Marcus Garvey and the Methodist Church THE EDITOR, Sir: THE RIGHT Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey (formerly MARCUS), who was called 'MOSE' by many of his early acquaintances, was no doubt so called to differentiate him from his father of the same name MALCUS!! It has also been suggested that the name change to MARCUS could have been to distinguish him from his father. For information, a copy of the National Hero's birth certificate is evidence, is herewith:- Marcus Garvey who is remembered as our first named National Hero, was born on the 17th August, 1887 at St. Ann's Bay. He was the son of mother Sarah Jane Richards, and father Malcus Garvey. His birth was registered with the Registrar General on the 6th September, 1887, "in the beautiful parish of St. Ann, near to the Roaring River," as Garvey himself had put it. Marcus grew up with nature, and drew much of his inspiration, as he said of himself. He received his early religious training and Christian exposure with the St. Ann's Bay Methodist congregation where he worshipped as a boy. The chapel in St. Ann's Bay where he spent his early formative years still exists!! This chapel was opened on the 1st August, 1838, and replaced a former chapel built in 1822, but along with the chapel belonging to the Baptists, were destroyed on the 7th February, 1832 by the Colonial Church Union (not a religious body), after the Montego Bay slave uprising which was led by National Hero Sam Sharpe. Approximately 60 years before Marcus Garvey was born, the Methodists in the parish of St. Ann experienced very troubled and disturbing times, and religious hostility. During the period, many atrocities were committed against the Methodist missionaries, and others, even resulting in the cat-o-nine flogging and imprisonment of a slave named Henry Williams, who was a Methodist Class Leader, because he would not take his fellow slaves to worship in the Established Church, and also because he was found reading his Bible, and praying in his own house on a New Year's eve night!! Although Garvey's philosophy is now fairly well known and respected, success did not come to him easily. For in the beginning, his early dreams were shattered, and seemed doomed to failure, for even in St. Ann's Bay, his home town, he was jeered, heckled and ridiculed by people of his own race and colour! But he was sustained through the inspiration of Abraham Lincoln, Simon Boliver, and especially Booker T. Washington; as well as through his firm belief in Jesus Christ, whom he noted was not only ridiculed, but crucified!! Sir, it is interesting to note that Marcus was born and lived near to a former Anglican Church rectory, named Cloisters, which was once the residence of the Rev'd George Wilson Bridges, an Anglican clergyman of some notoriety, who was the rectory of the St. Ann's Bay church. He was also the author of a book, one the history of Jamaica, and an avowed enemy of those he regarded as 'sectarians'. He once advised his hearers that "if you would get rid of those rooks, you must destroy their nests." The Rev'd Bridges was a very naughty clergyman, but eventually returned to England from Jamaica, a much humbled, chastened and changed man after he witnessed the drowning of his 4 daughters in the harbour of St. Ann's Bay. Ironically, Cloisters is now owned by the Methodist Church!! Today, Marcus Garvey is a household name, and we are thankful that his early religious start was at the old Methodist Chapel in St. Ann's Bay, in the town where he was born. Therefore, let us hail him, and the Methodist Church where he obtained his early nurture and guidance!! I am, etc., T.O. B. GOLDSON Brunswick Ave Spanish Town P.O. Feel free to write to us at religion@gleanerjm.com or call 876-922-23400-9 EXT 6223/6259
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