Eleazer McLaughlin
Mamby Park Baptist Church
Eleazer Ezekiel McLaughlin was
born in Salter’s Hill, St James, in June 1888. He grew up in Montego Bay where
he attended school and became a member of Burchell Baptist
Church, where he accepted the invitation to follow Christ. Burchell’s pastor, Rev
H. L. Webster, helped to influence him to enter the Christian ministry.
After training for ministry at Calabar Theological College, he offered many years of devoted service as a minister, starting at Mt Charles Baptist Chrich in St Andrew. In 1928, he succeeded Rev David Davis as pastor of the Mamby Park and Ebenezer Baptist Church at Lawrence Tavern. He commenced serving at Barbican Baptist Church in August, 1926.
Most of his years in the ministry were spent at the six churches in what became a large circuit of churches: Mt. Charles, Mamby Park, Ebenezer in Lawrence Tavern, Union Hill, Barbican, and Cypress Hall. The circuit emerged over time as the pastor made himself available for still more sacrificial labours over a wide geographical space.
Within the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU), McLaughlin was for several years a county councillor and an examiner of the JBU Sunday School Society. In the wider church community, he was once president of the Jamaica Christian Endeavour Union and twice Chairman of the Jamaica Christian Endeavour Union Good Citizenship Society. He was also president of the Jamaica Permanent Development Convention.
McLaughlin was a devoted community builder. He served for seven years as a trustee of the Wolmer' s High School and for eighteen years as a member of the St. Andrew School Board and manager of the Government School. He was for several years a member of the British Empire Club and the British Empire Permanent Exhibition. He was also president of the Jamaica Permanent Development Convention.
McLaughlin was a Councillor in the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) for more than 16 years, starting in 1923. For seven years, he was alderman. He worked alongside such famous Jamaicans as KSAC mayor Dr Oswald Anderson, who was one of the founders of the JBU Brotherhood. McLaughlin was once captain of the St Andrew Cricket Club, which he formed.
On two occasions – McLaughlin’s 16th and 21st years of service in his circuit – the churches celebrated their pastor’s ministry. Church representatives made speeches that offer an impression of the pastor’s service. This is what they said:
As our
spiritual leader, you have given us of your best always. Your messages have
always been very edifying, stimulating and encouraging.
In every
department of the Church's activities, you have taken a keen personal interest
and as a result of your wise and experienced leadership, you have surmounted
many difficulties and accomplished remarkable achievements in spite of fearful
odds.
By your
zealous conscientious labours, many souls have been brought to the Church and
won to God. The poor have been befriended and helped and as a champion of the
people' s right, you stand second to none.
We cannot forget that,
during your ministry, our buildings have been remodelled, enlarged and
renovated. The spirit and tone of our worship have been very inspiring and
uplifting.
Under your personal
supervision, the standard of the efficiency of our choir and Sunday School has
been greatly improved.
In every department of the Church's
activities, you have taken a keen personal interest and as a result of your
wise and experienced leadership, you have surmounted many difficulties and
accomplished remarkable achievements in spite of fearful odds.
In every department of
the Church's activities, you have taken a keen personal interest and as a
result of your wise and experienced leadership, you have surmounted many
difficulties and accomplished remarkable achievements in spite of fearful odds.
The described their minister as “pastor, teacher and builder, musician, educationalist, politician, legal adviser, and sportsman” and thanked him for his “cheerful words, sweet and tender voice and sympathetic action” when they faced challenges and said that their pastor had “never failed to inspire hope and comfort, courage and joy.” Through his “edifying and soul searching sermons and Bible addresses,” the churches said, “many souls [had[ been saved and brought to the Master’s kingdom.” His “sympathy for the poor, the sick and the distressed” would win for him “a gem in [his] expected crown.”
The churches also praised McLaughlin’s contribution as a politician and public figure, whom they respected on several counts: The referred to his:
sense of altruistic
public service, your progressive political and social ideas, your extraordinary
foresight, sagacity, and courage have not failed to impress us. Your interest
in Agriculture, Public Health, Education, Markets, Water Supply, etc., etc., is
well known to us. The implementation of a Hookworm and Yaws Campaign in Rural
St. Andrew is the result of your effort…. Two new Government schools—Lawrence
Tavern and Stony Hill are sufficient evidences of your work and worth.
As
a member of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation, McLaughlin was an advocate
for rights of Black Jamaican. In 1933, when the governor refused to appoint the
African Jamaican C. A. Adams for the
post of assistant water engineer in the corporate area on the grounds that he
lacked experience, McLaughlin was among the few who firmly opposed this
decision as being based on colour prejudice. McLaughlin advocated for the human
rights of Black Jamaicans to be respected.
Mr.
C. S. Codling, in paying tribute to McLaughlin, described the honouree as “a busybody”
for communal good. He said he was in agreement with McLaughlin that religion
embraced life in its entirety. Codling said that Laughlin must have, from his
inception, been cherishing broad sympathies for his people, and innately desired
to do his best for the community.”
To Rev F. Cowell Lloyd, pastor of East Queen Street Baptist Church, McLaughlin was “a champion willing to fight any battle his heart called him to and not afraid to be in the minority.” In the Jamaica Baptist Reporter, another of his colleagues described McLaughlin as “a hard worker with an indomitable courage and persevering spirit. [He was] “in every sense a public-spirited man and a patriot … [who is] keen on social service work and deeply interested in education and in everything that tends to the uplift of his people and the making of a better Jamaica.”
No comments:
Post a Comment