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| Free Town Baptist Church |
Horace
Orlando Russell (1929-2021)
For the first time in this blog, I include the obituary produced shortly after the death of the featured person. I add a few brief paragraphs to the account of a life lived in service to God.
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“Horace Orlando Russell was born on November 3rd, 1929. First child of Cleveland Augustus Russell a Baptist minister, and Rowena Nerissa, nèe Gordon an elementary school teacher, Horace was born in the Baptist Manse at Free Town, in the parish of Clarendon, Jamaica. His birthplace, the Baptist Manse and his place of birth, “Free Town” would come to define Horace O. Russell as: an international Baptist theologian and an ecumenist; a Church historian and a pioneer in the study of Caribbean church history; a Professor, Dean, and college President; Pastor of two historical churches, in Jamaica and Bryn Mawr, PA respectively; a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ; an advocate for the spiritually and materially dispossessed and disenfranchised, and a dedicated and committed husband, father, grandfather, son, brother, uncle, mentor and friend.
Horace secured a place at the Calabar High School, which had been founded by the Baptist Missionary Society in 1912 specifically to address the lack of access to high quality education for many of Jamaica’s sons of African descent, particularly those with deep Baptist roots.
After enrolling at Calabar in 1942, he would quickly distinguish himself as a budding and disciplined scholar earning the endearing nickname which would follow him through his life of “Sargie.” At the urging of classmates, Horace tried out for the track team in the middle distance events and emerged as a legendary athlete, helping to lead the Calabar in 1946 to a one point victory over Jamaica College when he pulled down the straightaway at Sabina Park to win the mile. Little did he know then that he would return some 12 years later to his beloved alma mater after graduating from the prestigious Regents Park College of Oxford University with a Master of Arts degree in Theology which he completed with Honors.
Appointed as Calabar’s first Chaplain, with additional responsibilities for teaching Religious Knowledge, English, Mathematics, Spanish and Latin in the High School and Greek and New Testament in the associated Theological Colleges, Horace O. Russell was the first Jamaican of African descent to be named to the faculty of the Calabar Theological College. Indeed, he was the actualization of the promise imagined by the school’s founders some forty years earlier.
By 1954, he had earned the Bachelor of Divinity from London University while still a theological student in Jamaica, after which he gained the aforementioned admission to Oxford University to pursue graduate studies. It was while in England that Horace met Beryl Joyce Redman, the Youth Leader at the West Ham Central Mission, a Baptist outreach to a depressed area of East London. During some vacation periods he volunteered at the Mission and while working side by side he fell in love with his future wife and life’s partner of 63 years. Upon completion of his studies they married on August 31st, 1957 and set sail for Jamaica arriving in January 1958.
Dr Horace & Mrs. Beryl Russell
Always committed to the charge of his alma mater to embody the “utmost for the highest,” Horace, in addition to working at the vanguard of theological education, was involved in teacher training at the Shortwood Teacher’s College, where he helped design the National Syllabus for Religious Education. He also served as general secretary of the Student Christian Movement and despite the defeat of the West Indies Federation during this time, Horace was a quintessential regionalist helping to establish branches of the SCM in Haiti, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
When, in 1966 the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) was formed by ten cooperating denominations from the leading theological institutions in the Caribbean, it seemed only logical that he would play a foundational and active institutional role in its creation by helping to write its constitution which preserved the theological integrity of each denomination while integrating it into the life of the adjacent University of the West Indies. During his tenure with UTCWI (1966-1976) he took leave in 1970 to pursue and indeed attain the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University, one of the few “men of color” to do so; he completed his dissertation on West Indian missionary outreach to West Africa in 1972. It was while he was completing his PhD at Oxford that Horace and Beryl welcomed their last child, Heather Dawn-Marie. Upon his return to Jamaica in 1972, Dr. Horace Orlando Russell became the first West Indian of African descent to be appointed President of the United Theological College of the West Indies. Here he would concretize his role as a pioneer in Caribbean theological and ecumenical thought and practice.
