KINGSTON, Jamaica - Approximately 300 children, parents, and religious ministers gathered at Emancipation Park in New Kingston on Sunday to join hands around the park to pray Jamaica’s National Anthem and make Jamaica’s National Pledge.

The event’s organiser, Hands Across Jamaica for Righteousness (HANDS), said this was done to remind the nation of the emblems of Jamaica’s independence and heritage, the Motto, Anthem and Pledge (MAP) and to reinforce the fact that the Eternal Father desires to have a relationship with us, his children and that we have a responsibility to humanity.

The participants, HANDS said, are from communities around Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine and as far as Clarendon

Declaring “Eternal Father is the God of Jamaica; Eternal Father is Our Father!”, the event gave a fitting end to the observance of Child Month. The children were led in praise and worship; while ministers prayed over them and encouraged them to enter into a relationship with God “as beloved children of the Eternal Father.” The message was conveyed through puppetry and the stage performance of the mechanical character Captain I Can.

HANDS organised the event in partnership with Sunday School in the Park/Metro World Child - a ministry of the Webster Memorial United Church - with support from Jamaica Child Evangelism Fellowship.

“These organisations continue to pray, plan and push for the birth of a righteous patriotic citizenry,” HANDS said in a release on Wednesday.

Chairman of HANDS, Lieutenant Colonel Oral Khan, in response to the rally, said “every park in Jamaica should become a place for the children to attend Sunday School. The vision of Sunday school in the park is that the programme should be replicated in parks across the corporate area and every parish in Jamaica to bring the nation back to God one child at a time.”

He also expressed thanks to the main sponsor, the Jamaica Broilers Group Foundation and the other groups that came on board to create a memorable event.

According to HANDS, the organisers viewed the activities as preparation for the next generation of Jamaicans to grasp the immense value they have “as children of Eternal Father,” who are equipped for the mission of advancing the welfare of the whole human race to “which they pledge the love and loyalty of their hearts; the wisdom and courage of their minds.”

HANDS is a patriotic movement anchored on the Christian principles of righteousness and is dedicated to changing the mindset of Jamaicans and its Diaspora from negativism to a positive outlook. The organisation seeks to fulfil this mandate through the promotion of the principles enshrined in Jamaica’s Motto, Anthem and Pledge (MAP), which HANDS believes is God’s spiritual, moral and social plan for the Nation.