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History of the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica with Pastor Leroy Thompson
If you are a person of truth you should not fear history. All that history does, if recorded accurately, is to relate the truth about the past. Relating the documented history of the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica should do a number of things:
1. Answer the many questions posed by the new generation of Christians who attend our churches.
2. Instill a sense of holy and humble Christian pride in our churches, seeing that our assemblies have been raised up by God to preserve and propagate truths that are fundamental to the gospel message in the last days.
3. Recognize that the Independent Baptist Movement was born out of an effort to fulfill the scriptural injunction to "contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the Saints."
4. Highlight the fact that the Jamaica Independent Baptist position and belief is consistent with authentic historic Baptist position worldwide.
The Baptist Movement in Jamaica started in Kingston with the preaching of the Rev. George Lisle in 1783. George Lisle was an ex-slave from the State of Georgia in the United States of America. Having gained freedom from his white master, Henry Sharpe a deacon in his home church of Kiokee Burke County, he fled to Jamaica to escape re-enslavement by his former master's relatives. Lisle was not only an experienced Pastor, Church Planter and Evangelist when he came to the Island. He was also an ordained Minister having being ordained by the Rev. Matthew Moore, a white man and his home Pastor of their Baptist Church in Burke County Georgia in 1775. Before he fled the United States, the Rev. Lisle organized the first black church in America. Hence this man of God was a seasoned campaigner for his Savior when he arrived in Jamaica.
Lisle's success in ministering the gospel to slaves and freedman in Kingston led to the organization of Baptist Churches, which consequently gave birth to the Baptist Movement on the Island. The Jamaica Baptist Union was later to be incorporated from this vibrant and ever increasing group of believers in the mid 1800's.
"Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come." These words of the Hymn "Amazing Grace" epitomize the persecutions and struggles of the early Jamaican Baptist Christians who were predominantly slaves. Therefore an invitation was sent by another ex-slave and Pastor, (Moses Baker who was a convert of Rev. Lisle), to the Baptist Missionary Society in London, England to help with this work of God in Jamaica.
In the words of the Rev. Sam Cummings, in his article on the history of the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica: "...Baptist missionaries came from England from the early nineteenth century and began establishing churches and schools throughout the island. They did an outstanding work, especially in being foremost in persuading the Parliament of England to abolish slavery, however, the early fervor did not continue. By the beginning of the twentieth century the Higher Criticism Movement began breathing its cold breath over Theological Colleges. Spiritual life weakened in the churches, and as run down soil succumbs to the growth of weeds so a great build up of cults took over.
It was in such climate that the Independent Baptist Movement was born. Several men were used of God to pioneer this venture. They were the Rev. G.W. Smith, Dr. J.W. Knight, Dr. A.L. McKenzie and Rev. S.I. Cummings.
George Wilfred Smith came to Jamaica in October 1928 with the support of the Regular Baptist Missionary Board of Canada. He was a member of the Jarvis Street Baptist church, Toronto, Canada. As a result of meeting in Toronto with the Rev. W.J. Mornan, who was then a Baptist Pastor and Inspector of Schools in Jamaica living at Rockcliffe. He became the Pastor of two Jamaican Baptist Union churches, namely Nightingale Grove and Hewitts View Baptist churches in St. Elizabeth. It was not long after his coming that the trend in Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) toward modernism became evident to the young missionary pastor. He wrote home on April 10,1929 : "That accursed thing Modernism is raising its head in the denomination here..."
G.W. Smith soon made his presence felt at the JBU Ministers' Conferences. He proposed that all ministers be required to sign a statement of faith, which was turned down as unnecessary. He was dubbed "Heresy Hunter".
After being with the JBU for about two years, G.W. Smith withdrew from the body, because of the rejection of two of his motions - that a certain professor be disciplined for his liberal views and that a certain pastor be disciplined for immorality. This meant that the two churches had to make a decision whether to stay with the JBU or withdraw with their pastor. They opted for the latter. Thus begun the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica between 1931 and 1932. The first churches were the Nightingale Grove Baptist Church and Hewitts View Baptist Church.
In 1932, G.W. Smith and his wife Dorothy returned to Canada where they had three sons: Roland Leonard, James Wilfred and Maurice Fred. It was not until 1938 that they returned to Jamaica. About this time certain events were taking place at the Mount Peto Baptist Church in Hanover, where the Rev. S.I. Cummings was the pastor. The story of the conflict between Mount Peto Baptist Church and the JBU is contained in the article "History of Independence Hall Baptist Church", written by Sam Cummings.
The Independence Hall Baptist Church came into being as a result of a deadlock between the JBU and the pastor of Mount Peto Baptist Church. The principles of the independent government of Baptist churches were the main cause of this deadlock. The JBU insisted it had the to choose pastors and oversee the affairs of each local church; never the less the Mount Peto Baptist Church took the initiative to call a pastor who was not a member of the JBU. For this they were not forgiven. The JBU finally declared itself head of this local church. At a special meeting of the Mount Peto Baptist Church on June 12, 1941, the members passed a resolution to withdraw from the Union as of that day.
The treasurer of the JBU became the pastor of the dissidents. This made it so difficult for Pastor Cummings and his congregation to meet in the church that the police had to intervene. In order to meet without molestation, the Pastor along with the congregation moved to another location and built the Independence Hall Baptist Church.
