By Lloyd A. Cooke, Contributor
Government Senator Noel Monteith, a descendant of the highly respected Church 'Helper', Archibald Monteith, from Kilmarnock.
MORAVIAN HISTORIANS Hark and Westphal in The Breaking of the Dawn said the work of the Moravian church in the 18th century "received a most helpful impulse through the influence of a number of black and coloured men slaves who had been granted liberty by their owners, and who had undertaken some religious work among their former fellow slaves in the island. They had been led to the knowledge of the Gospel by American Baptists.
John Lang, missionary at Carmel,Westmoreland, became aware of the effects of these evangelising efforts by the increase in the number of those who attended his ministry. Among these men was a Negro called George Lewis - not the most prominent among them, but one who came into direct contact with Old Carmel, where Lang got to know him. (Lewis) "...by his earnest influence, led many to seek further Christian instruction from the Moravian missionaries."
Lang had a good enough opinion of the man and his preaching to encourage his members to collect from their meagre savings, doubtless from their provision grounds and Sunday markets, the princely sum of £100.0.0 to purchase Lewis' freedom so he could preach the gospel. For some unfathomable reason, Lewis never became a member of the Moravian Church. Maybe it was because of the Moravians strict standards in doctrine and practice for anyone being baptised into their church.
MIXING SUPERSTITION AND TRUTH
These native preachers, seemingly, didn't quite measure up, for according to Hark and Westphal, "as their knowledge of religious truth was very imperfect, and they were unable to read and study the Scriptures, a curious mixture of superstition and truth was present in their teaching." Yet, their value to the missionaries was acknowledged: "... Still, Christ was preached, and with striking effect; interest was aroused among the slave population in the Christian religion, and a desire to acquire a fuller knowledge of the Gospel of Christ." And, continuing to speak of Lewis, they had this to say, '...through his influence, people left off worshipping the cotton tree, forsook their idols, lived better lives, and went in search of Christian instruction.'
CONVERSIONS, DISCIPLESHIP
Other instances could be drawn from the Moravians' own histories of other prominent men and women who greatly aided their efforts to win converts, and to disciple them in the faith. Men called 'helpers' were given special responsibilities to watch over the faith of other converts in the churches. Men such as Peter, from Island, near Siloah; William Hall, at Irwin, near Montego Bay, who was so highly regarded by his owner that he built a house for him on his plantation "...superior to any in the village"; Edward Hunt, one of the first converts at New Carmel, near to Newmarket: "...He was a man whose character for goodness and virtue was unblemished," said the missionaries.
Maybe most highly regarded among these helpers was Archibald Monteith from Kilmarnock, and of the New Carmel congregation. We read "... Archibald Monteith, whose sound faith, solid judgement, and child-like simplicity strangely combined with shrewdness and ready wit, edified and strengthened many." Mentioned as "... a very capable and devoted helper." He was sometimes called upon by other missionaries to travel to distant places to help in times of difficulties, especially at Irwin, during a revival of obeah and myalism during the early 1840s.
In the cemetery at New Carmel, in Westmoreland, his grave lies beside that of Moravian missionary dead, and has the same carved slate headstone as theirs. His descendants have continued to be known as noted Christians and Jamaicans of great virtue and stature: Noel Monteith, Government Senator; the late Mrs. 'Milda' Little, outstanding church worker of the Christian Brethren Church in Black River, and her two sisters at Miami Gospel Chapel in the United States, as well as others in the Jamaican Moravian churches. The stories of these many 'helpers' may be profited from by reading Seedtime and Harvest, which is easily available at all Moravian churches (for a paltry sum). Doubtless, we could find similar stories in the annals of others of other denominations in Jamaica, such as the Methodists, JEM Tabernacles, (Jamaica Evangelistic Mission) and the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, (Presbyterians and Congregationalists) who were all active in Jamaica in the early years, as also in other Caribbean countries.
GREAT POPULARITY
An interesting incident is related by the Moravian writer, and elaborated on in a paper by a Nigerian professor, Dr. Daniel J. Antwi, now heading the United Church's Institute for Theological and Leadership Development (ITLD) programme here in Jamaica. The paper, entitled: The African Factor in Christian Mission to Africa: A Study of Moravian and Basel Mission Initiatives In Ghana, tells us that so well-known were these Christian Africans of Jamaica that when the Basel Mission of Ghana sought to set up a 'Christian colony' at Akropong, in Ghana, together with the Danish Crown, they sought the help of Jamaican Moravians.
Seeking to answer the challenge of the paramount chief, Nana Addo Dankwa, that "when God created the world, He made a book for the white man and juju for the black man. But if you could show me some black man who could read the white man's book then we would surely follow you." European missionaries Riis and Weidmann came to Jamaica in December 1842 to recruit among the Moravians. The result was that, on New Year's Day 1843, 23 persons were commissioned at Fairfield, Manchester, to the work in Ghana. They departed Jamaica or February 8, 1843, arriving at Christianbourg, near Accra, Ghana on April 17, 1843.
RISE OF BLACK MEN
J.H. Buchner, Moravian historian, writing in 1854, was prescient when he said, "If ever the black man shall arise, there must be men of his own colour to take the lead; Those... may, in the course of time, not only take the place of the European teacher and missionary in the West Indies, but they may also go forth as missionaries to preach the gospel to their countrymen in Africa."
I give the last word on this to Baptist historian, Rev. Clement Gayle. Writing in the preface to his book on George Liele, Gayle says: "Here must be mentioned an area of the history of the Church in the Caribbean which is still to be explored, namely, the part played by slaves and newly emancipated black men and women in the spread of Christianity in the region. Not only the Baptists, but the Methodists and Moravians owe a great deal to the work of the new black converts to the faith. But for them, the spread of the gospel would not have reached so many of their black brothers and sisters on the plantations and the hills."
