Pentecostal churches are the fastest-growing part of Jamaican Christianity. In the 2011 census 295,195 people, 11.00% of the population, described themselves simply as Pentecostal, up 19.3% in ten years and up from just 14,739 in 1960. Behind that single census box stands a crowded family of churches: the United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica and dozens of other Oneness or “Apostolic” bodies, the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal City Mission, the Pentecostal Church of God, Shiloh Apostolic, the Apostolic Faith Church, and many independent “family of churches” networks and single congregations. They share a belief that the gift of the Holy Spirit described in the Book of Acts is for believers today, shown by speaking in tongues, and a style of worship built on singing, testimony and freedom of expression. This page tells their Jamaican story. The large Church of God denominations, most of which are also Pentecostal, are counted separately in the census and have their own page: see Church of God.
Last updated: 12 October 2026. This is a living reference: Jamaica Homes updates it when events warrant and reviews it every October. Part of our guide to Christianity in Jamaica. Figures and statistics are on Jamaica Religion Stats.
| Pentecostal churches in Jamaica | |
|---|---|
| Roots | Holiness and healing missions of the 1890s; Pentecostal congregations from about 1916–1919; noticeable growth from the mid-1930s |
| Pioneers | William Raglan Phillips and Bishop Mary Louise Coore (City Mission); Mother J.C. Russell and Rev. Ralph Reynolds (United Pentecostal Church) |
| 2011 census (“Pentecostal”) | 295,195 people, 11.00% of the population (+19.3% on 2001) |
| 1960 census | 14,739 people, under 1% |
| Largest Apostolic (Oneness) body | United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica, incorporated by Act of Parliament 1949 |
| Other main bodies | Assemblies of God in Jamaica; Pentecostal City Mission; Pentecostal Church of God; Shiloh Apostolic Church; Apostolic Faith Church; many independent networks |
| Fellowship body | Jamaica Pentecostal Union (Apostolic), founded 1979 |
| Structure | No single church: each denomination or network governs itself; many congregations are fully independent |
| Leaders (as of 2025–2026) | O. Garth McKoy, National Superintendent, United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica (since 2010); David Ewen, Presiding General Bishop, Assemblies of God in Jamaica (October 2025) |
| Institutions | Caribbean Bible Institute (UPCJ, 1949); Pentab Group of Schools, Kingston; Assemblies of God Bible College |
| Not included here | New Testament Church of God, Church of God of Prophecy and other Church of God bodies (counted separately; see Church of God) |
| Websites | upcjamaica.org (United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica) |
What the census counts
“Pentecostal” is a family of churches, not a single denomination, and that makes the census figure easy to misread. STATIN lists the New Testament Church of God (192,086 in 2011), the Church of God of Prophecy (121,400), the Church of God in Jamaica (129,544) and “Other Church of God” (246,838) as separate categories. Several of those bodies are Pentecostal in belief and worship; The Gleaner has described the New Testament Church of God as the country’s largest Pentecostal body. The 295,195 people in the “Pentecostal” box are therefore those who named no Church of God; they include members of the Apostolic churches, the Assemblies of God and the many independent and smaller Pentecostal groups. The true number of Jamaicans who worship in Pentecostal churches is considerably larger than 11%.
Those groups also differ among themselves. Most Pentecostals worldwide are Trinitarian. A large share of Jamaica’s Pentecostals, however, belong to Oneness or “Apostolic” churches, which baptise “in the name of Jesus” and do not use the doctrine of the Trinity. The Gleaner’s 2016 series on the movement called Pentecostalism the most popular Christian denomination on the island.
Forerunners: the Great Revival and the City Mission
Some writers trace the Pentecostal spirit in Jamaica to the Great Revival of 1860–61, which gave birth to the Afro-Christian Revival tradition. Writing in the Jamaica Observer in 2012, the Anglican bishop Howard Gregory called that revival a forerunner of Pentecostalism in Jamaica and argued that those who treat Pentecostalism as something new “are unaware of the country’s history”. Modern Pentecostals and Revivalists, however, regard each other as distinct, and some Pentecostal churches deliberately avoid practices, such as drumming, that they associate with Revival.
