A Church, a Basic School and a Growing Primary School: St Matthew’s in Boscobel Turns 115

• St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Boscobel, St Mary, marked 115 years in 2015
• A basic school is attached to the church and a primary school has growing enrolment
• One rector was serving St Matthew’s and four other churches
• The church runs a soup kitchen and works with Food For The Poor

St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Boscobel, St Mary, celebrated 115 years in September 2015 with an eight-day programme, the Gleaner reported. The festivities began on September 21 and closed with a Great Thanksgiving Service on September 27, with retired bishop Rt Rev Harold Daniel as preacher, after an awards dinner in Oracabessa.

Like many Anglican congregations in rural Jamaica, St Matthew’s is more than a worship building. A basic school is attached to the church, and a primary school connected to it had growing enrolment, according to its principal, Perleta Trail. The church also operates a soup kitchen and partners with a major Christian charity to help the poor.

The rector, Reverend Prince Taylor-Younge, had been serving St Matthew’s and four other churches for two years. He said the church “has contributed to the development of the community in Boscobel in many ways, such as always being outspoken and helping the poor.”

One priest covering five congregations is a reminder of how stretched rural church property can become. Each building in a cure has its own roof, grounds, utility bills and maintenance needs, and schools on church land add classrooms, playgrounds and sanitation to the list.

The Boscobel model — church, basic school and primary school on connected property — is common across Jamaica, and it is one reason church land is so valuable to communities. It is also why questions of title, maintenance and who pays for repairs matter so much: the building often serves children every weekday, not just worshippers on Sunday.

For returnees settling on the north coast and diaspora members with roots in St Mary, congregations like St Matthew’s are often where local needs are most visible. Supporting the upkeep of a church that houses a school is one of the more direct ways to invest in a community’s future.

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