Determined not to bury people who have “lived lawlessly”, Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Jamaica, The Bahamas, Cayman and Turks and Caicos will now do background checks on the deceased before deciding if they are worthy of benefiting from the SDA’s funeral services.

“Prior to the decision of consenting to host the funeral, a detailed and truthful profile of the deceased should be provided,” the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, said in a release yesterday.

“The church will not accept community funerals where the lifestyle of the deceased has been in contravention of law and order, and good principles.”

These checks will include meeting the family members of the deceased and, where possible, meeting with all the parties expected to participate in the church service.

This was one of 24 approved recommendations made public yesterday by the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

The union, the highest decision-making body of SDA churches in Jamaica, Bahamas, Cayman and the Turks and Caicos, has asked members not to conduct funeral services for lawbreakers and to bar entry to mourners dressed in skimpy attire, drinking alcohol, bearing firearms or vending on church premises.

The Adventists also reserve the right to halt funeral services or burials if the rules of conduct are breached by mourners. The church will also limit funeral services to two hours.

The landmark recommendations came in response to a series of incidents at the Hagley Park Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kingston earlier this year. In addition to local SDA officials, church leaders from the other countries in which the new rules take effect, all participated in the decision-making process.

In an Observer article on February 28, the pastor of the Hagley Park church, Rev Roy Gordon, warned that he would stop officiating at funerals after several persons attending the funeral of a young murder victim turned up wearing revealing outfits, while others smoked marijuana and sold and drank alcohol on the premises.

About two weeks later, gunmen invaded the grounds of that same church and shot up several cars, in what some believe may have been retaliation to the pastor’s warning.

The shocking events, which drew public condemnation, particularly among the Christian community, forced the union to convene a committee, to come up with funeral policy to guide its members.

Local Adventist churches have been a popular choice for many who are not regular church-goers because they will hold funeral services on Sundays, unlike other denominations who hold church services on Sundays.

But the growing trend of mourners flouting age-old church practices of godly reverence, proper conduct and modest dressing inside the church precincts have forced the union to set new guidelines for its members to govern its handling of funeral services in the future.

In yesterday’s release, President of the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Dr Patrick Allen said the decisions of the committee came after “months of discussion, debate and fervent prayer over what was a painful issue”.

He indicated that the problem, though recent, was a growing trend, and pointed to another funeral of a popular deejay where the dress code had been violated and participants “deliberately attempted to perform a last tribute to the deceased, which was totally out of harmony with the principles and standards of the church”.

Local newspapers have also published photographs of mourners standing on the church’s platform with alcoholic beverages in their hands, paying tribute to the deceased, he said.

“The overriding concern was how can the church continue to support the community, especially as it relates to funeral services, and at the same time ensure that total respect is given to the one object on earth on which God has placed His supreme regard,” said Allen.

The SDA church, with over 200,000 members islandwide, is the largest and fastest growing denomination in the island.