Carmel Moravian Church sits dramatically atop a hill 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the small market town of Newmarket in Westmoreland, Jamaica. It was founded in 1827 at the behest of a local family of planters who wished to teach Christianity to their slaves.[1]
History
Planters Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson Muir Scott owned properties in the area and starting in 1818 made several attempts to find a Christian minister for their slaves.[1]
Eventually, c1820, they invited Moravian missionaries to begin regular services on their estates.[1]
A hill top site was chosen by the Scotts in 1826 and a road built up to the temporary building they had constructed there.[1]
John Scholefield was appointed as the first minister of Carmel in 1827 and oversaw work on a new church which started the same year and was completed in 1828.[1] It was soon found to be too small and as a result services had to be held both morning and evening to satisfy the demand.[1] The church was enlarged in 1859 resulting in the magnificent building, 120 feet (37 m) long and 72 feet (22 m) wide at the transept, which still stands today.[1]
Buildings
Church
A cut stone and mortar structure with a large masonry belfry to the south topped by a wooden cupola and containing one bell.
A pipe organ was obtained from Germany circa 1895.[2]
Manse
A 20th-century building of rendered breeze blocks with a zinc roof. Rain water was channeled by gutters from the roof to a large storage tank to the south of the building from where it was daily pumped by hand into a header tank of old oil drums and gravity fed to taps.
School
There is a Primary and infant school a little downhill to the west of the church, opposite the main entrance.
Burial ground
Running downhill to the north of the church is a small and sparsely used God's Acre of about 1,700m2.[3]
Hastings, S U & MacLeavy, B L (1979), Seedtime and Harvest (A Brief History of the Moravian Church in Jamaica 1754-1979), The Moravian Church Corporation
