The Borough of Queens in New York will host the kick-off event celebrating Jamaica's 45th anniversary as an independent nation.

The New Jerusalem Baptist Church at 122-05 Smith Street, corner of Baisley Boulevard in the South Jamaica/Rochdale Village section of Queens, will stage this year's Thanksgiving Church Service, set for Sunday, July 29, beginning at 4:00 p.m.

Activities will culminate with the Grand Independence Ball on Saturday, August 18, at the New York Hilton and Towers Hotel in Manhattan, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Reverend Canon Ernle Gordon, Rector of St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church in Kingston, will deliver the special Independence sermon. Reverend Dr. Calvin Rice, the Senior Pastor at the New Jerusalem Baptist Church, will welcome the more than 1,000 Jamaican nationals and well-wishers expected to attend the service, to be officiated by Reverend Canon Calvin McIntyre of the Good Shepherd Church of the Bronx.
Dr. Basil K. Bryan, Consul General in New York and Chair of the Jamaica Independence Anniversary Committee, said the order of service has been structured to reflect the many faces and facets of the Jamaican Diaspora.

Other activities include a youth symposium and an Art Exhibition at the Jamaican Consulate, 767 Third Avenue, Manhattan; flag-raising ceremonies at Bowling Green Plaza, Lower Manhattan; Borough Hall in Brooklyn, and City Hall in Orange, New Jersey.

The full calendar of events can be viewed at the Consulate General of Jamaica's website - www.congenjamaica-ny.org