At the core of his mission was his passionate belief that he had a responsibility for the upliftment and betterment of people. How best to reach the Jamaican masses in a moment of critical nation-building? Through what mechanisms might he have the greatest impact on the greatest number? To this end, Horace made significant contributions to Jamaica through religious broadcasting in both radio and television. A former vice president of the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU), Horace Russell helped pioneer gospel broadcast in Jamaica as producer of religious programing and broadcaster of religious programs with Radio Jamaica. He hosted the popular “Tell me Pastor” and he was instrumental in the creation of the radio program “Christ for Today” in 1964, and which remains, 50 years later, one of the most popular religious radio programs in Jamaica.
The pull of academia to teach and of the pastorate to preach have been for the Rev. Dr. Horace Russell, equally compelling. His life in the Caribbean and in the USA is testimony. In 1976, at the height of the burgeoning political unrest in Jamaica, Horace responded to the call to enter the full-time pastorate at the historic East Queen Street Baptist Church in downtown Kingston, Jamaica. These were eventful years especially given the church’s location in one of the hotbeds of politically motivated violence. At the same time, East Queen Street Baptist church had deep historical roots in the anti-slavery and anti-colonial movements having been established by the freed African American slave, George Liele in 1783. As a church historian, Rev. Russell understood the activist history of the congregation and himself believed that the Church had a critical spiritual role to play in addressing deep structural inequities of class, education, and access. With his vision for ministry to the whole person, during his 13-year tenure there, he initiated many new outreach programs, which catered to the wider community. These included introducing and expanding educational programs and establishing a free medical and dental clinic, which provided much needed medical care to those in need, but was also an important symbol of the role he believed the Church should play in the society at large.
The years between 1976-1989, while serving as Minister at East Queen Street, were dedicated to a wide-range of public service both national and international. On the national front, Rev. Russell helped organize and establish the Edgewater, Waterford and Delacree Road Baptist Churches and he was instrumental in establishing the Benevolent Fund used to give aid to the needy and the J. A. Leo-Rhynie Scholarship Fund to help students with tertiary level education. During this time Dr. Russell also served several public bodies in Jamaica, including chairing the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, serving on the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, the Public Service Commission, and the Committee for Government Administrative Reform. It was during this period that his first grandchild, Lisa Kamille Soares was born.
Always a subscribed member of the global village before such a concept was even coined, Horace Russell remained a trailblazing international ecumenical figure serving on the Standing Committee of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (1968-1990) and as its Vice-Moderator (1984-1990), as well as the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). During the Baptist World Alliance’s (BWA) annual gathering in Izmir, Turkey in 2014, Horace Russell was recognized as Outstanding Church Historian. His lifelong involvement with the BWA first began in 1955 at the Jubilee Congress in London; through the years he served on several BWA commissions including the Commission on Baptist Heritage and Identity, the Commission on Baptists against Racism and the Academic and Theological Education Workgroup. In the BWA tribute to him both in Turkey and more recently posthumously, they describe the Rev. Dr. Horace O. Russell “as one who bears the brunt of being first in many things…esteemed as the foremost church historian in the English-speaking Caribbean.”
After serving East Queen Street for 13 years and in keeping with the call to preach and teach, after fourteen years of pastoral service, in 1990 Horace responded to an invitation from the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, (now Palmer Seminary,) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to join their faculty. It was a difficult decision to physically leave his beloved Jamaica, though he would never fully leave the place of his birth psychologically or spiritually. He joined Beryl, who had been living in New Jersey with their daughter Heather, who had migrated a few years before to attend school. Together he and Beryl moved to Philadelphia which would remain home and where he would continue and expand his theological and ecumenical mission.
