A 1,000-Member Congregation Left Its Denomination. It Lost the Sanctuary It Had Used Since 1981

• The United Pentecostal Church in Jamaica evicted Faith Chapel from its Renfield Avenue sanctuary in Kingston 20
• The congregation, now Faith Apostolic Ministries, had worshipped there since 1981
• A 14-day eviction notice followed a split that began around 2012-2013
• More than 1,000 members moved to the old Majestic Theatre on Spanish Town Road

A congregation of more than 1,000 people found itself without its long-time home in May 2017 after the denomination it had broken away from reclaimed the building. The United Pentecostal Church in Jamaica (UPC) evicted Faith Chapel from its sanctuary on Renfield Avenue, Kingston 20, the Gleaner reported.

Faith Chapel had worshipped at the property since 1981. Relations with the UPC began to break down around 2012-2013, and the congregation eventually left the denomination and took a new name, Faith Apostolic Ministries. The UPC served a 14-day eviction notice, and the congregation was put out on the Sunday before the Gleaner’s report.

Pastor Garfield Daley said the split centred on mission strategy. “There is a particular route that we wanted to take at Faith Chapel, and that was to evangelise on the continent of Africa. The UPC was not opposed to that in Jamaica, but on the continent,” he said. The congregation had already established work in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Cuba, Venezuela and Canada.

The matter had gone to court, but the action was discontinued and both sides were advised to seek a negotiated settlement. In the meantime the congregation had somewhere to land: it moved to the old Majestic Theatre on Spanish Town Road, where it had been running an affiliate church for two years. Pastor O’Garth McKoy, head of the Apostolic Church in Jamaica, was also named in the report.

The episode is a hard lesson in who actually owns a church building. Members may give, build and worship in a sanctuary for decades, but if the title sits with the parent denomination, leaving that body can mean leaving the property too. Congregations in Jamaica and diaspora churches affiliated with larger bodies should know exactly whose name is on the title, what their constitution says about property if a local church separates, and whether they have a fallback site. Faith Chapel’s second location softened the blow; many congregations would have nowhere to go.

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