The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Jamaica

The mission met strong hostility, much of it aimed at the church’s then practice of polygamy, which the church had publicly announced only months earlier, in August 1852. While the missionaries were visiting the American consul, a crowd of about 150 people gathered and threatened violence if the “polygamists” were allowed to preach, and shots were fired at two of them. The church’s chronology records the baptism of three converts on 25 January 1853, and its country history notes that the missionaries taught “exclusively to the white inhabitants of the island.” Most of the party left about four weeks after arriving; the chronology dates the departure to 11 February 1853. The Church News says Richardson stayed briefly to ordain the grandsons of a convert, Eliza Kay, before following the others. No organised church remained, and there is no record of continuing activity for more than a century.

Return in the 1960s

The church came back through industry rather than missionaries. In 1969 the American families of John L. Whitfield and Jay P. Bills, who had come to work at an alumina plant, began holding meetings in Mandeville, and on 22 March 1970 a Mandeville Branch was created for the expatriate members. The Church News also records that Iris M. Blair, a Jamaican, joined the church abroad in 1967 and later returned home. Until 1978 Black men could not be ordained to the church’s priesthood, and Black members could not take part in temple ordinances. The policy shaped the church’s early years on the island, where the first congregations were made up largely of foreign families.

The Nugents and the 1978 revelation

In October 1973 Paul Schmeil, an American member, saw his co-worker Victor Nugent reading the Bible at lunchtime and invited him home to learn about the church. Church histories say Nugent read the Book of Mormon in three days and accepted Joseph Smith’s account of the church’s founding, but was troubled to learn of the restriction on the priesthood, since he himself was Black. His wife, Verna, took longer to decide. Victor and Verna Nugent and their eldest son were baptised on 20 January 1974, the first Jamaicans baptised into the church on the island.

In June 1976, amid the political violence and economic difficulties of the period, the expatriate families left Jamaica, and the Nugents were for a time the only members on the island, administered from the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. Because Victor did not hold the priesthood they could not hold sacrament meetings, but they held Sunday School, Relief Society and Primary-style classes in their Mandeville home. In February 1978 they introduced the church to their friends Errol and Josephine Tucker. Amos Chin, a Jamaican who had joined the church in Montreal in 1976, was also in contact with the family.

On 9 June 1978 the church’s First Presidency, under President Spencer W. Kimball, announced a revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy male members regardless of race. On 18 June 1978, in Mandeville, Victor Nugent, Amos Chin and Errol Tucker were ordained. Chin became the first Jamaican full-time missionary, and in November 1978 he and five other missionaries were sent to begin work on the island. On 5 December 1978 Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited Mandeville and dedicated Jamaica for missionary work; the church dates its formal organisation in Jamaica from that day. The Mandeville Branch was reorganised with Victor Nugent as president and Verna Nugent as Relief Society president. In 2018 the Nugents were featured at the church’s “Be One” celebration in Salt Lake City marking the 40th anniversary of the revelation.

Growth since 1978

Membership grew from 85 in 1980 to 520 in 1985. A Jamaica District was organised in February 1983, with Victor Nugent as the first Jamaican district president, and in April 1983 Thomas S. Monson became the first apostle to visit the island. That year Elizabeth Pigou became the first Jamaican woman called as a full-time missionary. The Jamaica Kingston Mission was organised on 1 July 1985 under Richard L. Brough. The Church News says the church faced heavy criticism in the Jamaican press between 1985 and 1988, which it says also increased interest in the church. The first meetinghouse built in Jamaica, at Constant Spring, was dedicated on 9 February 1986 by Elder David B. Haight, and a second district was formed in Mandeville around 1987.

On 15 May 2002 Gordon B. Hinckley became the first president of the church to visit Jamaica, addressing about 2,000 people at a fireside in Kingston. Further districts were formed in Montego Bay and Linstead in October 2002, and in December 2003 members marked 25 years since the dedication. In January 2009 the church held a Caribbean Area conference in its new Spanish Town meetinghouse, presided over by President Henry B. Eyring and broadcast in six languages; The Gleaner then reported about 5,000 members, 21 congregations, a congregation in every parish and some 80 missionaries, nearly half of them Jamaican, with the mission office at 36 Red Hills Road. In July 2013 Kevin and Nadine Brown of Spanish Town became the first Jamaican couple to preside over the Jamaica Kingston Mission, serving until July 2016.

On 8 June 2014 Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve organised the Kingston Jamaica Stake at a conference in the Spanish Town chapel attended by more than 800 people, with Andrew Lue as stake president and Royce Britton and Patrick Medley as counsellors. It was the church’s first stake in Jamaica and the second in the English-speaking Caribbean, after Port of Spain, Trinidad (2009). In February 2025 Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve made his first visit to Jamaica, meeting missionaries at the Constant Spring chapel.