In 1929, another missionary family came, the Rev. John Knight and his wife Georgiana. They were also from the Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, Canada. Rev. Knight became the pastor of Clarksonville Circuit of the JBU. It was in the middle of the 1940's that churches in the circuit joined the growing band of Independent Baptist Churches.
Around 1953, the Buff Bay Baptist Church took a firm stand when the JBU tried to remove Dr. Austin McKenzie from the Buff Bay Circuit of Baptist Churches. After some rather unsavory ways of trying to accomplish their objective the matter came before the court, however, the JBU was not successful. The judge declared, "This case, as I see it, is entirely a moral issue. I grant every point to the Rev. A.L. McKenzie."
The JBU did not give up, between 1954 and 1958; they made it difficult for the dissenting churches to obtain their title deeds, and threatened to take over their properties. The case was heard at Gordon House, and the JBU was again defeated.
On December 1, 1959, the Rev. G.W. Smith went home to be with the Lord. At his funeral the Rev. James T.M. Green referred to him as "The Wilberforce of Jamaica". His body was laid to rest beside the Macfield Baptist Church in the parish of Westmoreland.
Upon his death, the five churches he pastored: Macfield; Bird Mountain; Hewitts View; Providence; and Sellington Baptist churches were turned over to the Baptist Mid Missions (BMM). Pastor R. Clubine was the assigned pastor of these churches. T he work of BMM has played an important part in the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica. In 1946, when the Smiths went home to Canada on furlough, the Rev. James T.M. Green came to take over the work; others joined the team until at one time there were twenty BMM missionaries working in Jamaica. As a result of their efforts, several churches were established.
Fellowship
On February 3, 1961, the following pastors met in the manse of the Clarksonville Baptist Church. The Rev. John Knight of the Clarksonville Circuit of Independent Baptist Churches, The Rev. S.I. Cummings of the Independence Hall Baptist Church, the Rev. Austin McKenzie of the Buff Bay Circuit of Independent Baptist Churches, Rev. James T.M. Green and Pastor Robert Clubine, both of BMM.
The following resolution was presented and passed: "Be it resolved that we as Baptist ministers representing our groups of churches here and now organize into an association of Independent Baptist Churches."
Pastors Green and Clubine were asked to draft the constitution and statement of faith of the Jamaica fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches. Subsequent to this, the Association of Independent Baptist Churches was officially formed in 1962."
The newly formed Independent Baptist movement gave rise to fresh new missionary endeavors throughout the Island. The old churches of the new movement were encouraged in missions and strengthened in the historic Baptist position. At the same time, new efforts were made by missionaries and churches to aggressively spread the Gospel in areas where there were no fundamental Baptist witnesses.
The Independent Baptist Movement today stands as a beacon of hope for "the faith, which was once delivered to the saints."
Pastor Leroy Thompson
1. Answer the many questions posed by the new generation of Christians who attend our churches.
2. Instill a sense of holy and humble Christian pride in our churches, seeing that our assemblies have been raised up by God to preserve and propagate truths that are fundamental to the gospel message in the last days.
3. Recognize that the Independent Baptist Movement was born out of an effort to fulfill the scriptural injunction to "contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the Saints."
4. Highlight the fact that the Jamaica Independent Baptist position and belief is consistent with authentic historic Baptist position worldwide.
The Baptist Movement in Jamaica started in Kingston with the preaching of the Rev. George Lisle in 1783. George Lisle was an ex-slave from the State of Georgia in the United States of America. Having gained freedom from his white master, Henry Sharpe a deacon in his home church of Kiokee Burke County, he fled to Jamaica to escape re-enslavement by his former master's relatives. Lisle was not only an experienced Pastor, Church Planter and Evangelist when he came to the Island. He was also an ordained Minister having being ordained by the Rev. Matthew Moore, a white man and his home Pastor of their Baptist Church in Burke County Georgia in 1775. Before he fled the United States, the Rev. Lisle organized the first black church in America. Hence this man of God was a seasoned campaigner for his Savior when he arrived in Jamaica.
Lisle's success in ministering the gospel to slaves and freedman in Kingston led to the organization of Baptist Churches, which consequently gave birth to the Baptist Movement on the Island. The Jamaica Baptist Union was later to be incorporated from this vibrant and ever increasing group of believers in the mid 1800's.
"Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come." These words of the Hymn "Amazing Grace" epitomize the persecutions and struggles of the early Jamaican Baptist Christians who were predominantly slaves. Therefore an invitation was sent by another ex-slave and Pastor, (Moses Baker who was a convert of Rev. Lisle), to the Baptist Missionary Society in London, England to help with this work of God in Jamaica.
In the words of the Rev. Sam Cummings, in his article on the history of the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica: "...Baptist missionaries came from England from the early nineteenth century and began establishing churches and schools throughout the island. They did an outstanding work, especially in being foremost in persuading the Parliament of England to abolish slavery, however, the early fervor did not continue. By the beginning of the twentieth century the Higher Criticism Movement began breathing its cold breath over Theological Colleges. Spiritual life weakened in the churches, and as run down soil succumbs to the growth of weeds so a great build up of cults took over.
It was in such climate that the Independent Baptist Movement was born. Several men were used of God to pioneer this venture. They were the Rev. G.W. Smith, Dr. J.W. Knight, Dr. A.L. McKenzie and Rev. S.I. Cummings.