The first organised body that later became a Pentecostal church grew out of the Salvation Army. William Raglan Phillips, a Bristol-born surveyor, printer and newspaper publisher who had come to Jamaica in 1871, invited the Salvation Army to the island in 1887; its first work was at Bluefields, Westmoreland. Phillips later pastored Acadia Baptist Church in St Thomas, studied the work of the Holy Spirit and, according to The Gleaner, introduced the Pentecostal experience to the Caribbean. In Brown’s Town, St Ann, he met Mary Louise Coore, a former member of the Brown’s Town Baptist Church known for healing and teaching, and the two travelled the island preaching salvation, healing, holiness and the Second Coming. Phillips founded the Healing Mission in 1897; in 1924, saying he had been directed to establish a mission in every city, he renamed it the City Mission Church. Before his death in 1930 he handed the leadership to Bishop Mary Coore, who planted branches across Jamaica and in 1939 opened the first overseas branch, in British Honduras (now Belize). She died in June 1964 and was succeeded by Bishop Delrose Lucille Walters. The church, now the Pentecostal City Mission, is headquartered at 15 Blount Street, Hannah Town, in West Kingston.
Mother Russell and the Apostolic beginnings, 1916–1949
The United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica dates its “genesis” to 1916, when a Methodist woman known as Mother J.C. Russell began witnessing in Jamaica. In 1935 the congregation that became Wildman Street Pentecostal Tabernacle was founded at her home, 69 Wildman Street, in Kingston Central. Mother Russell’s group later linked up with the United Pentecostal Church International, which had been formed in the United States in 1945 by a merger of two earlier Oneness groups. The first missionary, the Canadian Rev. Ralph Reynolds, arrived in 1947 with his wife Helen and their five children. In 1949 Reynolds formed the first board, on which Mother Russell and two of her daughters sat, and opened a Bible school with 50 men at 68 Wildman Street, the beginning of today’s Caribbean Bible Institute. The same year the church was incorporated by an Act of Parliament.
Other Pentecostals date the movement’s arrival a little later. In 2019 the Jamaica Pentecostal Union (Apostolic) marked “100 years of Pentecostals in Jamaica” with a day-long celebration at the National Arena on Heroes Day, counting from a “spiritual revolution” that began in 1919. The exact date when Pentecostalism was first planted on the island is not known, and the dates claimed by different churches reflect their own histories.
Growth from the 1930s
The most cited account of the movement’s early growth is “Pentecostalism in Jamaica” by the Rev. Ashley Smith, published in the Jamaica Journal (No. 42) in the late 1970s. Smith found that Pentecostalism grew most noticeably from the mid-1930s, a period of labour unrest, social and religious inequality and talk of self-government, when many people felt that the established churches did not meet their needs. Pentecostals from the United States helped local believers set up chapels near sugar estates and bauxite mines, on the edges of towns, in back streets and informal settlements, and in rural districts close to the traditional churches.
Smith described the early members as largely working-class Black Jamaicans, among them domestic helpers and factory workers, many living in tenement yards or “maid’s quarters”. Congregations were often founded by former members of established churches, mostly men, frequently after disputes over leadership. A pastor needed an authentic conversion experience, a good clear voice and a warm personality more than formal training, and because leaders were rarely far ahead of their members in education, the social distance between pulpit and pew was small.
After the Second World War more American groups arrived. The Pentecostal Church of God began in the 1950s, when the American missionaries Rev. and Mrs Robinson met three women from the Assemblies of God in Spanish Town and started a prayer meeting on Church Street; a member bought land at 21 Old Market Street, where the first Pentecostal Church of God was built. By 2015 it had 49 locations across the island. Missionaries continued to lead the United Pentecostal Church until 1977, when N. Houslin became its first Jamaican superintendent; the Caribbean Bible Institute had its first local dean, Stanford Grizzle, in 1971 and its first local principal, Winston Stewart, in 1977.
Since independence
Pentecostal growth accelerated after 1962. From 14,739 people in 1960, the census “Pentecostal” category grew to about 8% of the population by 1991, 247,452 in 2001 and 295,195 in 2011. Over the same decades, the makeshift chapels Smith described gave way to large chapels, and the movement gained members among the middle classes and professionals. The US State Department’s religious freedom reports, based on the 1991 census, already placed Pentecostals ahead of the Anglicans and Catholics.
Jamaican Pentecostal churches began sending missionaries of their own. The United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica opened work in Guyana in 1976, Belize in 1984 and Grand Cayman in 1987, and in Venezuela and Liberia. Apostolic congregations formed a common forum in 1979, the Jamaica Pentecostal Union (Apostolic), to foster co-operation, training and national and international representation. Independent ministries multiplied as well: Bishop Herro Blair’s Deliverance Evangelistic Association, which marked its golden jubilee in 2026, now links 25 churches in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, the United States and Canada from Faith Cathedral Deliverance Centre in Kingston.
