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.