George Wilfred Smith came to Jamaica in October 1928 with the support of the Regular Baptist Missionary Board of Canada. He was a member of the Jarvis Street Baptist church, Toronto, Canada. As a result of meeting in Toronto with the Rev. W.J. Mornan, who was then a Baptist Pastor and Inspector of Schools in Jamaica living at Rockcliffe. He became the Pastor of two Jamaican Baptist Union churches, namely Nightingale Grove and Hewitts View Baptist churches in St. Elizabeth. It was not long after his coming that the trend in Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) toward modernism became evident to the young missionary pastor. He wrote home on April 10,1929 : "That accursed thing Modernism is raising its head in the denomination here..."
G.W. Smith soon made his presence felt at the JBU Ministers' Conferences. He proposed that all ministers be required to sign a statement of faith, which was turned down as unnecessary. He was dubbed "Heresy Hunter".
After being with the JBU for about two years, G.W. Smith withdrew from the body, because of the rejection of two of his motions - that a certain professor be disciplined for his liberal views and that a certain pastor be disciplined for immorality. This meant that the two churches had to make a decision whether to stay with the JBU or withdraw with their pastor. They opted for the latter. Thus begun the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica between 1931 and 1932. The first churches were the Nightingale Grove Baptist Church and Hewitts View Baptist Church.
In 1932, G.W. Smith and his wife Dorothy returned to Canada where they had three sons: Roland Leonard, James Wilfred and Maurice Fred. It was not until 1938 that they returned to Jamaica. About this time certain events were taking place at the Mount Peto Baptist Church in Hanover, where the Rev. S.I. Cummings was the pastor. The story of the conflict between Mount Peto Baptist Church and the JBU is contained in the article "History of Independence Hall Baptist Church", written by Sam Cummings.
The Independence Hall Baptist Church came into being as a result of a deadlock between the JBU and the pastor of Mount Peto Baptist Church. The principles of the independent government of Baptist churches were the main cause of this deadlock. The JBU insisted it had the to choose pastors and oversee the affairs of each local church; never the less the Mount Peto Baptist Church took the initiative to call a pastor who was not a member of the JBU. For this they were not forgiven. The JBU finally declared itself head of this local church. At a special meeting of the Mount Peto Baptist Church on June 12, 1941, the members passed a resolution to withdraw from the Union as of that day.
The treasurer of the JBU became the pastor of the dissidents. This made it so difficult for Pastor Cummings and his congregation to meet in the church that the police had to intervene. In order to meet without molestation, the Pastor along with the congregation moved to another location and built the Independence Hall Baptist Church.
In 1929, another missionary family came, the Rev. John Knight and his wife Georgiana. They were also from the Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, Canada. Rev. Knight became the pastor of Clarksonville Circuit of the JBU. It was in the middle of the 1940's that churches in the circuit joined the growing band of Independent Baptist Churches.
Around 1953, the Buff Bay Baptist Church took a firm stand when the JBU tried to remove Dr. Austin McKenzie from the Buff Bay Circuit of Baptist Churches. After some rather unsavory ways of trying to accomplish their objective the matter came before the court, however, the JBU was not successful. The judge declared, "This case, as I see it, is entirely a moral issue. I grant every point to the Rev. A.L. McKenzie."
The JBU did not give up, between 1954 and 1958; they made it difficult for the dissenting churches to obtain their title deeds, and threatened to take over their properties. The case was heard at Gordon House, and the JBU was again defeated.
On December 1, 1959, the Rev. G.W. Smith went home to be with the Lord. At his funeral the Rev. James T.M. Green referred to him as "The Wilberforce of Jamaica". His body was laid to rest beside the Macfield Baptist Church in the parish of Westmoreland.
Upon his death, the five churches he pastored: Macfield; Bird Mountain; Hewitts View; Providence; and Sellington Baptist churches were turned over to the Baptist Mid Missions (BMM). Pastor R. Clubine was the assigned pastor of these churches. T he work of BMM has played an important part in the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica. In 1946, when the Smiths went home to Canada on furlough, the Rev. James T.M. Green came to take over the work; others joined the team until at one time there were twenty BMM missionaries working in Jamaica. As a result of their efforts, several churches were established.
Fellowship
On February 3, 1961, the following pastors met in the manse of the Clarksonville Baptist Church. The Rev. John Knight of the Clarksonville Circuit of Independent Baptist Churches, The Rev. S.I. Cummings of the Independence Hall Baptist Church, the Rev. Austin McKenzie of the Buff Bay Circuit of Independent Baptist Churches, Rev. James T.M. Green and Pastor Robert Clubine, both of BMM.
The following resolution was presented and passed: "Be it resolved that we as Baptist ministers representing our groups of churches here and now organize into an association of Independent Baptist Churches."
Pastors Green and Clubine were asked to draft the constitution and statement of faith of the Jamaica fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches. Subsequent to this, the Association of Independent Baptist Churches was officially formed in 1962."
The newly formed Independent Baptist movement gave rise to fresh new missionary endeavors throughout the Island. The old churches of the new movement were encouraged in missions and strengthened in the historic Baptist position. At the same time, new efforts were made by missionaries and churches to aggressively spread the Gospel in areas where there were no fundamental Baptist witnesses.
