Squatting on Sacred Land: Jamaicas Churches Are Losing Ground

The Moravian Church has confirmed that squatters have taken 435 of the 500 acres it owns in Lititz, St Elizabeth, leaving the church with roughly 65 acres of land it once held outright, according to Gleaner reporting. The Moravians are not alone. Anglican, Baptist, Catholic and Methodist properties have all lost ground the same way, sometimes with what church leaders describe as help from local politicians looking to secure votes by regularising informal settlement.

Anthony Tomlinson, who heads the Moravian Church’s Property Division, described the pattern to the Gleaner: occupants settle on land the government has identified as idle, pay land taxes over time, and eventually qualify for title under Jamaicas adverse possession laws, formalising an occupation the church never agreed to. The Reverend Karl Johnson of the Baptist Church described a similar experience, though he said the denomination had not tried to tabulate its full losses because the number would be too discouraging.

None of this makes church leaders unsympathetic to the people occupying the land. Johnson was careful to frame it as a genuine tension rather than a simple grievance: a real need for housing, met with real compassion, colliding with land the church holds for its own long-term mission, often including the schools and colleges some of these denominations still run.

The issue has new urgency now that the government has made land titling a national priority. Prime Minister Andrew Holness has tied formal land ownership directly to breaking generational poverty, arguing that a title gives families legal certainty and something to pass on. That drive cuts both ways for churches: the same regularisation process that could finally give informal settlers secure title over disputed land is the process that, left unaddressed, continues to convert church-owned acreage into someone elses legal property.

For denominations sitting on land they can no longer easily account for, the practical lesson from the National Land Agencys ongoing land titling push is the same one property lawyers have been giving for years: survey it, register it, and secure a certificate of title before the twelve-year clock on adverse possession does the job of dispossession for you.

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