Beliefs and worship

Latter-day Saints believe in God the Father, his son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost as three separate beings, and regard their church as a restoration of the church founded by Jesus. Alongside the Bible they accept as scripture the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. They are led by a president regarded by members as a prophet, with two counsellors and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Many other Christian churches do not consider the church part of mainstream Christianity because of these distinctive teachings, a point on which Latter-day Saints disagree.

Sunday worship centres on the sacrament meeting, at which bread and water are blessed and shared. Local congregations are led by unpaid lay members: branch presidents and bishops serve alongside the women’s Relief Society, the Primary for children and youth organisations. Members are asked to follow a health code, the Word of Wisdom, that excludes alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee, and to tithe. Young men and women may serve full-time missions; Jamaicans have served both on the island and abroad. Temples, used for ordinances such as marriage “for eternity” and baptism on behalf of the dead, are separate from ordinary meetinghouses. Jamaica has none, and members travel abroad: 151 Jamaican members went to the temple in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in July 2015. The church’s interest in genealogy is reflected in its FamilySearch centres, which offer free family-history help.

Organisation

Jamaica is part of the church’s Caribbean Area. Its congregations are organised as follows, according to church directory listings summarised in May 2025:

Unit	Congregations
Kingston Jamaica Stake (2014)	Boulevard, Constant Spring, Linstead, Portmore, Spanish Town 1st and Spanish Town 2nd wards; Kingston and Old Harbour branches
Mandeville Jamaica District	Hopeton, Junction, Mandeville, May Pen, Montego Bay, Santa Cruz and Savanna-la-Mar branches
Mission branches	Ocho Rios, Port Antonio and Yallahs
Jamaica Kingston Mission (1985)	Covers Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands

A ward is a larger congregation led by a bishop; a branch is a smaller one led by a branch president. A stake groups several wards; a district does the same for branches where no stake exists.

Meetinghouses

Meetinghouse	Place	Notes
Constant Spring chapel	Constant Spring, St Andrew	First meetinghouse in Jamaica, dedicated 9 February 1986 by David B. Haight; site of the 2025 missionary meeting with Elder Kearon
Mandeville chapel	Mandeville, Manchester	Dedicated February 1989; Mandeville was the site of the first branch (1970) and of the 1978 ordinations and dedication
May Pen chapel	May Pen, Clarendon	Dedicated 25 October 1992
Montego Bay and Hopeton	Montego Bay, St James; Hopeton	Properties acquired for chapels in 1992
Spanish Town meetinghouse	3 Newton Drive, off Brunswick Avenue, Spanish Town	New in 2009; hosted the 2009 Caribbean Area conference and the 2014 creation of the stake

By 2015 the church reported 17 meetinghouses, in places including Kingston, Mandeville, Junction, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Yallahs. A branch that once met in Negril later closed, and members there travel to Savanna-la-Mar. Wikipedia, citing church listings, counts eight FamilySearch centres in Jamaica; in 2009 The Gleaner named centres in Kingston and May Pen.

Humanitarian work

The church’s humanitarian arm, Latter-day Saint Charities, works in Jamaica with local partners, often through senior missionary couples. On 30 March 2019 the Jamaica Red Cross gave the church a Humanitarian Services Award for its support of the Red Cross’s emergency response and youth development services, including work at the Red Cross School of Transformation in Central Village, Spanish Town, and in Clarendon. In September 2025 the church, the Missionaries of the Poor and Food For The Poor launched the distribution of 302 wheelchairs in Kingston, with Father Richard Ho Lung of the Missionaries of the Poor taking part (see Catholics). On 22 June 2026 the church donated medical equipment, including fetal monitors and ultrasound equipment, cardiac monitors, hospital beds, infusion pumps and stretchers, to Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston and Savanna-la-Mar Hospital, with training for health workers offered with Food For The Poor Jamaica.

Notable members

• Victor Nugent and Verna Nugent, of Mandeville, the first Jamaicans baptised on the island (1974); Victor was among the first three Jamaicans ordained in 1978 and the first Jamaican branch and district president.
• Amos Chin, ordained in 1978 and the first Jamaican full-time missionary; in 1995 he led a project to decorate the Constant Spring meetinghouse with Christmas lights as a visitor attraction.
• Errol and Josephine Tucker, early converts (1978); Errol was ordained with Nugent and Chin.
• Elizabeth Pigou, first Jamaican woman called as a full-time missionary (1983).
• Kevin and Nadine Brown, of Spanish Town, first Jamaican couple to lead the Jamaica Kingston Mission (2013–2016).
• Andrew Lue, first president of the Kingston Jamaica Stake (2014).
• Royce Britton, a counsellor in the first stake presidency, named as mission president in February 2025.

Membership

The census does not count Latter-day Saints separately: in 2011 they were included in the “Other” category. The church’s own figures, which count all baptised members on its records, show steady but modest growth.