Emigration carried Jamaican Pentecostalism to Britain and North America, and the traffic has run both ways. Howard Gregory noted in 2012 that several leading Pentecostal churches had roots in the diaspora and among returning residents. The Pentecostal bishop Noel Jones, born in Spanish Town in 1950, and his sister, the singer Grace Jones, were raised in the Apostolic church of their father, Bishop Robert Jones, before they moved to the United States.
Growth has also brought division. Wildman Street Pentecostal Tabernacle, which at its height held services in shifts and owned property on both sides of Wildman Street from North Street to Charles Street, split in the 1960s and again in 2017. That September the United Pentecostal Church’s national board dismissed its pastor, John-Mark Bartlett, on what it called doctrinal grounds, and about 80% of the members left to form a separate ministry.
Beliefs and worship
Pentecostals share the core beliefs of evangelical Protestantism: the authority of Scripture, salvation by grace through faith in Jesus, and the expectation of his return. What sets them apart is their teaching on the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals believe that, after conversion, believers should be baptised in the Holy Spirit, as the disciples were at Pentecost, with speaking in tongues as the initial sign, and that the gifts of the Spirit, including healing and prophecy, continue today. Laying on of hands for healing is common. Holiness, a way of life strictly following biblical teaching, has been central since the movement began.
Jamaica’s Oneness or Apostolic churches add a distinctive view of God. The United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica teaches that there is one God, revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rather than three persons, and that the gospel is obeyed through repentance, water baptism in Jesus’ name and baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues. Trinitarian Pentecostals, such as the Assemblies of God, baptise in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In Jamaica “Apostolic” usually refers to the Oneness churches.
Tarrying and the Spirit
A characteristic Jamaican Pentecostal practice is “tarrying”: long services, often late at night, in which seekers wait and pray, sometimes for hours, to receive the Holy Spirit, following Jesus’ instruction to the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem. The Anglican priest Sean Major-Campbell, writing in The Gleaner in 2023, recalled teachers who came to school hoarse “because they were tarrying the night before at church”. Critics within other churches question the emphasis on tongues as proof of the Spirit and the more dramatic displays in some services; Pentecostals see these experiences as the heart of their faith.
Music
Worship is simple in setting but expressive: congregational singing, Scripture reading, preaching, testimony and spontaneous prayer, with clapping and raised hands. The ethnomusicologist Melvin L. Butler, in Island Gospel (2019), describes a repertoire that runs from hymns to Jamaican choruses with repetitive melodies sung over an up-tempo, ska-based groove, alongside African American gospel and even American country gospel. Butler found that Jamaican Apostolics traditionally rejected drums because of their association with Revival, and that congregations argued over whether reggae and dancehall rhythms belonged in church at all. Jamaican choruses travelled with migrants to Brooklyn and London, and Butler calls Jamaican Pentecostals “expert code switchers” between Jamaican and American gospel styles.
What is distinctively Jamaican
The anthropologist Diane Austin-Broos, in Jamaica Genesis (1997), asked how a “decidedly American form of Christian revivalism” came to dominate a former British colony. Her answer was that Jamaican Pentecostalism bridges two strong themes in the island’s religious life: the African-rooted search for healing and well-being, and the Protestant search for salvation through strict ethical piety. Women have been prominent from the start. Mary Coore and Delrose Walters led the City Mission as bishops, Mother Russell helped found the Apostolic movement, and women pastor many congregations today.
Main Pentecostal bodies
There is no complete register of Pentecostal churches in Jamaica. Registration is not compulsory, and many congregations are independent or belong to small networks. The table lists the bodies for which we found reliable sources. Church of God denominations are on the Church of God page.