The Independent Baptist Movement today stands as a beacon of hope for "the faith, which was once delivered to the saints."
Pastor Leroy Thompson
History of the Independent Baptist Movement in Jamaica by Sam Cummings
Born in Jamaica the 20th February, 1900, and raised in a somewhat evangelical community, with my mother an ardent Christian, I was confronted with the Gospel at an early age - becoming a "born-again" believer on the 11th May 1917. I left home and worked in Cuba for one year and proceeded to the United States and in 1921 joined an evangelistic team in the city of Newark in New Jersey and became one of the street preachers.
The following year I started the Bible College course at the Philadelphia School of the Bible and graduated in 1924.
I returned to Jamaica in 1926 and introduced myself to the Baptist Community here.
The Baptist had started missionary work here among the slaves who were brought over from Africa and forced to work on the sugar plantations in the same way as the Jews had to do in Egypt long ago to burn bricks for their buildings.
Baptist and Methodist missionaries from England came and preached to the slaves much to the disgust and opposition of the English planters, many of whom were advocates of the Church of England, whose principles never stood in the way of forcing the "heathen" to work in the hot sun from early morning to late at night, with poor food and lodging and under most brutal treatment.
There was great success to the preaching of these missionaries and little churches were formed all over the Island.
Slavery was abolished in 1838 and with the help of the English Baptist Missionary Society a Baptist Union was formed here and a preacher's training college, known as Calabar College was started in the capital city of Kingston.
By the time I came back to Jamaica mostly all the Baptist churches were pastored by native Jamaicans, though there was still a sprinkling of a few Englishmen.
I must mention here that after abolition of slavery a national Teacher's Training College was opened for the training of school teachers to fill a new demand, as the pastors of all denominations had opened schools for the children of the enslaves. These schools were placed by the Jamaica Government under the management of the pastors of the various churches here, namely, Church of England, Presbyterian, Moravian, Baptist, Methodist, etc.
When Calabar was opened many of the young Schoolmasters became students and as would be expected some segment of the schoolroom was taken along and later transferred to the ministry. Thus a cooling down of the old fervour of the former missionaries began to be evidenced and the spiritual life of the churches gradually waned and evangelical activities gave way to mere sacerdotal and trivial performances.
This left wide openings in the country for camp followers like the Seventh Day Adventists, Russellites, as well as the local Myalists getting the opportunity to spread themselves in the more neglected parts.
When Calabar started sound evangelical teachers were sent from the Baptist Missionary Society to train the pastors; but what was then known as Biblical Criticism, i.e., questioning the soundness of God's Holy Book, was now entered into the English theological Colleges; and the Society, not screening the men sent abroad, left Calabar here open to apostate teaching.
Although some evangelical preaching continued, yet secularism enveloped most of the work in the various places.
Just about the time I came on the scene, or a couple of years after, two Canadians came to Jamaica and joined the Jamaica Baptist Union. They were George Wilfred Smith and John Wesley Knight, both graduates of the Toronto Baptist Seminary. The founder and president of this institution being Dr. T. T. Shields, a live-wire spiritual leader who was denouncing Modernism in Canada. I soon made contact with both of these men and found that they were prepared to stand up without compromise and face the deteriorating Baptist situation here. It was not long after that they left the Union but continued pastoring their churches.
As for my own activities: I had started out here as a evangelist holding meetings in various schoolhouses in the hill country of Westmoreland parish where the Baptist and Moravian pastors were very co-operative. At a place known as New Works, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Monteith invited me to take over a Sunday school they had started and kept going in their buggy house. Soon after we obtained a plot of ground from the New Works property owner, Mr. Hogg, and put up a building and organized and opened a Baptist Church.
At one stage we had been called by the Union people to pastor four small churches in Clarendon were we stayed for a year. There we contracted Malaria and stayed in the Lionel Town hospital for seven days. Our ministry here was quite successful but because of unwarranted pressures from the Union authorities we curtailed our stay with these people. Going back to Westmoreland, we assisted the Rev. A.G. Kirkham in his six churches until in 1933 we received a call from the Nightingale Grove and Hewitt's View churches in St Elizabeth, which we accepted. The Rev. G.W. Smith, already mentioned, had served these churches from1928 to 1930, but had returned with his wife to Canada where he remained for about eight years before returning.
In 1935 I received a call from the Mount Peto Baptist Church to the pastorate there. I took this pastorate on along with the St. Elizabeth work, which entailed at that time traveling across the hills on horseback some thirty miles. For months at a time I was laid up with Lumbago, but by the grace of God, His messenger was able to continue preaching the whole Word of Life.
With the return of Mr. Smith from Canada in 1939, we were obliged to carry out some shifting: I, to take John Knight's place at the Clarksonville church in St. Ann for six months and Wilfred Smith take my place with these churches for the same period. This shift worked out very nicely, for Wilfred had no station at this time and John and his wife, Georgena, needed their furlough.
By this time I had married Edith Dillon and we both went off to Clarksonville where we had a happy time with the people of the churches there - the group of churches being Clarksonville, Enon Town, Mt. Moriah and Tweedside. Our first son, Bill, was born while here. This year, 1990, we had the exceptional privilege of going to Clarksonville to join with the saints there in the celebration of their one hundred and fiftieth founding anniversary.Dr. Adams, head of the Toronto Baptist Seminary was the main speaker. Dear Dr. John Knight, who laboured here for forty-eight years, had gone home to glory from Canada two years ago.
