HOLIDAY OR HOLY DAY?

While church leaders are divided on whether Easter has lost its religious significance in Jamaica, one clergyman believes that some Christians are to be blamed for the waning reverence and observation of the holy season.

Easter is the most important time of year for Christians as they celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead after he was crucified for the sins of the world – the central tenet of the faith.

Describing Jamaica largely as a post-Christian society, Anglican priest Father Sean Major-Campbell said much of the local religious significance of Easter has been eroded.

“The greatest threat to Christian traditions is really that of Christians themselves, who have departed from faithfulness to Christ,” he told The Gleaner last Friday. “Many Christians also treat Easter more as a holiday than a holy day. Many are no longer aware that Easter has a season known as Eastertide, with 50 days leading to Pentecost.”

The controversial and outspoken minister said that many Christians are not even aware that Ash Wednesday is so named because Christians traditionally start the season of Lent with ashes on their foreheads in the shape of a cross as a reminder of their mortality and the need for repentance.

“Many are just preoccupied with pointing out how others are sinners and declaring themselves as blessed and highly favoured,” said Major-Campbell.

On the other hand, Reverend Alvin Bailey, presiding bishop of the Holiness Christian Church in Jamaica, and Reverend Astor Carlyle, head of the Webster Memorial Church, believe that many Jamaicans still observe the religious part of the season.

“Easter has not lost its religious significance among Jamaicans, and we’ll never lose the significance, especially with so many churches per square mile, the increasing involvement of the church, and the many denominations in the life of Jamaica.

“The unprecedented unity of the church in advancing the Christian way of life, in particular, and its engagement in every aspect of the Jamaican society would have caused the church to increase the significance, and so those holidays and religious ceremonies and days like Easter will never lose significance to commercialisation or any other activity,” Bailey argued.

He added, however, that the local bun and cheese custom remains a significant part of the observation, but noted that it will not detract from the religious significance.

Carlyle expressed concerns that the emerging generations seem not to hold as firmly to some of the spiritual disciplines associated with these seasons, namely, fasting, dedicated periods of prayer, self-denial, corporate worship for Holy Week, etc.

Like Major-Campbell, he shared the view that more Jamaicans were moving towards the commercial aspect of the holy season.

“Whereas reflection, worship, and quiet constituted these seasons – especially Holy Week and Good Friday – there seems to be a move for greater promotion of parties, events, and outings.

“It seems as if we are being primed to focus more on the existential matters of life than the eternal things of life, an unfortunate and dangerous imbalance,” Carlyle reasoned as he spoke with The Gleaner on Good Friday.

According to him, the Church has a responsibility to teach the society the value of rest, reflection, and seeking renewal through relationship with God in Christ Jesus.

“We need to teach the meaning behind these seasons so that persons can benefit from the balance that they offer to life,” he added.

Similarly, Major-Campbell said, “It is members who must share Christ’s light in a world with plenty of darkness.”

But, he added, “Sadly, the greatest shock to Christianity has been the extreme religious right, which has moved away from the prophetic witness of the Jesus movement.”

However, Bailey maintains that the tradition of Easter is alive and well and that church will continue to preserve it.

“Even the monthly observance of Lord’s supper, which is really a reflection of the death of Jesus Christ, would have served as a continual emphasis on Easter, which culminates around Good Friday. So, by no means the tradition is lost or anywhere near being lost,” he said.

Bailey stressed that the Easter holiday period, which surrounds the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, symbolises hope and redemption.

“The real hope for change, transformation to a life, to our society, to our community is in the provision of God’s redemptive grace and power that is possible in the life of humanity to bring newness and a difference to the life of many,” he said. “Families can be changed and be better; individuals that society has given up on can be different.”

In the meantime, he said: “My advice to Jamaicans is to continue to be contemporary and impact the different upsurges on immorality, sinful practices, and deviant behaviours in our society. Let the message of righteousness, the message of the Bible, and righteousness, in itself, from the Christian perspective, be brought to bear on every aspect of life.”

Carlyle, for his part, is encouraging Jamaicans to slow down and connect with God during the season.

“Surrender to the principles of God found in the Bible – justice, equity, love, peace, compassion. Live simply, so that others can simply live ... . Be ready to meet with God for evaluation when you die,” he advised.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com