THE 41st National Leadership Prayer Breakfast (NLPB) will be live streamed this year in light of the current pandemic. The virtual event will take place on Thursday, January 21.

At a virtual press briefing yesterday, Rev Stanley Clarke, chairman of the NLPB Committee, announced that the theme for the annual gathering will be ‘Keep Hope Alive’. Looking towards a more hopeful future, Rev Clarke encouraged national leaders to use the severe challenges of the past year to construct a vision of peace, justice and tolerance, and to inspire their constituents to gather their strength, to persist in faith, and not to give in to despair.

Rev Clarke said the decision to host the event virtually is indicative of the resilience of people of faith and the triumph of faith over fear as the church seeks to inspire the world to keep hope alive even in moments of despair. “For us as a Christian people, hope has its source in the incarnate word made flesh and manifested in the historic person of Jesus Christ. He brought good news into the world in an age of chaos and fear – that is the basis of our hope. Such hope inspires faith in humanity, in life, in family. In human potentiality and in our tenacity to keep living and aspiring to higher and greater ideals,” said Rev Clarke.

Rev Clarke also announced that the breakfast would be preceded by a week of prayer, starting yesterday. There will be three prayers for the nation – one from each county – culminating on the day of the breakfast.

Speaking at the launch, Naketa West, manager of the Victoria Mutual Foundation, expressed appreciation for the foundation’s ongoing partnership with the NLPB, which has lasted more than 30 years. She stressed the need for Jamaicans to reach out for “something greater than ourselves”, and to adopt a “solutions-oriented mindset” while seeking positive outcomes.

“We have to chart a way forward which will enable others to start seeing the challenges that we face through fresh lens,” said West. “The Victoria Mutual Foundation believes wholeheartedly that no situation is beyond hope,” she added.

“In 2020 we saw the highs and lows of despair and balanced that with the strength, which hope in the incarnate word made manifest in the Lord Jesus,” Bishop Clarke added.

“Such is the hope that inspires faith in humanity, life, family, human potentiality, and tenacity to keep living and aspiring to perennial ideals. To believe in this year’s theme is to affirm that our best is yet to come,” he said. “We will always keep hope alive.”

Keynote speaker will be Rev Dr Dylan Toussaint of the Edgewater Circuit of Baptist Churches, while Rhodes Scholar Fitzroy Wickham will also address the event.

The event will be streamed live on NLPB’s YouTube Channel, Victoria Mutual’s social media pages, www.facebook.com/VictoriaMutual and www.youtube.com/c/VictoriaMutualGroup. The programme will also be broadcast on Jamaica’s television and radio stations.

National Leadership Prayer Breakfast secretary, Pastor Claudia Ferguson, said proceeds from this year’s event will go towards the provision of tablets for students in schools project, which will be administered by Victoria Mutual Foundation. Proceeds from last year’s staging were donated to the Violence Prevention Alliance’s Child Resiliency Programme.