Founded by the Enslaved in 1824, Rebuilt in Stone by 1909: A Portland Church at 200 Plans a New Parsonage

• Buff Bay Independent Baptist Church in Portland marked 200 years
• Enslaved converts started it a decade before Emancipation
• Its stone sanctuary, finished in 1909, has since been re-roofed and extended
• The church built six two-room homes for needy families and now wants a new parsonage

A handful of enslaved people began worshipping together in Buff Bay, Portland, in 1824, ten years before Emancipation. Two hundred years later their spiritual descendants packed the sanctuary of Buff Bay Independent Baptist Church to mark the bicentenary, the Jamaica Observer reported.

Deacon Cindy Allen, the congregation’s longest-serving member, set out the history at the anniversary service. The church joined the Baptist Union in 1849, with support from the Baptist Missionary Society. In 1956, after a period of sharp disagreement, it broke away to become an independent Baptist congregation. By 1961 it had joined the Jamaica Fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches and started Bradford Academy, which the Observer described as the only secondary school in western Portland serving low-income students. A basic school, scout units and a benevolence ministry followed.

The buildings tell their own story. The first wooden church was replaced by the present stone building, completed in 1909 and now 115 years old. It has since had an upstairs addition, a new roof, tiling, air conditioning, porches, retaining walls and parking. Rev Vernon Allen, pastor since 1982, has led a congregation that built six two-room homes for needy Portland families, ran medical clinics and a weekly soup kitchen, lit basketball courts, paid students’ tuition and bought two buses.

Looking ahead, Deacon Allen listed the church’s goals: rekindling evangelism, expanding the children’s ministry, recommitting to missions and building a new parsonage. Guest preacher Rev Dr Glendon Thompson of Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto urged members to be “priestly ministers in Christ, walking in obedience”. Portland Custos Lincoln Thaxter brought greetings on behalf of the Governor General.

Buff Bay’s story shows how a rural church’s property becomes part of the town’s infrastructure. A 1909 stone sanctuary that is still kept up, a secondary school, a basic school and six small family homes all came from a congregation that began among people who owned nothing. For Portland residents and returning diaspora members, the planned parsonage is worth watching. It is a reminder that churches keep building, and that careful upkeep of an old stone building, rather than replacing it, can carry a congregation through a second century.