Returning to the spirituality that set the tone of her first days in office, Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller said she would like to be the kind of leader that God wanted her to be.

Simpson-Miller in her address which was akin to a sermon to the 10th annual Caribbean Leadership Conference of the Church of God of Prophecy, liberally quoted the Holy Scriptures and said she wanted her speech to be “seasoned with salt”.

“As Prime Minister of Jamaica I want to be an example of a leader whose speech is “seasoned with salt” as the scriptures encourage; one who has a “word fitly spoken,” she said, stirring echoes of “amen” and “praise the Lord” from an obviously engaged congregation.

“May God help me to keep this commitment. I ask for your prayer, pray me through so that I might stand in this commitment to be the kind of leader God wants me to be,” she urged the just concluded conference at the Sunset Jamaica Grande hotel in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

“I am anchored and grounded in the Lord. This is one of the benefits of having the Christian faith and knowing the power of Christ,” she testified.

Simpson Miller acknowledged growing up attending the Church of God of Prophecy and still attends the Maxfield Avenue Church.

The leadership conference, held under the theme “Stand fast in one spirit and mind”, drew participants from the Caribbean and North America.

The prime minister used the occasion to make a plug for peaceful elections, urging the nation to unite around the need to have a peaceful, non-violent society. She stressed the importance for civic leaders to insist on peaceful elections.

Simpson-Miller said leaders from civil society must let their voices be heard so loudly that political leaders could not ignore them.

“They must insist that violence must never again be a part of our political process,” the prime minister said.

“All of us can and should unite around the need for a peaceful, non-violent society. All of us, irrespective of political, religious, class and racial differences, should unite against criminal forces and stand up for the future of our children. This should be non-negotiable.”

For her part, the prime minister said: “Before all of you, men and women of God, I, Portia Lucretia Simpson Miller, pledge my wholehearted, unequivocal and total support for a peaceful election, free and fair and free from fear. I will never renege on that promise.”