donalddeanchambers

Donatism Unveiled

Dear Editor, Recently, I read Archbishop Tomash Peter of Kazakhstan’s response to the Vatican’s declaration, On the Teaching of Blessings, Fiducia Supplicans, in the Catholic Herald, a British Catholic Newspaper. While his statement does not provide any theological argument opposing the declaration’s theological and pastoral position, his pastoral stance has theological and pastoral implications. HeContinue reading “Donatism Unveiled”

Breath of God

My feeble body parks motionless, except for the calm contraction and expansion of my lungs, absorbing and expelling a surreptitious element from my body, without which I am unanimated. It is pulled gently into my body, enters the mouth of my nostril, travels through fan-like bronchial channels, into the chambers of my lungs. Tiny cup-likeContinue reading “Breath of God”

Creation and Christmas

Life circumstances. Life choices. Life’s surprises. Life’s twists and turns. Trigger chaos. Trigger darkness, despair, desperation. Trigger feelings, Feelings of guilt, emptiness, shame, anxiety, embarrassment. Pivot us back to the beginning, the beginning of time. “Now the earth was formless and empty, DARKNESS was over the surface of the deep.” What comes next is mystery!Continue reading “Creation and Christmas”

My Christmas Gift

Three days before Christmas Day, on her 61st birthday, a domestic helper departed home at 5:30 am on public transportation en route to my parents’ house for a day’s work. Like the Israelites losing their way on their Exodus desert journey, she failed to arrive at the agreed time. When contacted by mobile two hoursContinue reading “My Christmas Gift”

Of Church and blessings

THE EDITOR, Madam; Based on the rhetorical response of Bishop Dr Alvin Bailey, reported in the The Daily Gleaner on December 19, to the Catholic Church’s position concerning On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings, it is clear that the bishop did not consult the primary source, as all academic doctors are obliged to do. I use this limitedContinue reading “Of Church and blessings”

Virginal Conception doctrine points to Christ’s origin in God

THE EDITOR, Madam: I write in response to an article in The Sunday Gleaner titled ‘The Virgin Birth, neither fact nor fiction?’ The article explores the traditional Christian belief in the ‘Virgin Birth’ of Jesus Christ from several perspectives: (1) The illogic of divine conception; (2) The rare biochemical possibility of fertilisation without a sperm; (3) A miraculous act of God; andContinue reading “Virginal Conception doctrine points to Christ’s origin in God”

We Hunger

We hunger to cuddle and be cuddled. We hunger to gaze upon and to be gazed upon. We hunger to touch and to be touched. We hunger to caress and to be caressed. We hunger to understand and to be understood. We hunger to listen and to be listened to. We hunger to speak andContinue reading “We Hunger”

Story’s tragedy, a ray of hope

THE EDITOR, Madam: The Sunday Gleaner (November 5, 2023) story, ‘I was only trying to protect my father’, describes Jamaica’s psychosocial temperature. The story is an interview with Tameka Henry, the mother of the 11-year-old boy, Fytzroi Robinson, who “came to national attention two weeks ago after a video went viral of him being pepper sprayed thenContinue reading “Story’s tragedy, a ray of hope”

Hospitality In Action – Lessons for the Church

In the ferocious ebb and flow of the waves of Macqueripe Beach, Trinidad, the spirit of hospitality and welcome was encountered and experienced. Macqueripe Beach is located in Macqueripe Bay on the north-western end of the peninsula of the island of Trinidad at the end of Tucker Valley Road. It’s a small pocket beach frequentedContinue reading “Hospitality In Action – Lessons for the Church”

God & Natural Disasters

THE EDITOR, Madame: While the recent 5.6 magnitude earthquake physically and emotionally shocked Jamaicans to the core, it precipitated the rise of an age-old religious conviction that natural disasters are God’s way of punishing wicked people. With successive socio-economic and natural disasters distressing Haitians, we heard similar views due to Haiti’s practice of its indigenousContinue reading “God & Natural Disasters”