“Each Denomination Has to Have a Financial Base”: Leased Land, Money and Jamaica’s Church Breakaways

• A breakaway Adventist group is building a commune on leased land at Bell Hill, St Mary
• Its leader accused SDA leadership of drawing too close to Rome over COVID-19 vaccination
• Catholic deacon Ronald Thwaites said money and survival drive many church splits
• He said the large real estate holdings of many fundamentalist bodies should be examined

A group that broke away from the Seventh-day Adventist Church is moving its followers on to leased land in the hills of St Mary, the Gleaner reported on November 9, 2021. Andre Buchanan of Following The Blueprint Ministry said the group follows the teaching of Ellen G. White and is setting up health and legal systems in a commune on lands leased in Bell Hill, withdrawing from much of society, including schools and the vaccination programme.

“No one can say they are Adventists and not know about Ellen G. White. And if you know about her, then you know about Country Living,” Buchanan said, speaking at Donnington. He rejected any suggestion that the ministry was a cult or linked to Kevin Smith of Pathways, and accused SDA leaders of taking a route on vaccination similar to that of Rome and the Pope. SDA president Pastor Everett Brown had backed the government’s vaccination drive. The church did not respond to Buchanan’s charges.

Two senior clergymen said Jamaica is fertile ground for splits. Deacon Ronald Thwaites, a Catholic, pointed to personal interpretation of Scripture and to money. “The sheer survival of congregations and personal interests have a lot to do with people splitting up on their own. The sheer economism of religious organisations in Jamaica is little understood. Each denomination has to have a financial base and that is a major factor influencing the splits,” he said. He added that the massive real estate holdings of many fundamentalist bodies should be interrogated, since heavy financial demands were being made of congregants, and questioned the financial strength of many new churches.

Rev Dr Karl Johnson, former general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, said he did not believe cults and breakaways are more common in Jamaica than elsewhere, but that the island’s record number of churches may point to more religious disagreement.

Thwaites put his finger on a point that is rarely discussed: every split creates a new organisation that needs a building, land and a steady income. That is how a small country ends up with so many churches, some with substantial property and others renting halls or leasing land in the hills. For members, the questions to ask are simple: who owns the land the group occupies, on what terms it is held, and what happens to it, and to their contributions, if the group divides again.

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