On resuming my responsibilities at Mt. Peto, Wilfred and Dorothy Smith and three sons, brought back from Canada, went to live in St. Elizabeth and the Nightingale Grove and Hewitt's View churches were willing to accept them again in the pastorates there.
Soon after this, the Baptist Union began to put pressure on the Mt. Peto church, wishing to put their own pastor in the work. This is brought out in the paper entitled, "History of Independence Hall Baptist Church", which please see.
Wilfred Smith worked hard in St. Elizabeth, and was able after a while to take under his pastoral care, along with Nightingale Grove and Hewetts View, Cataboo and Thornton churches, and then, after a while, back in Westmoreland, he founded the Mackfield and Bird Mountain Baptist Churches.
He went home on furlough in 1946 and Baptist Mid Missions of Cleveland, U.S.A. who sponsored his missionary work here, sent in his place the Rev. James T. M. Green, who made his home in St. Elizabeth, pastored the four churches there and on Wilfred's return after six months, they both settled on two churches a piece. From there both men opened up new work in various villages; Wilfred founding Mackfield and Bird Mountain and Jim Green founding Spice Grove, Rock Cliffe, and Vineyard in St. Elizabeth, and Windsor Castle in Portland. He also carried on a Sunday School in Kingston, where he lived for a time, which turned out to be the seed-box of the Havenhill Independent Baptist Church, later started by the Rev. Dale Loftis, another Mid Missions missionary.
As the work progressed and as the little fledgling churches called for help, Jack and Doris McKillop, then Kathrine Ulmer, Muriel Davis, Hellen Gardner, Robert and Hazel Clubine joined in the hunt here of precious Jamaican souls.
About this time talks began to be made on the possibility of forming a Fellowship of our independent Baptist churches, but then the Lord took from us our dear brother Wilfred Smith. He went home to heaven in 1969.
Rev. Austin McKenzie, Baptist pastor at Buff Bay in Portland wrote that he was being dispossessed of his churches by the Union and could we help. The matter was in court, so we went and gave statements to his lawyers and also went with him to the court hearing. Through our statements the lawyers settled out of court and brother McKenzie was freed from the Union.
It was after this that we made definite decision to form the fellowship and at Clarksonville the 20th April 1962 the Jamaica Fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches came into being. There were twenty six organized churches which subscribed and their pastors were, A.L. McKenzie, J.W. Knight, Robert Clubine, S.I. Cummings, J.T.M. Green, J.F. Mckillop, A.L. Chambers, Roland Smith, along with delegates from each church. Rev. A.L. McKenzie was appointed the first president and Rev. A.L. Chambers its Secretary. An annual conference was designated to be held for the church members and their friends at separate areas within the country on Ash Wednesday each year. For a number of years these conferences were held with great spiritual success - putting value to spiritual living at the parts of the country they touch.
In January 1963, Rev. Roland Smith, under Baptist Mid Mission, started at McField the Fairview Baptist Bible College, along with Rev. Robert Clubine. It started with six male students and by 1978 they graduated from the Pastor's and Christian Worker's Courses between forty and fifty students. Many of the male graduates became pastors of the newly formed churches and young ladies that had taken the Christian Worker's Course usually found husbands among such pastors. This of course gives a more balanced leadership to what we expect to be a growing power in the land until the Lord takes over in person.
An association was formed among the Fairview graduates who were pastors, but this has not affected their position with the fellowship. What affected the Fellowship, really, was the withdrawal of three member churches when the Fellowship executive carried through some business without the consent of all the local churches, which they consider to be a downright departure from Baptist principles and one of the grounds of the split with the Jamaica Baptist Union. I do not think this breach has been healed up to the present.
It is heartening, however, to be able to note the inflowing of churches, large and small, over the years. The Havenhill church in Kingston and the Hill View church in Montego Bay made outstanding progress in growth and little churches are now nestling in almost all the parishes of Jamaica.
It is important that a note of expression should be entered on the matter of land tenure, that is, legal ownership of the meetinghouses and surrounding lands we would call "church properties”: Churches of the Jamaica Baptist Union, including their college properties and school, were vested under the trusteeship of the English Baptist Missionary Society. But the time came in the 1960's when a bill of incorporation was entered by the J.B.U. , encouraged by the B.M.S. , so that the properties of all Baptist churches already vested with the B.M.S. in Jamaica should fall under the legal ownership and oversight of the J.B.U.
The purpose of the Trust was a good one, devised and made an English law, Known as the Baptist Missionary Society Trust Law of 1874. This at the time gave the fledgling churches started by missionaries the needed protection of their properties, so no greedy individuals or big landed interests could brow-beat them in their convictions or use various whims to confiscate their possessions. But the J.B.U. with its plan of incorporation of church properties sought to widen those powers under a new law (a) to acquire and hold property, (b) to dispose of, alienate and transfer property, (c) to borrow money and charge property, (d) to appoint attorneys and (e) to make rules and bye-laws. Whether or not their intentions were just and holy, made no difference that the individual Baptist church would now lose its Baptistic significance, and only those churches willing to kow-tow to the J.B.U'S artistries could be considered safe.
