Tommy Cowan (left) and other worshippers celebrate the start of Reggae Month at The Fellowship Tabernacle, on Sunday. - Norman Grindley /Chief Photographer
Reggae Month got off to an official start with thanksgiving for the famed 'heartbeat of a people' and a challenge for its transformational potential to be utilised positively, on Sunday morning.
The Fellowship Tabernacle's spacious auditorium, a capacity congregation facing a wide, raised stage, was an appropriate venue for the service. Not only did the black speakers on either side of the stage look as though they would fit right in at a party, but the Rev Al Miller showed that he was quite in tune with the latest dancehall music, Rampin' Shop and all.
Naturally, music dominated the thanksgiving service, Digicel Rising Stars judge and music business executive Clyde McKenzie reading Psalm 150 (which includes "praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre."). And Tommy Cowan of Glory Music's reading from Ephesians contained the instruction "speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord".
Black History Month
The service was liberally sprinkled with performances, from the deejaying of Stitchie and DJ Nicholas, to the dancing of Seven Step and singing of 2008 Gospel Song Competition finalist Deneese Wright. Miller was, at points, a performer himself, when he delivered the sermon, becoming a spiritual selector as he instructed that Buju Banton's Untold Stories be played.
Not that Sunday's service was all song and dance, as Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports Olivia Grange said "celebra-ting Reggae Month could not have come at a more opportune time as the world recently witnessed the inauguration of a black man to the presidency of the United States of America. It is also a month traditio-nally accepted in Jamaica as Black History Month. February is also a month that popular reggae icons, Bob Marley and Dennis Brown were born. Reggae is certainly February, February is reggae".
Grange noted that "reggae is inextricably linked to Jamaica and so it is of no surprise that reggae exists in gospel. From the early days of Claudette Clarke and the Insight Gospel Group with hits like There is a Highway to Heaven. Reggae has always been incorporated in worship. We have also seen dancehall and reggae artistes bring their talents to the church and actively minister through their music".
International community
She closed with the hope that "every Jamaican at home and abroad will think of February as Reggae Month, that the international community will recognise February as Reggae Month and design similar events in its honour that all Jamaicans, our young people in particular, will recognise and appreciate the value of this genre of music".
Rev Al Miller jogged to the podium to One Love and noted the international recognition the song had been accorded. "It's the power of our reggae music. Like it or not, it is gone to the world!" Miller said. The throng cheered.
Miller engaged the gathering as he went through the influence of reggae gospel ("for some it is still a struggle in the church"), utilised humour ("if you will all turn to Isaiah Laing 42," he said, playing on the Supreme Promotions boss' name) and demanded that performers use reggae for good.
"Don't sing any reggae," Miller said, encouraging performers to "push up the antenna of the spirit. Hear that pure reggae from the heavens and begin to play it in the earth".
And, emphasising that "music is powerful", Miller pointed out that some of those who made and played music were using it to influence children, to the point where "they don't go anymore to the shop of the plaza, they go to Rampin' Shop".
Miller said reggae must provide for the needs of a 21st century world, among them hope, unity and love. "You have the most powerful transformational tool called reggae; use it responsibly," Miller said.