do funeral services for a deceased who is a notorious criminal, and it's their responsibility to guide family members against any display of irreverence in the house of God," said Bishop Herro Blair, head of Faith and Deliverance Centre on Waltham Park Rd.
Blair said his church had experienced problems with regard to mode of dressing, but there had been no gun salute or marijuana smoking.
Last year, Blair faced a firestorm of criticism after preaching against the wearing of skimpy dresses, warning that it could encourage rape. Critics felt he was blaming women for being raped.
Blair told the Sunday Observer that mourners generally attended his church knowing fully well what was expected of them.
"I have taken a principled stand that whether in the church or on the street, people will have to be disciplined so when it comes to the service in the church I will not be compromised, and they know," he said.
In Ocho Rios, Pastor Joseph Prendergast of the Ocho Rios Gospel Chapel, agreed that the inappropriate dressing was a problem at many churches. Additionally, there were times when some motorists drove into the churchyard during service with music blaring from the vehicle's sound system, he said.
"They are not accustomed to church but because they are there for a funeral they carry that same behaviour and dress into the church. But people have to think, respect is due," Prendergast declared. Prendergast blamed the general indiscipline in the society, especially the dancehall culture, for the problem.
Bishop Stanley Mattis of the Church of God of Prophecy, Ocho Rios, suggested that signs such as those erected at some public places like hospitals, outlining strict dress code, might have to be erected at some churches.
He said his church did not experience the problem from persons directly involved with the activity in the church, but most times from their guests who were inappropriately attired and noted that the problem was not confined to a particular social class because "high category people do it too".
Mattis added that husbands needed to remind their wives that they were private property, as a way of encouraging appropriate dressing by some women.
In Montego Bay, Paul D Gallimore, Pastor of Kings Chapel, located along the Albion Road, said the inappropriate dressing and bad behaviour of persons who attend funerals at his church had escalated over the past few years.
"We are outraged by their dress mode. We now see some with see-through black top where we can actually see their breasts; sleeveless going all the way down to the back and cleavages sometimes exposed," Pastor Gallimore said of some persons who attend funerals at his church.
Gallimore, a born-again Christian for a quarter of a century, has been the pastor at Kings Chapel for almost 10 years. Over the past few years the prominent Montego Bay pastor has officiated at an average of six funerals monthly.
Most of these funerals, the pastor said, were held for persons living in the inner-city communities of Glendevon, Canterbury, Norwood and Albion.
He pointed out that persons living in these inner-city communities were often the ones who flouted the dress code and behaved inappropriately at funerals.
"What we find is that where we have the greatest problems with funerals, they have to do with persons who live in the inner-city areas," Gallimore told the Sunday Observer.
"They don't dress right and they smoke ganja on the property and congregate under the trees when funeral services are going on," he added, pointing out that these persons have to be constantly monitored by Ushers.
Gallimore said, however, that inappropriate dress at some church functions had been a long-standing problem, which had gathered momentum over the last few years.
The pastor, who presides over a church with a membership of roughly 900, said however that steps have already been taken to deal with the matter at his church. "We have started with the persons who come for baby blessing and those who are going to get married," he said.
"With the persons who come for baby blessing, what we do is register them first and then counsel them, letting them know that the mode of dress for church has to be a certain way, so when they come back they know that they have to dress in a modest way," Gallimore explained.
Additionally, he said, persons who wanted to get married at his church were also counselled.
One St Ann pastor who was not overly concerned about skimpy dresses in his church was Pastor Wesley Boynes of the Northgate Centre for Global Impact in Ocho Rios.
Boynes said: "Some people, that's the only clothes they have, so what do they do? One shouldn't make a big deal out of it. I am confident that the words that I preach will cause people to reflect and dress differently. I don't have to demand that."
With additional reporting by Carl Gilchrist in Ocho Rios and Mark Cummings in Montego Bay
