Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe yesterday urged Jamaicans to acknowledge their failure to help make the country better by blaming others for the wrongs committed, but held out hope that those attending the National Atonement Service at the Portmore Seventh-Day Adventist Church were signalling their readiness for reconciliation

“Our presence here this morning I would like to interpret as an acknowledgement that we have done wrong and that we are prepared to walk the bridge to reconciliation,” said Wolfe. “We have failed to become involved in making amends. We always blame someone else and say someone else must do the atonement or solve the problem.

Well, I want to advise you this morning that someone else has died, and all of us are going to have to say we are sorry and cross the bridge of reconciliation. All this nonsense about government and police must solve the crime problem, it will never be solved if that is going to be the approach.”

The atonement service was held as part of the preliminary activities before the International Conference on Restorative Justice scheduled for February 7-8.

Held under the theme ‘Free At Last’, the service was the culmination of 21 days of national grieving and healing in which Jamaicans were asked to identify and grieve about the ‘hurts’ afflicting the nation, and also to take steps to repair the pain.

Dr Grace Kelly, chairperson of the Behavioural Sciences Department of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) and one of the organisers of the Restorative Justice Conference, explained that the atonement service was necessary to invoke God in the process of healing the nation.

“We are here for the day of atonement when we are saying to Jesus, ‘Hear our cry, hear the cry of our children, hear the cry of our leaders. Come by here and help us Lord.’ That is the basis on which you have come,” she told the congregation.

Kelly also spoke at the three church services held in Montego Bay, Portland and Spanish Town before the atonement service. She said she witnessed persons weeping openly as they expressed deep-seated hurt that had afflicted them over the years.

Reading a proclamation on behalf of Governor-General Kenneth Hall, in which he pledged his support for the Restorative Justice Conference and its activities, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice Carol Palmer also declared that from now on the first week of February will be observed as Restorative Justice Week.

“I, Kenneth Octavius Hall. in support of this initiative now proclaim the period January 19 to February 8, 2007 as a period of national grieving, atonement, healing, restoration and reconciliation and urge all Jamaicans to support the many varied activities which will take place across the island during this period, as well as the ongoing efforts of our people to foster justice, peace and restoration for all Jamaicans.

And [I] do further proclaim that the first week of February in each year shall be known as Restorative Justice Week,” Hall’s proclamation said.

Speaking on behalf of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, minister of justice A J Nicholson also endorsed the International Justice Conference and its activities.

“For longer than we would care to acknowledge, our nation has been experiencing a time of deep hurt, from Negril to Morant Point,” said Nicholson. “And while we cry for the harshest of punishments to offenders, we need also to admit that there is good in all of us and the need for all members of society – victims, offenders even – to grieve but then to forgive, to heal, to be reconciled and then to be restored.

“From today and through this period that will culminate with the International Conference on Restorative Justice I encourage all of us to take advantage of this opportunity for healing. And to commit to partner among ourselves as a society, a family of which to each member we cannot afford to be unkind,” he said.

Guest speaker Dr Herbert Thompson, president of NCU, emphasised the need for persons to look inwards as they sought to achieve atonement for their hurt.

“If we vow to make a change, that change can be made, and I believe the 21-day period of looking at ourselves is something that has brought to the fore a consciousness which says we can’t keep on living like this,” said Thompson. “We have to stop telling people about what they have to do to fix themselves, we have to do what we need to do to fix ourselves. Atonement is not about them, it’s about us.”

Thompson also urged Jamaicans to release the emotional baggage that they carried with them after being hurt by others in the past, as it empowered both the offender and the victim. Having resolved those issues, Thompson urged persons to share the release from their interpersonal burdens as often as they are able.