In the 1929 Constitution of the Jamaica Baptist Union (clause 4) it is stated inter alia, that the Union shall have the power to take action against any minister or church acting injuriously to its interest; and its decisions shall be final.
It was necessary therefore, that the leaders of the Jamaica Fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches move fast to protect its interest. So as soon as this J.B.U. Bill was introduced, they sought the help of a firm of lawyers in Kingston: Millholland, Oppenheim and Stone and got ready a Petition and presented it to the Legislature of Jamaica, opposing the Bill, as it was presented. By the grace of God, the action was successful and the eight churches involved in the issue were taken off the Bill in the year 1969. The J.F.I.B.C. petition was signed by A.L. McKenzie, J.W. Knight, James T.M. Green, S.I. Cummings, and A.L. Chambers.
Over the years there had been some activities which are worthy of expressing: Leaders of the Fellowship were successful in presenting a manifesto to the National Committee of the newly forming national constitution of Jamaica about 1961 on the matter of Religious Freedom. Our definition of this freedom was accepted and this is well laid out in the book, The Jamaica (Constitution) Order in Council 1962, Chapter 3 and Section 21. No other religious group made presentation on this particular subject.
In 1951 an Auxiliary of the Trinitarian Bible Society of London, England, was started and wherein other denominations participated. This was in operation for many years, helping in the support of Bible circulation and putting emphasis on pure translations. It is sad to say that because of the lack of interest of our present pastors this work has severely dwindled.
In June 1969 a Foreign and Home Missionary Council was formed and that work has continued but in a small way.
On the twenty fifth anniversary of the Fellowship a paper was prepared acknowledging the work of those who took part in the founding stages. The paper closed on a significant note: "We can say that our churches and our conference halls have never heard the propagators of an alien message within their walls".
I give as final, a letter The Daily Gleaner published the 4th March, 1969, under my own signature: THE EDITOR, Sir:- Your second editorial in yesterday's Gleaner on Karl Barth has intrigued me. Especially when you wrote 'It is possible that the ecumenical movement spend too much time trying to discover the lowest common denominator of religion instead of seeking the highest common factor of the churches'. I think you have hit the jagged religious nail right on the head.
It is plain, isn't it, that neglect of the Bible has allowed the weedy growth of moral and spiritual barrenness, for which the bulk of our churches are finding no answer, in spite of multiplied confederations.
When the frightened, tired mind turns to John's narrative of the life of Christ and reviews again the Jesus-Nicodemus dialogue he can forget for the moment his "findings of science", as Nicodemus did, and face a basic principle in living, "Ye must be born again', or, born from above. In other words, it is essential in opening a relationship with God to base that relationship upon God's own terms - an inner birth brought in by God Himself.
The inaugural launching of the Church, the epistles of Peter and Paul and the long struggle of the believers in cracking the walls of heathenism and idolatry have all attested to the power this great common factor. How pathetic that this is now being brushed aside!
Sam Cummings
Mt. Peto, Jamaica
21st September, 1990
The following year I started the Bible College course at the Philadelphia School of the Bible and graduated in 1924.
I returned to Jamaica in 1926 and introduced myself to the Baptist Community here.
The Baptist had started missionary work here among the slaves who were brought over from Africa and forced to work on the sugar plantations in the same way as the Jews had to do in Egypt long ago to burn bricks for their buildings.
Baptist and Methodist missionaries from England came and preached to the slaves much to the disgust and opposition of the English planters, many of whom were advocates of the Church of England, whose principles never stood in the way of forcing the "heathen" to work in the hot sun from early morning to late at night, with poor food and lodging and under most brutal treatment.
There was great success to the preaching of these missionaries and little churches were formed all over the Island.
Slavery was abolished in 1838 and with the help of the English Baptist Missionary Society a Baptist Union was formed here and a preacher's training college, known as Calabar College was started in the capital city of Kingston.
By the time I came back to Jamaica mostly all the Baptist churches were pastored by native Jamaicans, though there was still a sprinkling of a few Englishmen.
I must mention here that after abolition of slavery a national Teacher's Training College was opened for the training of school teachers to fill a new demand, as the pastors of all denominations had opened schools for the children of the enslaves. These schools were placed by the Jamaica Government under the management of the pastors of the various churches here, namely, Church of England, Presbyterian, Moravian, Baptist, Methodist, etc.
When Calabar was opened many of the young Schoolmasters became students and as would be expected some segment of the schoolroom was taken along and later transferred to the ministry. Thus a cooling down of the old fervour of the former missionaries began to be evidenced and the spiritual life of the churches gradually waned and evangelical activities gave way to mere sacerdotal and trivial performances.
This left wide openings in the country for camp followers like the Seventh Day Adventists, Russellites, as well as the local Myalists getting the opportunity to spread themselves in the more neglected parts.
When Calabar started sound evangelical teachers were sent from the Baptist Missionary Society to train the pastors; but what was then known as Biblical Criticism, i.e., questioning the soundness of God's Holy Book, was now entered into the English theological Colleges; and the Society, not screening the men sent abroad, left Calabar here open to apostate teaching.
Although some evangelical preaching continued, yet secularism enveloped most of the work in the various places.
