History beckons in church’s war on crime

“I am pained.”

Those words capture the magnitude of the test the Rev Karl Johnson faces as he assumed the pastorate of the historic Phillippo Baptist Church in Spanish Town, the former Jamaican capital that is seized with mob crime and endemic violence.

Referencing the ongoing high-profile trial of 33 alleged members of the Clansman Gang, which uses Spanish Town as its power base of murder and extortion, Johnson said there is a great need to reaffirm the ethic of life in one of the island's most socially toxic towns.

“There's a narrative that Spanish Town is viewed as the centre of iniquity,” said Johnson, who is seeking to push back against social injustice and urban blight, which he has blamed for demoralising the poor.

Commencing his pastoral duties on October 1, Johnson said that part of his larger mission is to assist youth in the community, particularly young men who are often primed for recruitment into criminal gangs like Clansman and One Don.

“We need to get back to those days to shape our people ... . Economics is not all,” he said.

Johnson takes up the Phillippo mantle after spending 20 years as general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union. The Rev Merlyn Hyde Riley, his successor, is the first woman to hold that office.

With more than three decades of ministry under his belt, Johnson is not worried about the goals he has set himself or the transition from executive leadership to pastoral care. And he doesn't view his absence from congregational pastoral leadership as a hindrance to the expectations of the new role.

He has prior pastoral experience of 11 years, including at the Ulster Spring Circuit in Trelawny and at Calvary Baptist in St James.

His posting at Phillippo is a bit of a homecoming, having been baptised there as a child.

Since services are streamed online, Johnson's introduction to the Phillippo membership, and first opportunity to evangelise on Sunday, October 3, were expected to be a new and different experience – bereft of the conviviality of back-slapping commendation and warm hugs.

“The welcome is going to be so much different due to the pandemic,” he said on Friday, acknowledging the quotas and social-distancing norms of the coronavirus era.

There are about 40,000 members on the islandwide roll of the Baptist Church, with pre-pandemic weekly attendance of around 120,000, said Johnson. Phillippo Baptist, built in 1827, has a historic place in pre- and post-Emancipation society because of its founder, the Rev James Phillippo, a loud abolitionist voice. Phillippo has a rolling membership of about 700-800.

Johnson said that church officers have been deployed for outreach to many members, especially those unable to access online services, because “the pandemic has created so much havoc”.

COVID-19 has forced churches to be more creative in their ministry and congregations have been urged to be cognisant of the mental-health of coronavirus restrictions on older members.

“We are going to have to find ways to reach people and reach them where we are,” he said, noting that online modalities could not be the only solution.

In support of the Government's efforts to encourage citizens to get vaccinated, Johnson is calling for every Jamaican to join the campaign to protect each other.

“The church played a tremendous role in the fight against the horrors and iniquitous system of slavery ... trying to fight for a better Jamaica. ... I pray that God, in His own mercy, will give me an opportunity to assist and to partner with his people in this mission,” said Johnson.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com