In the year 1754 three British Moravian Missionar­ies, Zacharies George Caries, Thomas Shallcross and Gottlier Haberech landed in Black River St Elizabeth, Jamaica. They came on the invitation of the brothers, William Foster and Joseph Foster Braham of Bogue in St Elizabeth. The brothers presented them with 700 acres of land about ten miles from the Bogue Estate. Here the first Moravian Mission was established and named New Carmel.

In the year 1818 Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson Muir Scott, the owner of the Hopeton property in Westmo­reland, while on a visit to England applied to the Bish­op of the Church of England to supply someone to give religious instruction to the slaves in the estate. The Bishop instructed them to apply to one C.I La Trobe, the secretary for the Moravian Mission in Ja­maica at Carmel. On their return to Jamaica the Scotts invited the Missionaries and regular weekly re­ligious meetings began at Hopeton.

The Scotts desired to have a mission station at Ho­peton and made representation to the Mission Board in England. Thus in June 1825 Daniel G Hague was appointed the first resident Missionary to establish the work on a permanent basis in the area. He died a few days after taking up the assignment. He preached only one sermon. That same year (1825) Mr. Scott gave a suitable site for erecting a church and a sta­tion. The former place now became Old Carmel and a new site came into being. The new site was named New Carmel, later renamed Carmel. The former site now became Old Carmel.

The neighboring Paynestown Estate was owned by Mr. Coke, a religious man who also had evening prayers on his lawn and welcomed the slaves who came to listen. Soon the news of Hopeton meetings spread and Paynestown people began attending the weekly meet­ings at Hopeton. One slave Archibald Monteith, who attended the meetings at Paynestown and Hopeton recorded in his autobiography that at Hopeton, a Missionary Ellis from Mesopotamia preached prayed and wrote down in a book the name of slaves who were interested.

In 1826 Mr. Scott constructed a temporary church building on the present church site and made a road up to the hill. The site was called “Chapel Hill”. In 1827 John Schofield was called to serve at Carmel and had the task of overseeing the work on the new church which began that year. While the mis­sion house was being erected, Missionary Scho­field lived at Ho­peton. The first sermon of Broth­er Schofield was preached on Good Friday from the text 1st Corinthian 2:2. “For I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified”.

The building was completed in 1828. On the 16th of November 1828 the church was opened; by this time there was regular attendance of about 300 adults and children. Not long after however, the building which was 60ft by 30ft proved to be too small, as the congrega­tion had increased so much that service had to be re­peated in the afternoon to accommodate all worship­pers. On August 1, 1834 the apprentice system was enacted. This was observed as a public holiday and the occasion was marked by church services through­out the island. At Carmel there were 1200 slaves expressing gratitude to God.

John Schofield ministered at Carmel for 8 years, marked by great progress. During his administration, Archibald Monteith a Native of West Africa, who was brought to Jamaica as a slave and sold to the proprietor of Kepp Estate which ad­joined Paynestown, near to Carmel, was able to buy his freedom. After conversion to Christ he became a great church worker, evangelist and foundation member of Carmel Moravi­an Church. He gave faithful and unstinted service to his God and his fellow men. He died in 1864 and was buried at Carmel.

A NEW CHURCH AT CARMEL

In 1916 the old church which was built in 1827 was destroyed. The last church service was held in it on March 26, 1916. The new church was started by Rev. G.B. Lopp. The foundation was completed in 1916 but early 1917 Rev. Lopp’s health failed and he was transferred to Mizpah, which was considered healthier because of its higher altitude. He was succeeded by Rev. Fredrick Weiss 1917-1934 who continued the work. On September 20, 1917 the corner stone was of­ficially laid and the completed building was opened November 9, 1921.