| Body | Type | In Jamaica since | Size (latest found) | Base / notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica (UPCJ) | Oneness (Apostolic); affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church International | 1916 roots; missionary 1947; incorporated 1949 | Seven regions; describes itself as the largest Apostolic body in Jamaica | 45 Eastwood Park Road, Kingston 10. National Superintendent O. Garth McKoy (since 2010) |
| Pentecostal City Mission | Pentecostal; founded in Jamaica | 1897 (Healing Mission); City Mission from 1924 | 64 branches in Jamaica, plus branches in the US, England, Canada and Belize (2025) | 15 Blount Street, Hannah Town, Kingston |
| Assemblies of God in Jamaica | Trinitarian; linked to Assemblies of God World Missions (US) | present in Spanish Town by the 1950s | – | Incorporated by Act of Parliament. Presiding General Bishop David Ewen (2025). Runs a Bible college and national Women Ministries |
| Pentecostal Church of God | Trinitarian; American missionary origin | 1950s | 49 locations (2015) | First church at 21 Old Market Street, Spanish Town |
| Shiloh Apostolic Church | Oneness (Apostolic) | – | Congregations including Goshen, Elim (1987) and Grosmond, St Elizabeth | Rural congregations in the south-west |
| Apostolic Faith Church | Holiness Pentecostal; headquarters in Portland, United States | – | Eight churches (2026) | Kingston headquarters church; churches in Spanish Town, Castleton, Springvale, Christiana, Troy, Albert Town and Crofts Hill |
| Deliverance Evangelistic Association | Independent evangelistic association | about 1976 (golden jubilee 2026) | 25 member churches in Jamaica, Cayman, the US and Canada | Faith Cathedral Deliverance Centre, Kingston. Founder Bishop Herro Blair |
| Pentecostal Gospel Temple Family of Churches | Pentecostal network | – | – | 111 Windward Road, Kingston 2. Honoured Rev. Dr Carmen Stewart, Custos of St Andrew, in 2006 |
| Pentecostal Gospel Showers Family of Churches | Pentecostal network | – | – | Riverton Meadows, St Andrew. Bishops Drs Philbert and Maureen Bailey |
| Jamaica Pentecostal Union (Apostolic) | Fellowship of Apostolic churches | 1979 | – | Forum for co-operation and representation; chaired in 2019 by Rev. Major Canute Chambers |
Institutions
Pentecostal institutions are mostly younger and smaller than those of the historic churches. The main ones we found are listed below.
| Institution | Church | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Caribbean Bible Institute | United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica | Founded 1949 by Ralph Reynolds at 68 Wildman Street with 50 students; Eastern Campus at the Eastwood Park Road headquarters |
| Pentab Group of Schools | Wildman Street Pentecostal Tabernacle | Daycare, nursery, basic school, high school, evening institute and aftercare; the high school was recognised as a full secondary school in 1988 |
| UPCJ Multipurpose Campsite | United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica | 14-acre camp site developed from 2007; venue for the National Conference |
| Assemblies of God Bible College | Assemblies of God in Jamaica | Trains ministers; its director led worship at the national women’s prayer conference in Mandeville in 2020 |
| Elim education centre | Elim Shiloh Apostolic Church, St Elizabeth | Literacy, numeracy, computer and baking classes on church grounds |
| Rightly Dividing the Word | United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica | Radio programme, on air since 2005 |
Notable churches
| Church | Location | Body | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wildman Street Pentecostal Tabernacle (Pentab) | Wildman Street, Kingston | United Pentecostal Church | Founded 1935 at Mother Russell’s home; once held services in shifts; schools on site |
| Pentecostal City Mission headquarters | 15 Blount Street, Hannah Town, Kingston | Pentecostal City Mission | Headquarters of a Jamaican-founded Pentecostal body dating from 1897 |
| First Pentecostal Church of God | 21 Old Market Street, Spanish Town | Pentecostal Church of God | First church of the denomination, built in the 1950s |
| Faith Cathedral Deliverance Centre | Kingston | Deliverance Evangelistic Association | Bishop Herro Blair’s church |
| Pentecostal Gospel Temple | 111 Windward Road, Kingston 2 | Pentecostal Gospel Temple Family of Churches | East Kingston congregation |
| Porto Bello Pentecostal Worship Centre | Cornwall Court, Montego Bay | Pentecostal worship centres (western region) | Destroyed by Hurricane Melissa in 2025 |
| Elim Shiloh Apostolic Church | Elim, St Elizabeth | Shiloh Apostolic Church | Began with an open-air service on 24 May 1987 |
None of these buildings is yet in our glossary of Jamaican churches.
Notable people
- William Raglan Phillips (died 1930): brought the Salvation Army to Jamaica in 1887, then founded the Healing Mission (1897) and the City Mission Church (1924).
- Bishop Mary Louise Coore (died 1964): co-founder and leader of the City Mission from 1930, who took it to Belize in 1939.
- Mother J.C. Russell: Methodist-born pioneer of the Apostolic movement from 1916; Wildman Street Tabernacle began in her home.
- Rev. Ralph Reynolds: Canadian missionary who organised the United Pentecostal Church in Jamaica from 1947 and founded its Bible school.
