Running Out of Room for the Dead: A Church-Owned Cemetery Wins Approval to Grow by 19 Acres

• Meadowrest Memorial Gardens is owned by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands
• NEPA approved a 19-acre expansion at Whittaker’s Mountain, St Catherine
• The cemetery would grow from about 30 acres to about 49
• Plans called for about 1,000 single and 1,500 double vaults a year

Burial space is running short in and around Kingston, and one cemetery serving the capital belongs to a church. The Jamaica Observer reported in April 2018 that Meadowrest Memorial Gardens, owned by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, had won approval from the National Environment and Planning Agency to expand its burial ground in St Catherine by 19 acres.

Meadowrest had submitted an environmental impact assessment in January for the expansion at Whittaker’s Mountain, near Green Acres and Fraser’s Content and next to Dovecot. The plan would take the cemetery from 12.15 hectares, or about 30 acres, to about 19.8 hectares, or 49 acres. The company planned to build roughly 1,000 single vaults and 1,500 double vaults a year over five years, and estimated the cemetery’s lifespan at 43 years. The original site received building approval from the St Catherine Parish Council in 1992.

The company’s case rested on demand. About 2,000 interments a year come from Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine, and 27 per cent of them take place at Meadowrest. “It is well known that there is an increasing shortage of suitable burial space in Kingston and St. Andrew,” the report said, adding: “This number does not include the population of other parishes and overseas mourners who use the facility.” Dovecot Memorial Gardens had also applied to expand to 71 acres.

Meadowrest also proposed a lawn cemetery design, with no upright headstones and uniform graves marked by plaques. “The lawns can be mowed as if it were a football field as the effect is much the same,” the report said. Communications director Elaine Commissiong said the company would host US cemetery designer Jack Goodnoe at its annual funeral directors’ brunch.

A church-owned cemetery is both a ministry and a business, and it depends on land. For Jamaican families overseas, the report’s mention of “overseas mourners” is a reminder of how many diaspora Jamaicans still bury loved ones at home. Anyone planning ahead for a family plot, or buying a vault in advance, should check who owns the cemetery, how long it expects to have space and what upkeep is included.