WESTERN BUREAU – The spiralling levels of crime, particularly shootings, in the western resort city of Montego Bay has some church leaders worried. And while there are many different views on the source of the violence, they all agree that a solution must be found.

Head of the Anglican Church in Montego Bay Right Rev Dr Howard Gregory believes the increasing violence is stemming from illegal activities that have been allowed to fester.

“…It seems to me that some of the problems that we are having clearly relate to illegal activities which have been allowed to go unchecked for a long time,” he said. “Because it seems to me this matter of turf – turf has to do, as I understand it, with part of the protection extortion racket and who is going to benefit from some of those spoils – those things did not happen overnight. They have developed over a long period of time.”

Another area of grave concern to the man of the cloth is the protection which he said some criminals get from some members of their communities. Gregory is of the view that this behaviour only makes the work of the police harder.

“The level of protection that these persons enjoy in communities means that communities are talking out of two sides of their mouth. They appear to be saying, ‘protect us but don’t come inside here to stop what is going on’,” he pointed out. “Now I am not saying that everybody in the community is a part of it, clearly not. However, there are sufficient pockets of support. So that all this talk about law and order must engage those pockets of support that are hiding, protecting, and are supportive of criminal activity.”

Rev Gregory thinks that the church, like any other group within the society, has a role to play. He pointed to the reopening of the Glendevon Training Centre as one step his congregation had taken to help train youngsters.

Meanwhile, superintendent for the Northern District of the Wesleyan Holiness Church Bernard Scarlett has called on church leaders and Justices of the Peace to unite and push for peace in their various communities.

“I am now working on some strategies to meet with some other church leaders and Justices of the Peace in the particular area where I am confined, which is Norwood,” he said.

“Actually that is one of the most troubled areas. I have had a meeting already in the Pitfour area but I am now looking at having a meeting in that particular area that has become one of the hot spots in Western Jamaica right now,” he added.

Scarlett’s hope is for “all the churches in Norwood to unite and. march against” the violence.

We need to let “our voices be heard in a more united way,” he said.

But Roman Catholic Bishop of Montego Bay Rev Charles Dufour painted a picture of an ineffective state and a Church that is increasingly seen as irrelevant.

“The Church has become irrelevant in the minds of many, either because they have no experience of church and the teaching, or they have been passive in the face of the church’s challenges and calls for Christian involvement and good example,” he said.

At least 80 people have been murdered in St James since the start of the year, double the number killed in the same period last year.