Ashamed of my church

Let me say first off, that up until this writing, I remained a baptised, practising, financially contributing member of the church. Of all the teachings of Jesus, the one that has remained most poignant to me is the one that states “Most certainly I tell you, unless you become as little children you will never enter the Kingdom of God.” (Matthew 18:3).

I grew up in Woodbrook where the church was the centre of life for the youth in the area, with youth groups, choirs and other activities coordinated by Sister Timothy (one of God’s angels on earth), and this may have skewed my belief into thinking that churches everywhere functioned this way.

I was sadly mistaken. I have since moved to Diego Martin and the church in our area is The Church of The Nativity (the irony of the name of the church and this issue is almost cynical) in Crystal Stream.

The kids who live in houses neighbouring this church use the grass parking lot to play football when the church is closed as there is no playing field in the vicinity, and were actually told by the priest himself that football will damage the grass that is used to park cars on.

When I was told this by the children I assumed they misheard what he said. They didn’t.

Not a week later I was actually present when two old women verbally abused the children and threatened to call the police if they ‘‘trespassed’’ there again. I was so shocked I could not believe that these representatives of the Catholic church could be so disrespectful to a group of ten and 12- year olds that I had to speak up.

When asked on what grounds was the reason for the disrespect and what possible damage the kids could do to a parking lot, these same women insulted me and disregarded my query.

My questions to the Archbishop are as follows: By what means does your organisation obtain property other than contributions in the communities you operate? How do you justify your tax free non profit status if the proceeds are not entitled to by all in the community?

In light of the shortage of young people in the church, how do you justify alienating them from the grounds of the same church? What possible harm can 12 year olds playing football on a grass field do that vehicles don’t.

Is this the ‘‘New Church’’ in Trinidad, where adults lead by example away from the teachings of Christ? To most reading this, it may seem a trifle unimportant in light of other major issues such as escalating crime and violence, and the breakdown of community life in Trinidad as a whole, but I say to you that here is exactly the reason for those plights.

We, the Christian adults of this nation, have hopelessly lost our way. Our churches have a negative population growth, while the Pentecostals and Islamic mosques are booming.

Why? Is it because of their focus on the teachings of Christ and the upholding of family values and community?

In my lifetime of service to my church I never thought I would live to feel ashamed of my church.