Reflection Paper on Revivalism

“Revivalism is an authentic Afro-Christian religious folk form that evolved during the eighteenth to nineteenth century. Initially, it was the native Baptist Christians who joined forces with the Moravians, and other non-conformist churches to become the forerunners of the movement. However, Jamaica was said to have experienced a religious movement called the Great Revival in 1861, which saw the incorporation of much more African retention in the movement. Pocomania is more African in form while Zion is more Christian oriented.” [1]

Upon preparing to embark this journey, I was a bit disgruntled that I had to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to go this “Watt Town” excursion, but I still approached with a open mind, though I had an idea of what to expect, seeing that I was already acquainted with quite a few Revivalists. Honestly I expected it to be a waste of time, but upon seeing the fellowship of my friends, while waiting on the buses which were scheduled to take us on our journey it got easier and easier, we engaged in jokes and hymns we swore were Revivalist hymns but Mr. Grey quickly busted our bubble and told us that those hymns were Pentecostal. We were greeted by a semi-pleasant but slow bus driver, but the vibe in our bus quickly took our minds off the length of the journey.

I view Revivalists as highly religious people who are in tune with spirits with from various realms, known as Heaven, Earth and Ground spirit realms, I met with a lot of different Revivalists, but what I found rather interesting was the fact that the core of what they were saying were similar but they were also many subtle differences, For example I met with a man, whose name is Joseph Whitter, of the Olivette Seventh day church. and he seemed to be quite respected in the church community, he blatantly stated at the beginning of the conversation that, “Revivalism is the only way to be saved”, we had a long drawn out discussion on what are my personal views