Your ShelfYour Projects

The Jamaica Conference

7%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 17, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 11.

Read the full edition

The Jamaica Conference

By William Ambrose Spicer

Our meetings in Jamaica closed with a general meeting in Kingston, the capital, continuing from Friday to Monday night.
In all our country meetings, we had talked over the principles of our work and of conference organization, and all heartily responded to the call to put every shoulder to the wheel. Our workers were all united in the idea that the time had come in the progress of the cause in Jamaica, when a conference organization, assisted though it must be for the present from Mission Board funds, would prove of educational value to the field, and would help to lay responsibilities upon the churches.
Our mission church in Kingston comfortably seats about two hundred and fifty. Our own people filled this. Sunday evening many more were crowded into the building.
There are nearly twelve hundred Sabbath-keeping adults in Jamaica, the fruit of ten years of labor. Many will remember that ten years ago, at a General Conference, Sister Harrison, of Jamaica, came to us with an appeal in behalf of this little island field. In response to that call, A. J. Haysmer and his wife were sent there. In all the years that have passed, the truth has steadily made its way among the people.
Nine organized churches were directly represented at the conference by delegates, while eight others were represented by the workers in charge of the different districts. Various unorganized companies were also represented by members. The resources of our people in Jamaica are not large. But the resources are bound to grow. The discussion of the work in conference session was a great inspiration to the believers. They were able better to understand the nature of our work and organization, and the responsibility of the individual member and church in relation to the conference.
More and more the burdens may be laid upon the local believers. Licenses were voted to four Jamaican laborers, and altogether there is good prospect of developing workers in this field not only for its own needs, but for other tropical fields. As we talk of the call from Africa for workers of the African race, our Jamaican brethren freely volunteer for service any time they are needed. The British government has successfully used Jamaican and West Indian troops in Africa. In the Ashanti campaign they readily met the difficulties of the Gold Coast climate. As the work grows in Jamaica, I believe it will be able in due time to furnish us faithful and disciplined laborers for other fields. A training school is greatly desired by all; but they have not the resources, nor have they developed plans, for such an enterprise just yet.
It is a great help in this field that so many of the believers are cultivators of the soil. However small the plot of land, the man who works it is independent, master of his own labor. The truth has been carried into new districts at times by men taking up land in unentered territory, and so planting the leaves of truth among the people.
Small as the island is, there is still much unworked territory. The conference voted a resolution pledging the churches to greater faithfulness in caring for themselves and in effort for their neighbors, so that the ministerial laborers may be more free to go into new districts. In Jamaica, as elsewhere, the churches feel the thrill of the new time.
The cash system in the canvassing work was heartily adopted. The most telling argument in favor of it came from the ranks of the canvassers.
The conference elected the following brethren as their executive committee: F. I. Richardson, W. W. Eastman, J. B. Beckner, Hubert Fletcher, Linton Rashford. Courage and zeal filled the hearts of all as the conference closed. Seventeen churches compose the new conference, and the coming year will certainly add to the number organized. I believe that nearly a dozen church buildings are in process of erection.
Kingston is a busy town, with a population of about fifty thousand. With the cooling sea breezes sweeping over these islands, the houses are built only in semitropical style. The European population of Jamaica is not large,about fourteen thousand English people being reported in the census. A large proportion of these must be in Kingston. The entire West Indies has been passing through financial depression, and the glory of the old plantation days is dimmed. But the cities are growing, I believe, and these island fields have a future before them in our work, small though their area may be.
Jamaica is a beautiful spot, and fertile. All is in miniature. It has little rivers, and little mountains; but it is a little world in itself. With a population of eight hundred thousand, it should yet develop a conference well able to be a factor in pushing this glorious message on to the ends of the earth. As from year to year the brethren in Jamaica gather for annual conference, I believe we shall hear of growth both in numbers and in grace. The labors bestowed upon this island have not been in vain. The believers appreciate the message we have sent them, and will join in sacrificing for it.
W. A. SPICER.
British Guiana.