SPRING VILLAGE, St Catherine — The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica has declared the second week of March each year Special Needs Awareness Week, and the second Saturday in the month Special Needs Awareness Day.

The declaration, the first to be made in the world church of Seventh-day Adventists, was made during a Special Needs Summit hosted from March 6-8, 2015 at Camp Verley, St Catherine.

It is intended to heighten the church’s awareness about persons with disabilities in their congregations and throughout Jamaica, and will see it improving physical accessiblility to its buildings, and offering training, employment and membership on committees/boards to disabled members.

To that end, president of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Jamaica Pastor Everett Brown Brown announced that wheelchair bound member Wesley Cunningham will be invited to participate at the next mid-year of the Jamaica Union Conference Executive committee in May. This was met with applause and shouts of ‘amen’ from the more than 300 delegates, interest groups, well-wishers and members of the disabled community who participated in the summit.

In his pronouncement, Brown emphasised the need for the church and the society to be more all-inclusive in supporting people with special needs.

“This weekend is a very special and significant occasion not only for those of us present here but for the entire Seventh-day Adventist church in Jamaica,” he said.

“A change of thinking — the way we think about each other — must take place. A change in how we plan, how we construct our buildings, how we structure our worship services, how we fellowship and worship and that change must take place with us, leaders of God’s church,” Brown continued.

He added that the summit, held under the theme ‘A Ministry Whose Time Has Come’, will be the catalyst for significant changes not only in the church, but also the wider society.

During his address to the congregation, chairman of the advisory board of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities, Denworth Finnikin commended the Seventh-day Adventist church for its new position, which he described as “a move in the right direction”.

“Jamaica is on the path of development and the church is leading this charge as it relates to persons with disability,” said Finnikin. “Today, this declaration is the start of ensuring that all souls (able and disabled) are garnered into God’s Kingdom.”

“As chairman of the advisory board it is my role to ensure that the Government continues to provide access, not only physical access, but resources for training because persons with disabilities are not looking hand-outs; they just want to be empowered, so that they can contribute to the economic development of themselves, their families and their country,” Finnikin emphasised.

Figures from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reveal that there are approximately 785,000 or approximately 28 per cent pf Jamaicans living with a form of disability.

“Special Needs is important to the Seventh-day Adventist church in order to make the church more inclusive in its ministry and service by giving people access to all the resources of the church and more importantly access to salvation,” said Pastor Samuel Telemaque, special needs coordinator for the Adventist Church in Inter-America.

“It allows members with special needs to have a platform on which to voice to their concerns, disappointment and needs, and also to give them a platform to be involved in the life of the church. It is designed to create wholeness in each congregation where the able assist the disabled and vice-versa, creating wholeness, oneness and an all-inclusiveness in Christ,” he continued.

Part proceeds of the offering collected at the summit will go to the Promise Learning Centre to purchase a drum set for its musicians who are Autistic and who performed three musical items during the meeting.

Jovan Salmon, a mute participant at the summit said in sign language: “I am happy because I didn’t know that I would have seen the interest disabled people are getting here. I feel pleased that the church is getting involved. I understand more the different disabilities and challenges.”

When asked about his contribution to society, Jovan replied: “I am happy to share my skills in sign language by teaching others to do it.”

Also present at the summit were government and non-government representatives including the president of the Jamaican Senate, Floyd Morris who is visually impaired. He gave testimony of overcoming blindness at the age of 12 to becoming a current candidate for a doctoral degree and of having served Jamaica as a junior government minister and a member of the Senate before becoming its president in May 2013.

The Adventist church in Jamaica has more than 280,000 members who worship in more than 730 congregations islandwide.