THE HISTORY OF HWT SDA
Elder Lascellles Davis led a group of laypersons from the Sandy Park Church to start a branch Sabbath School in an abandoned government building at 31 Molynes Road. This property was later formally leased to house the Tarrant SDA Church; it soon became too small for its membership. A series of meetings conducted at Marverly Public Park by evangelist Fitz Henry under the Theme “The King is Coming" added more than seven hundred members to the SDA church. Land owned by the East Jamaica Conference at 20 South Avenue was made available to house this massive inflow of new believers. Soon thereafter the South Avenue SDA church was organized. The size of Tarrant and the geographic location of South Avenue were not conducive to the Church growth strategy of the Seventh-day Adventist Church so the Conference acquired some three acres of land at 12 Molynes Road, Kingston.
On Sabbath, October 2, 2004, the marching bands of East Jamaica Conference heralded the launch. They marched up Molynes Road, Hagley Park Road and Maxfield Avenue. Hundreds of Seventh-day Adventists, their friends and curious onlookers converged on 12 Molynes Road. The Mayor of Kingston, counselor Desmond McKenzie, the treasurer of West Indies Union Conference Pastor Herman Ming, and the treasurer of East Jamaica Conference elder Bancroft Barwise were in attendance. Pastor Merrick Walker and the members of the Kencot circuit of churches gave their support, so did Pastor Delroy Hamilton and the Macedonia circuit. The Hagley Park circuit came out in large numbers in addition to numerous conference directors and other church officials. All congregated under the triple tent and was in effect the launch of the “Jesus is the Answer” evangelist campaign with United States based international evangelist and Executive Secretary of the Greater New York Conference of SDA, Dr. G Earl Knight, and the establishment of the Half-way Tree Seventh-day Adventist Chrurch.