Just about the time I came on the scene, or a couple of years after, two Canadians came to Jamaica and joined the Jamaica Baptist Union. They were George Wilfred Smith and John Wesley Knight, both graduates of the Toronto Baptist Seminary. The founder and president of this institution being Dr. T. T. Shields, a live-wire spiritual leader who was denouncing Modernism in Canada. I soon made contact with both of these men and found that they were prepared to stand up without compromise and face the deteriorating Baptist situation here. It was not long after that they left the Union but continued pastoring their churches.
As for my own activities: I had started out here as a evangelist holding meetings in various schoolhouses in the hill country of Westmoreland parish where the Baptist and Moravian pastors were very co-operative. At a place known as New Works, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Monteith invited me to take over a Sunday school they had started and kept going in their buggy house. Soon after we obtained a plot of ground from the New Works property owner, Mr. Hogg, and put up a building and organized and opened a Baptist Church.
At one stage we had been called by the Union people to pastor four small churches in Clarendon were we stayed for a year. There we contracted Malaria and stayed in the Lionel Town hospital for seven days. Our ministry here was quite successful but because of unwarranted pressures from the Union authorities we curtailed our stay with these people. Going back to Westmoreland, we assisted the Rev. A.G. Kirkham in his six churches until in 1933 we received a call from the Nightingale Grove and Hewitt's View churches in St Elizabeth, which we accepted. The Rev. G.W. Smith, already mentioned, had served these churches from1928 to 1930, but had returned with his wife to Canada where he remained for about eight years before returning.
In 1935 I received a call from the Mount Peto Baptist Church to the pastorate there. I took this pastorate on along with the St. Elizabeth work, which entailed at that time traveling across the hills on horseback some thirty miles. For months at a time I was laid up with Lumbago, but by the grace of God, His messenger was able to continue preaching the whole Word of Life.
With the return of Mr. Smith from Canada in 1939, we were obliged to carry out some shifting: I, to take John Knight's place at the Clarksonville church in St. Ann for six months and Wilfred Smith take my place with these churches for the same period. This shift worked out very nicely, for Wilfred had no station at this time and John and his wife, Georgena, needed their furlough.
By this time I had married Edith Dillon and we both went off to Clarksonville where we had a happy time with the people of the churches there - the group of churches being Clarksonville, Enon Town, Mt. Moriah and Tweedside. Our first son, Bill, was born while here. This year, 1990, we had the exceptional privilege of going to Clarksonville to join with the saints there in the celebration of their one hundred and fiftieth founding anniversary.Dr. Adams, head of the Toronto Baptist Seminary was the main speaker. Dear Dr. John Knight, who laboured here for forty-eight years, had gone home to glory from Canada two years ago.
On resuming my responsibilities at Mt. Peto, Wilfred and Dorothy Smith and three sons, brought back from Canada, went to live in St. Elizabeth and the Nightingale Grove and Hewitt's View churches were willing to accept them again in the pastorates there.
Soon after this, the Baptist Union began to put pressure on the Mt. Peto church, wishing to put their own pastor in the work. This is brought out in the paper entitled, "History of Independence Hall Baptist Church", which please see.
Wilfred Smith worked hard in St. Elizabeth, and was able after a while to take under his pastoral care, along with Nightingale Grove and Hewetts View, Cataboo and Thornton churches, and then, after a while, back in Westmoreland, he founded the Mackfield and Bird Mountain Baptist Churches.
He went home on furlough in 1946 and Baptist Mid Missions of Cleveland, U.S.A. who sponsored his missionary work here, sent in his place the Rev. James T. M. Green, who made his home in St. Elizabeth, pastored the four churches there and on Wilfred's return after six months, they both settled on two churches a piece. From there both men opened up new work in various villages; Wilfred founding Mackfield and Bird Mountain and Jim Green founding Spice Grove, Rock Cliffe, and Vineyard in St. Elizabeth, and Windsor Castle in Portland. He also carried on a Sunday School in Kingston, where he lived for a time, which turned out to be the seed-box of the Havenhill Independent Baptist Church, later started by the Rev. Dale Loftis, another Mid Missions missionary.
As the work progressed and as the little fledgling churches called for help, Jack and Doris McKillop, then Kathrine Ulmer, Muriel Davis, Hellen Gardner, Robert and Hazel Clubine joined in the hunt here of precious Jamaican souls.
About this time talks began to be made on the possibility of forming a Fellowship of our independent Baptist churches, but then the Lord took from us our dear brother Wilfred Smith. He went home to heaven in 1969.
Rev. Austin McKenzie, Baptist pastor at Buff Bay in Portland wrote that he was being dispossessed of his churches by the Union and could we help. The matter was in court, so we went and gave statements to his lawyers and also went with him to the court hearing. Through our statements the lawyers settled out of court and brother McKenzie was freed from the Union.
It was after this that we made definite decision to form the fellowship and at Clarksonville the 20th April 1962 the Jamaica Fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches came into being. There were twenty six organized churches which subscribed and their pastors were, A.L. McKenzie, J.W. Knight, Robert Clubine, S.I. Cummings, J.T.M. Green, J.F. Mckillop, A.L. Chambers, Roland Smith, along with delegates from each church. Rev. A.L. McKenzie was appointed the first president and Rev. A.L. Chambers its Secretary. An annual conference was designated to be held for the church members and their friends at separate areas within the country on Ash Wednesday each year. For a number of years these conferences were held with great spiritual success - putting value to spiritual living at the parts of the country they touch.
