The Salvation Army Part IV – The Jamaica story

In 1865, William Booth, a former Methodist, established The Christian Mission to take care of the physical and spiritual needs of the poor and dejected in London. Thirteen years after, 1878, the name was changed to The Salvation Army.

Its organisational hierarchy was structured like that of the military, with Booth assuming the rank of general, which is still the highest rank in The Salvation Army, which is now regarded as the evangelical arm of the Universal Christian Church. Booth’s wife, Catherine, was named the ‘Mother of the Army’.

In 1887, The Salvation Army began its work in Jamaica on the initiative of W. Raglan Phillips, an Englishman who lived in Jamaica and worked as a surveyor, printer, and publisher of the Westmoreland Telegraph. Upon Phillips’ request, Booth sent officers to Jamaica, where, in Bluefields, Westmoreland, the first activities of the soldiers/Salvationists were established.

A Mother Agnes Foster, a former enslaved African, who was taken from Jamaica to England with her mistress and returned home after 40 years, is also credited for the pioneering work of The Salvation Army in Jamaica. She was based in Kingston. It was Phillips and Foster who met the Daveys, a family of eight from Manchester, England, when they arrived in Jamaica as the first Salvation Army mission.

The family was headed by Colonel Davey, who was denied permission by the mayor of Kingston to set up a meeting in a public space. The matter was resolved when the owner of Myrtle Bank Hotel, a Mr Gall, allowed the church planters to use his lawn for The Salvation Army’s opening service on Sunday, December 18, 1887.

BREAKAWAY MISSION

Through the assistance of ‘ Gall’s Newsletter’, the word spread, and in March 1888, more soldiers arrived from England. The Salvation Army Temple on Church Street was the first of its kind in Jamaica. People from surrounding communities were the main attendees. Outside of Kingston, Salvation Army corps (places of worship) were established in Spanish Town, Montego Bay, Black River and Savanna-la-Mar. Phillips subsequently left Bluefields to assist the Daveys in Kingston.

Things took a sudden turn in March 1889 when in order to get General Booth to send more Salvationists to Jamaica, the local Salvation Army published an article in the international Salvation Army magazine, All The World, about the ‘sins of the Jamaican people’.

Mr Gall and some others found the article very offensive and made this clear in his newsletter. He got much support from the local media. There was a demonstration at The Salvation Army’s Church Street location, from which the Daveys could not leave for three days.The same newsletter that Gall used to promote the establishment of The Salvation Army in Kingston was the same one he used to bring it down.

Taking responsibility for the article, Colonel Davey found himself in a bind. Booth’s intervention was not enough to placate the anger inspired by the article. He recalled his soldiers from Kingston, and the building on Church St was sold, leaving the members with nowhere to worship. In 1890, General Booth called Phillips to London. There, he was promoted before he returned to Jamaica with Major James J. Cooke, an Irish officer.

Though the focus had turned to western Jamaica, the mission was revived eventually in Kingston to which the headquarters had returned. In 1907, when an earthquake killed over 2,000 people, and displaced 20,000, it was The Salvation Army soldiers that did the bulk of the rescue and recovery work. Another jolt for The Salvation Army in Jamaica came in the 1920s when Phillips attempted to found a breakaway mission called The Light Brigade, which evolved into The City Mission.

SERVICE MISSIONS

Today, The Salvation Army in Jamaica comprises two administrative divisions: Jamaica East and Jamaica West. There are over 14,000 members, 70 per cent of whom are women. It is the biggest organisation in the Caribbean Territorial Region, whose headquarters are located at 3 Waterloo Road in St Andrew.

Its evangelical and community-service missions consist of the running of basic schools, a residential school for the blind and visually impaired, the William Chamberlain Rehab Centre, children’s homes, feeding centres, a welfare office, day-care centres attached to each church, playgrounds, clinics, children’s homes, welfare and innovative drug rehabilitation and counselling programmes, prison and probation aftercare services, and skills training for ‘deportees’ that prepares them to reintegrate into society as productive citizens.

There are male and female hostels, thrift shops, a disaster recovery unit, a ministerial training college which all Caribbean Salvationist ministers-to-be must attend. The Salvation Army also operates the Evangeline Residence in Kingston for professional women who move into Kingston and want a place of safety until they can get on their feet. There is also the Francis Ham Home, which accommodates males and females who are either blind or are retired officers who are no longer able to care for themselves.