Homes, a School and a Sanatorium on Leased Hillside Land: Inside an Adventist Breakaway’s St Mary Commune

• Following the Blueprint (FTB) Ministries, a breakaway group from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has built a commune at Bell Hill, St Mary
• More than 13 buildings house families and include a school and a sanatorium
• The land is leased, is about two miles off the Highgate main road and has no road access or running water
• Its overseer rejects cult claims; a local councillor worries about the isolated location

A breakaway group from the Seventh-day Adventist Church has built a settlement deep in the hills of Bell Hill, St Mary, the Sunday Gleaner reported in October 2021. Following the Blueprint (FTB) Ministries was founded in 2002 by Vincent Hoo, who continues to lead it alongside Wilheim Lecky. Its members say they are following Ellen G. White’s teaching on “country living”, believing that cities are unwholesome and that believers should leave them before the end times.

The commune sits about two miles off the Highgate main road on leased land, with no road access and no running water. More than 13 buildings house several families with children, alongside a school and a sanatorium. Members draw water from two rivers and a spring, use a generator for electricity, and farm Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, yams and vegetables.

Andre Buchanan, a lay preacher and carpenter who once worked as an accountant, oversees the site. He rejected suggestions that the group is a cult. “This is not a cult. We are servants of God,” he said, distinguishing it from the Montego Bay-based Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries, which was then in the news after a deadly incident. He said FTB members do not eat meat.

Local councillor Doreen Hutchinson said residents had raised concerns, including about high-end vehicles arriving mostly at night, and about how remote the settlement is. “It’s one way in and one way out,” she said. The report also noted that a 22-year-old law student from Montego Bay had left university to join the group in September 2021.

Whatever one makes of the group’s beliefs, the story touches practical land questions. Building a village of homes, a school and a health facility on leased rural land, without road access, piped water or grid power, leaves residents dependent on the terms of a lease and on their own infrastructure. For anyone considering rural land in Jamaica, the lessons are familiar: check the title or lease terms, the access road and the utilities before you build, and make sure planning and safety approvals are in place, especially where children and patients will live.

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