Kingston church seeking new home following eviction

Jason Cross, Gleaner Writer

After being booted from his church, Bishop Orane Williams of the Ebenezer Worship Centre Pentecostal International is feverishly searching for a new place from which his congregants can worship twice weekly.

The Gleaner visited him and some of his members on Wednesday as they stood with their belongings along the sidewalk outside the building, located on Duke Street.

Williams accused the landlady of being unreasonable in evicting the church.

"We have two services weekly, on a Sunday and Wednesday. Things are shaky now for the church, but we are trying our best to see how we can get this thing done. If there is anyone who can bless us with a property, we would be grateful for it.

"Our next scheduled service would be Sunday morning. At this present moment, I don't know what is the best step forward. Some members are saying take it up with the law, while others are saying leave it alone and let God fix it. I am still contemplating what next to do," Williams said.

According to him, he received a letter on Sunday that indicated that someone had bought the property and that he and his church members should vacate the premises by Wednesday.

On his way to church on Wednesday, Williams said he received a phone call that bailiffs had shown up to "take possession of the place".

“They just put us out on the street,” he said.

"The letter said we should be out of the premises by June 17th. The place is called Lion Heart Properties, and it is dubbed 1 New North Street, Heroes Circle. We tried emailing them and got nothing. We tried talking to them and got no response. We were trying to get some leniency. Nobody was responding to us, and it was confusing. They evicted us during service. Everybody's heart was broken. People came to church ready to worship, and it was depressing," he told The Gleaner.

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