In January 1963, Rev. Roland Smith, under Baptist Mid Mission, started at McField the Fairview Baptist Bible College, along with Rev. Robert Clubine. It started with six male students and by 1978 they graduated from the Pastor's and Christian Worker's Courses between forty and fifty students. Many of the male graduates became pastors of the newly formed churches and young ladies that had taken the Christian Worker's Course usually found husbands among such pastors. This of course gives a more balanced leadership to what we expect to be a growing power in the land until the Lord takes over in person.
An association was formed among the Fairview graduates who were pastors, but this has not affected their position with the fellowship. What affected the Fellowship, really, was the withdrawal of three member churches when the Fellowship executive carried through some business without the consent of all the local churches, which they consider to be a downright departure from Baptist principles and one of the grounds of the split with the Jamaica Baptist Union. I do not think this breach has been healed up to the present.
It is heartening, however, to be able to note the inflowing of churches, large and small, over the years. The Havenhill church in Kingston and the Hill View church in Montego Bay made outstanding progress in growth and little churches are now nestling in almost all the parishes of Jamaica.
It is important that a note of expression should be entered on the matter of land tenure, that is, legal ownership of the meetinghouses and surrounding lands we would call "church properties”: Churches of the Jamaica Baptist Union, including their college properties and school, were vested under the trusteeship of the English Baptist Missionary Society. But the time came in the 1960's when a bill of incorporation was entered by the J.B.U. , encouraged by the B.M.S. , so that the properties of all Baptist churches already vested with the B.M.S. in Jamaica should fall under the legal ownership and oversight of the J.B.U.
The purpose of the Trust was a good one, devised and made an English law, Known as the Baptist Missionary Society Trust Law of 1874. This at the time gave the fledgling churches started by missionaries the needed protection of their properties, so no greedy individuals or big landed interests could brow-beat them in their convictions or use various whims to confiscate their possessions. But the J.B.U. with its plan of incorporation of church properties sought to widen those powers under a new law (a) to acquire and hold property, (b) to dispose of, alienate and transfer property, (c) to borrow money and charge property, (d) to appoint attorneys and (e) to make rules and bye-laws. Whether or not their intentions were just and holy, made no difference that the individual Baptist church would now lose its Baptistic significance, and only those churches willing to kow-tow to the J.B.U'S artistries could be considered safe.
In the 1929 Constitution of the Jamaica Baptist Union (clause 4) it is stated inter alia, that the Union shall have the power to take action against any minister or church acting injuriously to its interest; and its decisions shall be final.
It was necessary therefore, that the leaders of the Jamaica Fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches move fast to protect its interest. So as soon as this J.B.U. Bill was introduced, they sought the help of a firm of lawyers in Kingston: Millholland, Oppenheim and Stone and got ready a Petition and presented it to the Legislature of Jamaica, opposing the Bill, as it was presented. By the grace of God, the action was successful and the eight churches involved in the issue were taken off the Bill in the year 1969. The J.F.I.B.C. petition was signed by A.L. McKenzie, J.W. Knight, James T.M. Green, S.I. Cummings, and A.L. Chambers.
Over the years there had been some activities which are worthy of expressing: Leaders of the Fellowship were successful in presenting a manifesto to the National Committee of the newly forming national constitution of Jamaica about 1961 on the matter of Religious Freedom. Our definition of this freedom was accepted and this is well laid out in the book, The Jamaica (Constitution) Order in Council 1962, Chapter 3 and Section 21. No other religious group made presentation on this particular subject.
In 1951 an Auxiliary of the Trinitarian Bible Society of London, England, was started and wherein other denominations participated. This was in operation for many years, helping in the support of Bible circulation and putting emphasis on pure translations. It is sad to say that because of the lack of interest of our present pastors this work has severely dwindled.
In June 1969 a Foreign and Home Missionary Council was formed and that work has continued but in a small way.
On the twenty fifth anniversary of the Fellowship a paper was prepared acknowledging the work of those who took part in the founding stages. The paper closed on a significant note: "We can say that our churches and our conference halls have never heard the propagators of an alien message within their walls".
I give as final, a letter The Daily Gleaner published the 4th March, 1969, under my own signature: THE EDITOR, Sir:- Your second editorial in yesterday's Gleaner on Karl Barth has intrigued me. Especially when you wrote 'It is possible that the ecumenical movement spend too much time trying to discover the lowest common denominator of religion instead of seeking the highest common factor of the churches'. I think you have hit the jagged religious nail right on the head.
It is plain, isn't it, that neglect of the Bible has allowed the weedy growth of moral and spiritual barrenness, for which the bulk of our churches are finding no answer, in spite of multiplied confederations.
When the frightened, tired mind turns to John's narrative of the life of Christ and reviews again the Jesus-Nicodemus dialogue he can forget for the moment his "findings of science", as Nicodemus did, and face a basic principle in living, "Ye must be born again', or, born from above. In other words, it is essential in opening a relationship with God to base that relationship upon God's own terms - an inner birth brought in by God Himself.
The inaugural launching of the Church, the epistles of Peter and Paul and the long struggle of the believers in cracking the walls of heathenism and idolatry have all attested to the power this great common factor. How pathetic that this is now being brushed aside!
Sam Cummings
Mt. Peto, Jamaica
21st September, 1990