In 2010, when the College of Bishops decided to hold its Annual Retreat and General Conference planning sessions, the College of Bishops asked for a hotel to meet near Montego Bay. With the help of Bishop Thomas Brown (retreat coordinator that year) and Dr. Cheryl Goliday (then agent for Fifth Episcopal District travel to Jamaica), we landed a contract at the Iberia Hotel. I was surprised that I had often passed it and yet had never seen it! It was exactly across the road from where the Mission Supervisor, the Rev. Sydney Sinclair, lived. It was right across the street, but I had never seen itI It was hidden from view – a sprawling, high class hotel that the common people could only see the roof of, and that most passers-by on the busy road such as myself maybe had never noticed. But once I saw it, I could never unsee it. That area of residences was nothing like the quality of the hotel. When I went for a walk early one morning, I also noticed the almost hidden round staircase that was used for a private employee entrance to the hotel. We did not see them before they came on the property, and they did not see us. As I often people who would gawk in surprise and show ecstatic eyes when I tell them my assignment includes Jamaica, “The Jamaica you’re thinking about is not the Jamaica I work in. I work where the people who work in the resorts live.” So … there’s always been “more than one” perspective of Jamaica – at least as long as I’ve known it.
Over the years, there were a few visitors to the conference – and a few more who wanted to visit and then learned what the rigors of visiting included – who were disappointed that we were not going to those pristine beach areas and those specialty hotels. Our mission monies could not afford them.
This year, it is really worse in its differences – Hurricane Melissa devastated parts of the island, and among the parts it devastated were the communities where most of our CME churches are. The city of Black River was near the hurricanes epicenter. It was destroyed. The hotel where the delegates to the conference stayed for the last few years – the Idler’s Rest Hotel – was destroyed. And even today, the Mt. Hope CME Church, a fair distance from that epicenter by road, which is also the site for the Mae C. Linsey Early Childhood Institution, is without its roof as of my latest conversation with the pastor this past week. The church is a concrete block building, but the pastor has told me that the children at the school have to meet in the church under a tarp.
So, as we advertise this year’s conference, there are some realities we need to face: First, we need to face that we cannot go and simply hold a conference; we must do some mission work and spend one of our three days helping, working, either serving meals to people or painting or doing some other task that lets them know we will “sit where they sit,” like Ezekiel. Second, we need to take them more help. The purpose of my visit in December was to take them funds from the CME Committee on Emergency Relief ($10,000). They well could have used as much as $100,000 plus, but we did not have that much. I’m grateful for what we had been given. Third, we need to inspire them to continue to be united in their support of each other.
I am not encouraging a lot of people to go … because there will not be many places to stay within closeness to the Conference. The hotel is probably a 25-30 minute ride by bus. Transportation from hotels to the conference site will be problematic, and paying for conference transport has been expensive year after year – I can’t overspend what we have this year. I am closing my Jamaica accounts before or immediately after the General Conference and will turn over what is left to my successor.
If you are interested in going to Jamaica, I ask you to understand that we may not be able to get more than 10 rooms, and the rooms will go quickly. We will stay this year in Treasure Beach at Jake’s Hotel. It’s not a first class hotel, but it is decent.
I am open to and asking for your help, such as you can give. I know this is a year of heavy obligations, but if you can give a gift to the CME Committee on Emergency Relief – by sending your check to the Department of Finance for that committee’s work – it will be helpful. However, you need to send that check no later than March 20. if you send anything else after March 20, please send it with your check written to the Eighth Episcopal District – but it will not be used for emergency relief, it will be used to support the costs of getting the Jamaica delegates to the General Conference. I want you to know that up front. The General Church’s Connectional Budget provides $14,000.00 for the expenses of the Jamaica General Conference delegates, but the costs for (1) registration, (2) rooms, (3) and food, total $15,000-plus (without paying airfare). (See page 207, The Book of Discipline, Revised 2022, line 12; the $3,500 per year means $14,000 for the quadrennium.)
I invite you to participate in this mission journey …. I invite you to support your CME Sisters and Brothers in Jamaica … but I want you to know what you will be in for if you come. And if you cannot come but feel led to support it, please send your funds – before March 20 for more emergency relief, and after March 20 to support the General Conference delegate expenses.
