Attendance Cut Sharply, Tithes Hit: A Year Into COVID, Jamaica’s Churches Reached More People Online

• Pandemic restrictions sharply reduced church attendance in Jamaica
• Fewer people in the pews meant lower tithes and offerings
• The Jamaica Council of Churches says online services reached more people, especially the young
• Buildings still cost money when services move to a screen

One year after Jamaica confirmed its first COVID-19 case on March 10, 2020, the Jamaica Observer looked at how the pandemic had changed the island’s churches. Restrictions on gatherings cut attendance sharply, the paper reported, and that fall in numbers hit tithes and offerings, the main income for most congregations.

Church life was disrupted in other ways too. Baptisms and other rituals were curtailed. In August 2020 a government order banned annual conventions and conferences, which for many denominations are major gatherings and fund-raising events.

Yet church leaders told the Observer the picture was not all loss. Rev Newton Dixon, president of the Jamaica Council of Churches, said: “I think many churches have seen increases in the numbers of persons that they reach on a weekly basis.” He added that “online services have unearthed new opportunities to reach more young people”, and said: “I certainly believe that the faith of the believers in our churches has generally been strengthened.”

Rev Merrick “Al” Miller, senior pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle in St Andrew, said his congregation had tried to follow the rules. “We sought in every way best we could to comply. Personally, we haven’t had challenges,” he said.

For church treasurers and building committees, the lesson is that a church’s reach and its income are no longer the same thing. A congregation can grow online while the collection plate shrinks. The sanctuary, the hall and the car park still have to be insured, lit, cleaned and repaired, whether 50 people or 500 walk through the doors. Churches planning to build, extend or borrow against their property after the pandemic will need budgets that assume fewer people in the room, easy ways to give online, including for members abroad, and money set aside for cameras, sound and internet as well as bricks and mortar. A building built for the congregation of 2019 may not suit the congregation of the future.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com