Baptist land fight

A legal dispute is brewing between firebrand pastor Jeffrey Shuttleworth and the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) after the clergyman signalled his intent to register the Tarrant Baptist Church property in St Andrew under his name.

Last month, Shuttleworth consented to a court order suspending his application process with the National Land Agency until the lawsuit filed by the JBU against him is resolved.

The dispute is the culmination of years of a strained relationship between the JBU and Shuttleworth, who has alleged that he has had to move from under the Christian group’s control because of its alleged embrace of “alien” principles and what he claims is a “sympathetic” posture towards the LGBTQ community.

The JBU took the issue to court after Shuttleworth refused to allow the group to conduct a survey of the property at 51 Molynes Road in St Andrew to obtain a formal title. The pastor claims that the JBU has no rights over the land.

The JBU filed a claim against Shuttleworth in the Supreme Court in December, seeking two orders.

It wants a declaration that the JBU, as trustee, “is a legal executor of all Baptist churches and holds legal ownership and control over all real property, lands and buildings of affiliated churches of the Jamaica Baptist Union, including the property situated at 51 Molynes Road”.

It also wants an order declaring that the JBU has the lawful authority to survey the property.

The court granted an injunction on January 23, blocking Shuttleworth or anyone acting on his behalf from trying to apply for the title or taking any further steps to claim ownership of the property.

The JBU contends that the century-old Tarrant Baptist Church and the property on which it sits were transferred to, and vested in it, under the law, through the 1969 Jamaica Baptist Union (Incorporation and Vesting) Act. It said Shuttleworth was “assigned” to the church as head minister, but remains under JBU’s “direction and control”, according to one of the court documents.

The JBU represents more than 300 churches across the island, with a total membership of more than 40,000.

According to the Tax Administration Jamaica website, the one-acre lot has an undeveloped value of $50 million and is owned by “Baptist Church”.

SURVEY BLOCKED

In May 2023, the JBU advised a Tarrant Baptist Church official about an impending survey to be done by commissioned land surveyor and JBU member David Brown. He had also issued a notice to neighbouring properties, advising them of the survey.

However, in a letter dated May 12, 2023, Shuttleworth advised then JBU President Glenroy Lalor that Tarrant Baptist was already in possession of a recent and current survey and a new one “will not be necessary”.

“Giving access to anyone wanting to do any other survey, will be denied,” he warned.

The JBU reacted strongly.

“You are in no position to deny us access to the premises, whether for the purposes of undertaking a survey or to exercise any other right of ownership over the lands,” said Reverend Merlyn Hyde Riley, the general secretary of the JBU, in a letter dated May 17, 2023.

ORIGINAL REPORT REQUESTED

She asked Shuttleworth to provide the original copy of the survey that he referred to by May 24, 2023, “failing which we will proceed to exercise our rights as the lawful owner of the property, including our right to undertake the survey as planned”.

The JBU had been engaged in an islandwide programme to bring its church properties under the operation of the Registration of Titles Act, Hyde Riley explained.

The surveyor issued another notice on June 9, 2023, advising that he would be undertaking the survey on June 22.

On June 21, Tarrant Baptist formally objected, through its then attorneys Chen, Green & Co.

“The Tarrant Baptist Church, which is in long-standing possession of 51 Molynes Road, Kingston 10, objects to your proposed survey,” the law firm told the surveyor.

It also pointed to Section 29 of the Land Surveyors Act, which stipulates that once a landowner or any person with interest in a land objects to a survey, “the surveyor shall not proceed”.

Shuttleworth, who has been at Tarrant Baptist for almost two decades, contended in the notice of objection that the property has been “in the possession of the Tarrant Baptist Church” for more than 100 years and the leaders and members of the church “do not consent” to the proposed survey.

He further argued that while Tarrant Baptist Church is an “unincorporated body”, he was objecting because the survey “will interfere with the church’s possession of the property and lawful right to exclude persons not permitted on its premises”.

The dispute has festered with the JBU now seeking the court’s intervention.

“The court’s intervention is needed to declare that the defendant’s (Shuttleworth) conduct is unlawful,” said JBU President Dwight Fraster in an affidavit of urgency filed on December 19, 2024.

He said the JBU has “still been unable” to get the survey done because Shuttleworth has “failed” to withdraw the objection.

He said the injunction was necessary and that damages would not be adequate as “the continued objection to the survey affects the claimant’s (JBU) ability to exercise its property rights” and adds to its inability to register the property.

Shuttleworth hit back, however, dismissing the JBU’s claims to the property, according to his affidavit filed on January 20, 2025.

‘EXERCISING RIGHTS OF OWNERSHIP’

Claiming that the property has no registered title, Shuttleworth asserted that Tarrant Baptist Church “was” a member of the JBU and that he “has been the pastor there and exercising all rights of ownership over the land and building”.

He said that, in his time at the church, he has done “a number of improvement work”. Among the 12 activities he stated are, building retaining walls, refurbishing the radio station, renovating the church building, installing solar panels, and upgrading the basic school on the property.

Shuttleworth also pointed to services being held seven days per week and requests made to him by the Government and the JBU for use of the facilities. He said those requests are “consistent” with him “exercising ownership over this property, since 2008 to the exclusion of all other persons, including the body known as the Jamaica Baptist Union”.

But it was Shuttleworth’s disclosure that he has “been in possession of the land” for almost 17 years and was “in the process of making an application to the National Land Agency in his name for a possessory title” that has alarmed the JBU.

The pastor also stated that he no longer supports the JBU, although he was trained and ordained by the church group. He said he has “tried to stick to the principles” of the JBU, but had to change after he “recognised that the JBU departed from those principles and had adopted principles which are alien to the defendant (Shuttleworth)”.

The pastor alleged that JBU has been operating “contrary to the ethical and Christian principles”. He said an example is that while the Baptist community “does not ... subscribe to the LGBTQ ideology”, the JBU “is sympathetic to that cause”.

He said as a result, he and the JBU “cannot be under the same umbrella”.

Shuttleworth also accused the JBU of breaching its own constitution by having internal elections virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The defendant asserts that the Jamaica Baptist Union has no claim to the property as the relationship between the JBU and the defendant is one of courtesy,” he argued.

He urged the court to reject the JBU’s requests.

Shuttleworth is being represented by Hugh Wildman & Company, while Emile Leiba and Kymberly Hanniford of DunnCox are leading the case for the JBU.

Shuttleworth has risen to national prominence over his fiery preaching that challenges decisions of the State, his ultra-conservative positions on social issues such as abortion, and scepticism about international agreements involving the Government.

Last year, he lost a case in which he argued that the Disaster Risk Management Act, which was used to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, breached his constitutional rights.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com