- Rev. Ashley Smith: theologian whose 1970s study “Pentecostalism in Jamaica” remains the standard account of the movement’s early growth.
- Bishop Herro Blair: founder of the Deliverance Evangelistic Association and senior pastor of Faith Cathedral Deliverance Centre; appointed to the Order of Distinction (1984) and the Order of Jamaica (2007). His autobiography, Faith That Moves Mountains – My Life & Legacy, was launched on 30 August 2026.
- Rev. Dr Carmen Stewart: Custos of St Andrew, honoured by the Pentecostal Gospel Temple Family of Churches in 2006 for 50 years of pastoral and community service.
- Rev. Kermitt Jones: overseer of the Pentecostal Church of God in St Mary from 1960 and a recipient of the Governor-General’s Award.
- Bishop Noel Jones: Pentecostal bishop in the United States, born in Spanish Town in 1950 and raised in his father’s Apostolic church; brother of Grace Jones.
Membership and growth
The census table shows the “Pentecostal” category alone. Figures for 1960 and 2001 are from the Religion Stats page; the 1991 share is as reported by the US State Department from that year’s census.
| Census | Pentecostal | Share of population | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 14,739 | 0.92% | – |
| 1991 | – | about 8% | – |
| 2001 | 247,452 | 9.53% | ▲ 1,579% since 1960 |
| 2011 | 295,195 | 11.00% | ▲ 19.3% |
Sources: STATIN censuses 1960, 2001 and 2011, via Jamaica Religion Stats; US Department of State, International Religious Freedom Report 2000 (1991 share). The 2022 census religion tables have not yet been published.
Between 1960 and 2001 the category grew roughly seventeenfold, an increase the Evangelical Times put at 1,579% in a 2006 analysis, against 223% for the Church of God. Pentecostals were also the fastest-growing of the large Christian groups between 2001 and 2011, while the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, United, Moravian and Baptist churches all lost adherents. Because the Church of God bodies are counted separately, the Pentecostal family as a whole is far larger than the census box: the New Testament Church of God alone reported more than 119,000 members in more than 360 churches in 2025.
Explanations for the growth vary. Ashley Smith stressed the appeal of a church run by and for working people. Howard Gregory pointed to radio and television, to migrants and returning residents, and to a newer, middle-class strand influenced by North America. Austin-Broos emphasised the way Pentecostal worship joins healing, emotional release and moral discipline. Most denominations do not publish national membership totals, so church figures to set beside the census are scarce.
Hurricane Melissa and current issues
Hurricane Melissa, the Category 5 storm that struck on 28 October 2025, hit the western parishes hardest, and Pentecostal congregations there lost buildings like every other denomination. In Montego Bay the Porto Bello Pentecostal Worship Centre at Cornwall Court was “completely decimated”, Pastor Paul Thompson told The Gleaner; less than two weeks after the storm about 30 members met under two small tents without electricity, and the pastor said “the church is not the building, we are the church”. Its parent body was helping 24 Pentecostal worship centres in the western region. In Duanvale, Trelawny, where six churches were damaged, Faith Tabernacle Apostolic Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus lost a large section of its roof but, a member said, “we have not missed a single day of worship since the hurricane”. The Apostolic Faith Church at Troy lost most of its roof, since replaced with donated materials and volunteer labour.
Pentecostal networks were also prominent in relief. The Assemblies of God worked with Convoy of Hope, its US relief partner, through the national office and local churches, delivering about 500 food packets a day by early November and planning to raise that to 1,000 or 2,000. The Pentecostal Gospel Showers Family of Churches sent a 50-member team on an eight-hour journey to York District, Westmoreland, finishing on foot where roads had washed out, and handed out more than 500 relief packages.
Other issues as of 2026:
- Anniversaries. The Deliverance Evangelistic Association marked 50 years in 2026, and Bishop Herro Blair launched his autobiography on 30 August 2026. The United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica has announced its 2027 National Conference for 9–12 February 2027 at its campsite.
- Leadership and discipline. Most Pentecostal bodies are small and run by strong founders or boards, and disputes over doctrine, property and succession, such as the 2017 split at Wildman Street Tabernacle, recur.
- Buildings and land. Growing Pentecostal congregations are often in new suburbs and housing schemes, where many meet in rented halls or extended houses; see our analysis Who Is Leaving Jamaica’s Churches?
