Jamaica Province of the Moravian Church
The work of the Moravian Church in Jamaica started with the arrival on 1754 -12-07[1] of missionaries Zecharias Caries, Thomas Shallcross and Gotlieb Haberecht[1] from England[2] at the invitation of the Foster and Barham families, owners of several plantations in St Elizabeth.
[1] They landed on the coast of St. Elizabeth, deliberately shunning the towns and opting to remain mostly in the rural areas to serve the large slave population.
Schulz arrived from America where Rauch had spent fifteen years working amongst Native Americans.
[1] The new arrivals disagreed with Caries and Shallcross about the conditions to be met before a slave could be baptised.
As a result, numbers attending services started to fall and did not recover until 1764 when a Br Schlegel arrived.
[1] The work now prospered, particularly after the close of Old Carmel estate in 1823, with membership growing dramatically during apprenticeship (which started in 1834) and after emancipation on 1838-08-01.
[1] By the centenary, membership had reached 13,129 including 4,249 communicants while there were 43 schools teaching 1,728 boys and 1,280 girls.
[3] Following independence in 1962, and the resulting drive for Jamaicanisation throughout Jamaican society, full conversion to local leadership was gradually achieved, with the last British clergy departing in 19??
Barrington E. Daley is the president of the PEC (the administrative body of the Moravian Church in Jamaica).
Kevin Marshall WDC Representative- Bishop Devon Anglin Finance and Property and Lay Member- Bro.
[1] Full legal recognition dates from Law 10 of 1884 entitled The Corporation of the Church of The Unity of the Brethren (commonly called Moravians) in Jamaica.
It improved later as a side effect of moving the work to cool hilly areas which reduced the incidence of tropical diseases (yellow fever, malaria, typhoid).
Another eleven followed over the next thirty years:[1] Note: these are building dates, not start of work which was always earlier.
Following emancipation, the church was involved in the setting up of Free Villages for the formerly enslaved, including one at Maidstone[5] (Nazareth) in Manchester, and at Beeston Spring and Beaufort near Darliston in Westmoreland.
[2] The Jamaica Agricultural Society, which was established in 1895, benefited significantly in its early years from the involvement of the church, especially at Bethany, Mizpah and Nazareth in Manchester and Springfield in St.
George Lopp of Bethany, Manchester is credited with the introduction of the Irish potato to Jamaica in 1890.
This set a precedent whereby it became common for Moravian missionaries in the west Indies to hold slaves as servants.
[1] Accordingly, in 1755 the missionaries in Jamaica purchased (with the agreement of the directing board in Europe) a small estate of 700 acres (2.8 km2) at New Carmel (now called Old Carmel) near the Bogue estate), and supported themselves in their missionary work by the labour of 30 or 40 slaves.
The church established its own archives in 1957 at the Bethlehem Teachers' College, under the supervision of Mrs Vera MacLeavy.
It is one of a total of 46 schools established by the Moravian Church on 68 parcels of land across Jamaica.
These buildings were modelled on German churches of the period, with some adaptations to the tropical climate.
The walls are usually built of local stone unrendered externally, plastered internally and painted white.
Roofs are corrugated "zinc" sheets, often painted red to hide the inevitable rust.
There is invariably a bell either in a separate tower or in a "cupola" over the main door at the front of the building.
Examples: Bethabara, Broadleaf, Carmel, Fairfield, Lititz, Mizpah, Nazareth, Salem, Springfield, Zorn.
The walls are usually built of local stone unrendered externally, plastered internally and painted white.
Roofs are corrugated "zinc" sheets, often painted red to hide the inevitable rust.
Roofs may be corrugated "zinc" sheets (often painted red to hide the inevitable rust) or shingles (wooden tiles).
[8] Programmes in which JEMM are involved include health care, skills training, agriculture, youth and adult exchanges and leadership development[citation needed].
JEMM's Annual Youth Exchange is a two-week program held each summer in collaboration with the St. Augustine Mutual Mission (SAMM).
