Pointing to a need to ensure the annual National Leadership Prayer Breakfast is about more than spewing rhetoric, main speaker Rev Dr Rohan Ambersley today declared it was imperative that this year’s theme be accompanied by both right actions based on right motives and right attitute based on right mindset.

Ambersley stressed that this year’s theme, Pressing Forward in Faith, Hope and Love, would not be achievable without a vehicle to enable its reality.

This theme, like many of those that came before, encourages positive behavioural change within the society, a feat which both the current and former NLPB chairmen, Reverend Samuel McCook and Bishop Stanley Clarke, respectively, have acknowledged is difficult to measure.

Describing this year’s theme as an active ingredient in the mission to move forward, Ambersley said the current context and backdrop of the Jamaican society has caused many to shrink back in distress, pull back in disillusionment and cower in fear.

“To be clear, when we talk about faith, hope and love, these are not empty platitudes. These are not just religious words and high flown clichés, but very practical requirements for meaningful living for all of us as human beings,” the Sterling Castle New Testament Church of God (NTCOG) pastor said.

Despite the country’s potential, the richness of its heritage, the skills of its people and the abundance of blessings it has received, Ambersley said the island has been underperforming.

“I suggest that this underperformance is significantly related to the accumulation of wrong things done and things done wrongly,” he said.

He went on to say that, if the country’s current heads, with their numerous qualifications, lengthy resumes and years of experience, lead from a place of self-centredness, they serve no real value and this counters the enabling imperative of right action based on right motives.

“This ethos of right motive is fundamental if we’re going to move forward. This ethic of right action shaped by right motive must prevail if the nation’s quest for forward movement is going to be achieved.”

Ambersley estimates that the second imperative has been stunted by the wrong attitude of many of its leaders and citizens.

Ambserley said the country is no longer in its infant stages and, being only a few months shy of 60, the country’s actions and behaviour should be reflected in its age.

To achieve the goal of this year’s theme, he recommends putting together an effort on a national level.

“I recommended a sustained and coordinated national development effort inspired by a passion for right action and an embracing right attitude. This would support Vision 2030, with its lofty and commendable goals. I call it, ‘Loving Interventions for Transformation Lift’,” he said.

He continued: “This would see national development partners coming together and agreeing on some specific actions to take if we’re gonna achieve our vision or get closer to Vision 2030… some of the guiding principles for Vision 2030, only eight years away, must be supported by a strong action plan built on right actions and right attitudes.”