The Savannah Seventh-day Adventist Church, located in the Linstead, St. Catherine area, is organized as the 200th church in Central Jamaica Conference with 45 members. The service of organization took place on Sabbath, December 29, 2019.
Pastor Levi Johnson, president of CJC made the announcement to the newly voted members of the church as he conducted the service of organization. Pastor Johnson said that though there are over 220 congregations in the Conference, there are only 200 officially organized churches.
He said that the members of Savannah should be proud of the fact and should always remember that they are the 200th church within the Conference.
The service of organization was attended by members of the churches within the Linstead District of churches, including Linstead, Wakefield, Banbury and Rose Hall. Each of the Elders from these sister churches greeted the congregation and congratulated the Savannah church on their organization.
Elder Frederick Lewis, first Elder of the Wakefield church, shared that Savannah is very dear to him. He said that the first efforts to establish a church in Savannah took place 6 years earlier during an evangelistic series that was conducted by Evangelist Doreen Parbarue.
During that series, 12 persons were baptized and a group of 7 persons began worshipping in the Savannah community to form a Branch Sabbath School.
Wakefield is the church responsible for helping to raise up the Savannah congregation.
According to Elder W. Goulbourne, who presented the history of the church during the service of organization, “the plan was to make request to the Conference to establish the group as a Company.” However, he said that, the church pastor, Dr. Kemar Douglas returned with the good news, that instead of being a Company, they would be organized as a church.