Year	Members	Change
1980	85	–
1985	520	–
1989	about 2,100	–
1995	about 3,300	–
1999	4,240	–
2004	5,293	▲ 24.8%
2009	5,906	▲ 11.6%
2014	5,891	▼ 0.3%
2019	6,668	▲ 13.2%
2024	6,871	▲ 3.0%
2025	7,856	▲ 14.3%

Source: church statistics as compiled on Wikipedia; 2025 figure from the church’s Jamaica facts and statistics page (31 December 2025). 1989 and 1995 figures are rounded. The 2022 census religion tables have not yet been published.

Congregation numbers have moved less than membership: The Gleaner reported 21 congregations in 2009, and the church reported 18 at the end of 2025, some branches having merged or closed. In 2009 the mission said it baptised about 300 people a year, mostly through members sharing their faith with family and friends rather than door-to-door work.

Hurricane Melissa and current issues

Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica on 28 October 2025. The church reported all its members and missionaries safe, though some members’ homes were damaged, flooded or destroyed. Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt of the Caribbean Area presidency travelled to the island to assess needs and direct the response with the church’s welfare department and local leaders. More than 50 volunteers, many of them affected themselves, prepared and distributed over 1,000 emergency packages of food, bottled water and hygiene items, each meant to sustain a family of four for a week, in Junction, Santa Cruz, Mandeville, Savanna-la-Mar, Hopeton and Montego Bay. In Savanna-la-Mar the church also supplied shelter tools, blankets, tarpaulins and cleaning products, working with the Jamaica Red Cross and the Salvation Army. On Sunday 3 November the Savanna-la-Mar Branch met in a meetinghouse described as “in poor condition”. The church’s June 2026 donation of equipment to Savanna-la-Mar Hospital came as western Jamaica continued to recover. For the wider damage to Jamaica’s churches, see our analysis Jamaica, a Nation of Churches, Is Quietly Changing Its Faith.

Jamaica still has no temple. In 2025 the church reported a sharp rise in membership, from 6,871 to 7,856, while the number of congregations stayed at 18.

Timeline

Year	Event
1853	Missionaries arrive in Kingston (10 January); three converts baptised (25 January); most leave about a month later amid hostility.
1969	American church families working in alumina begin meetings in Mandeville.
1970	Mandeville Branch created (22 March).
1974	Victor and Verna Nugent baptised (20 January), the first Jamaican converts.
1976	Expatriate families leave; the Nugents meet alone in their home.
1978	Priesthood revelation announced (9 June); Nugent, Chin and Tucker ordained in Mandeville (18 June); M. Russell Ballard dedicates Jamaica (5 December).
1983	First district organised (February); Thomas S. Monson visits (April).
1985	Jamaica Kingston Mission organised (1 July).
1986	First meetinghouse, Constant Spring, dedicated (9 February).
1989	Mandeville chapel dedicated.
1992	May Pen chapel dedicated (25 October).
2002	Gordon B. Hinckley, first church president to visit, speaks in Kingston (15 May).
2009	Caribbean Area conference in the new Spanish Town meetinghouse (23–25 January).
2013	Kevin and Nadine Brown become the first Jamaican mission leaders (July).
2014	Kingston Jamaica Stake organised by Jeffrey R. Holland (8 June).
2019	Jamaica Red Cross Humanitarian Services Award (30 March).
2025	Elder Patrick Kearon visits (February); 302-wheelchair project launched (September); Hurricane Melissa relief (October–November); 7,856 members at year end.
2026	Medical equipment donated to Victoria Jubilee and Savanna-la-Mar hospitals (22 June).

Updates to this page

Date	Change
12 October 2026	Page created.

---

Sources: Statistical Institute of Jamaica, Population and Housing Census 2011; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jamaica facts and statistics (figures to 31 December 2025), “A History of the Church in Jamaica” (global histories overview), Jamaica church chronology, “Personal revelation” (Nugent family history), Church History Database, Jamaica Mission 1853; Church News, “Country information: Jamaica” (29 January 2010), “First stake organized in Jamaica” (13 June 2014), “Church provides aid, service, faith and hope in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa” (15 November 2025); Church Newsroom Jamaica, “The Church celebrates 36 years in Jamaica” (7 April 2015), “Local Jamaican leader served as mission president” (19 February 2017), “Jamaican leaders make Black history” (2 March 2018), “At last the Church was brought to them” (11 November 2018), “Meet the members of the Jamaica Kingston Mission presidency” (5 February 2019), “Jamaica Red Cross recognized the Church Humanitarian Department” (2 April 2019), “Elder Kearon visits missionaries in Jamaica” (14 February 2025), “United in service: wheelchair donation brings hope and mobility” (18 September 2025), “The Church of Jesus Christ provides aid in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa” and “Built upon the rock of Christ” (13 November 2025); Church Newsroom, “Elder Patrick Kearon makes first visit to Jamaica” (11 February 2025), “Latter-day Saints around the world, July 2026”; LDS Living, “How the Church grew from 3 to 6,000 in Jamaica” (2015); The Gleaner, “Mormon witness quietly grows in Ja” (17 January 2009); Wikipedia, entries on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Jamaica and Darwin Richardson.