- The 2022 census. STATIN has not yet released the 2022 religion tables, which will show whether Pentecostal growth has continued since 2011.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1860–61 | The Great Revival, later seen by some as a forerunner of Pentecostalism in Jamaica. |
| 1887 | William Raglan Phillips brings the Salvation Army to Jamaica, beginning at Bluefields, Westmoreland. |
| 1897 | Phillips founds the Healing Mission. |
| 1916 | Mother J.C. Russell begins the witness from which the United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica dates its origins. |
| 1919 | Start of the Pentecostal “spiritual revolution” according to the Jamaica Pentecostal Union (Apostolic). |
| 1924 | Healing Mission renamed the City Mission Church. |
| 1930 | Phillips dies; Bishop Mary Louise Coore leads the City Mission. |
| mid-1930s | Pentecostalism begins to grow noticeably (Ashley Smith). |
| 1935 | Wildman Street Pentecostal Tabernacle founded at Mother Russell’s home in Kingston. |
| 1939 | City Mission opens its first overseas branch, in British Honduras. |
| 1947 | Rev. Ralph Reynolds arrives as the first United Pentecostal missionary. |
| 1949 | United Pentecostal Church incorporated by Act of Parliament; Bible school opens at 68 Wildman Street. |
| 1950s | Pentecostal Church of God begins in Spanish Town. |
| 1960 | Census counts 14,739 Pentecostals. |
| 1964 | Bishop Coore dies; Bishop Delrose Walters succeeds her. |
| 1977 | N. Houslin becomes the first Jamaican superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church. |
| 1979 | Jamaica Pentecostal Union (Apostolic) founded. |
| 1988 | Pentab High School recognised as a full secondary school. |
| 1991 | Pentecostals about 8% of the population. |
| 2001 | Census counts 247,452 Pentecostals (9.53%). |
| 2011 | Census counts 295,195 Pentecostals (11.00%), up 19.3%. |
| 2017 | About 80% of members leave Wildman Street Tabernacle after its pastor is dismissed. |
| 2019 | Jamaica Pentecostal Union (Apostolic) celebrates 100 years of Pentecostals in Jamaica at the National Arena. |
| 2025 | Hurricane Melissa (28 October) destroys or damages Pentecostal churches in the west; Pentecostal networks join relief work. |
| 2026 | Deliverance Evangelistic Association marks 50 years. |
Updates to this page
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 12 October 2026 | Page created. |
Sources: Statistical Institute of Jamaica, Population and Housing Census 2011 (and earlier census series as reported on Jamaica Religion Stats); US Department of State, International Religious Freedom Report: Jamaica (2000); The Gleaner: Paul H. Williams, “The Pentecostal Movement Part III – The Jamaican evolution” (October 2016), “The founding of the Pentecostal City Mission Church” (26 January 2025), “Lessons from 55 years in ministry” (Kermitt Jones, 25 July 2015), “100 years of Pentecostals in Jamaica” (14 October 2019), Jamaica Pentecostal Union (Apostolic) AGM (10 March 2002), “UPC confirms sacking of Pentab pastor” (28 September 2017), “Bishop Notice takes on bigger task” (13 September 2020), Assemblies of God Women Ministries prayer conference (8 March 2020), Sean Major-Campbell on speaking in tongues (28 May 2023), Adrian Frater, “Melissa victims worship under tents” (9 November 2025) and “‘It was God’s wrath'” (6 December 2025), “Bishop Herro Blair to launch autobiography” (17 August 2026); Jamaica Observer: Howard Gregory, “Census data and religious phenomena” (3 November 2012), Wildman Street Pentecostal Tabernacle at 85 (November 2020), Pentecostal Gospel Showers relief mission (November 2025), New Testament Church of God centenary (12 July 2025), Elim Shiloh Apostolic Church (2023); United Pentecostal Church of Jamaica, About UPCJ and home page (upcjamaica.org, accessed October 2026); Assemblies of God News, Hurricane Melissa reports (October and November 2025); Apostolic Faith Church, World Report from Jamaica (24 February 2026); Jamaica Information Service, Rev. Carmen Stewart (23 February 2006); Evangelical Times, “Counting heads in Jamaica” (November 2006); Melvin L. Butler, Island Gospel: Pentecostal Music and Identity in Jamaica and the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2019), and reviews by Ray Allen (Gotham Center) and Ethan Sharp; Diane J. Austin-Broos, Jamaica Genesis (University of Chicago Press, 1997); Wikipedia, Noel Jones and Grace Jones (starting points only).