At this time, Eastern was undergoing organizational transformations and once again Horace would play a pivotal role in shaping the institutional theological mission. Under the newly appointed President Manfred Brauch with whom a deep collegial relationship preceded Horace’s tenure, he was installed as Dean of Chapel and Professor of Historical Theology on November 30, 1990. The role of Dean of Chapel is one that Horace had conceived in keeping with his belief that the seminary should provide both academic rigor and pastoral care training- synergies he himself embodied. Over the next twelve years surrounded by a loving seminary community that was multilingual, multiethnic, and ecumenical, Rev. Dr. Horace Russell worked to help deepen and broaden institutional ties to the wider denominational and ecumenical communities through participation in the programs of Philadelphia Ministerial Alliances, the ABCUSA and the Philadelphia Baptist Association, and the Philadelphia Council of Churches.
While at Eastern his love for the pastorate was rekindled and in 1992 he became the Interim Pastor of the historic Saints Memorial Baptist Church in Bryn Mawr (1901) and was later called as Senior Pastor in February 1997. That this Baptist minister would begin his life in Free Town, a free village during slavery, be called to service at Calabar, a school whose name originates from the Nigerian Kingdom, believed to be the cradle of civilization, and would celebrate his ministerial golden anniversary in 2008 at a church named Saints is surely no mere symbolism.
During his nearly twenty-year ministry with Saints, Rev. Russell would be guided by the church’s deep spirituality grounded in a proud black history and tradition rooted in the Black Migration, and Philadelphia’s Quaker origins. As Pastor, Rev. Russell, as he had done at Eastern, worked to deepen institutional synergies with Eastern Seminary, the PBA, the Mainline Black Ministers’ Association, and the Philadelphia Council of Churches. During his pastorate he spearheaded several initiatives, including the creation of two important auxiliary ministries, the Lystra Club, which provides counseling and grief support and the Hagar Ministry to help victims and survivors navigate the difficulties of domestic violence. These years would also bear witness to the ascendancy of many women congregants to critical leadership roles. His years with Saints Memorial would undoubtedly be some of his most memorable.
It was also during this time that his grandchildren Julian Ambrose McKenzie (1993), Rachel Allison Andrade (1996), Ashley Camille Russell (1999), Justin Nathan Russell (2003) and later Yohan Frederic Russell (2019) joined Lisa Kamille Soares (1984), who along with his three children are to him, his “greatest gifts.”
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| Dr Horace Russell |
A prolific writer, some stemming from his own groundbreaking work in Caribbean church history, as well as in theology, mission, and ecumenism, Dr. Horace Russell is author of several books such as The Missionary Outreach of the West Indian Church, Foundations and Anticipations: The Jamaica Baptist story: 1783-1892 and The Baptist Witness: A Concise Baptist History. When he retired in 2010 from the pastorate he completed and published three additional books and has since written numerous articles. His currently unpublished autobiography, “A Jamaican Life: An Autobiography Horace’s Story for his Children and Grandchildren” is his last written gift to the world. He put the finishing touches on it a few months before his death, at his desk at Simpson House, Philadelphia, a Methodist Senior Residence and community, to which he and Beryl moved three years ago, and where he remained until the time of his passing.
Dr. Russell holds professional status with the American Society of Church History and the American Baptist Historical Society, the Society for the Study of Black Religion, the Marcus Garvey Foundation and the World Association for Christian Communication. He has held lectureships and consultancies with, among others, Cambridge University in England, Andover-Newton Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, Michigan State University and the National Council of Churches USA. In 1992, he preached at Westminster Abbey in the United Kingdom at the Bicentenary celebrations of the Baptist Missionary Society.
The recipient of numerous awards throughout his lifetime, in 2008, the Rev. Dr. Horace Russell, was received the Jamaican National Honours’ Order of Distinction, Commander class, for services to religion and education in Jamaica and abroad.
An
outstanding Church Historian, Ecumenical leader and one who has been associated
with the world’s greatest Christian/Religious leaders and thinkers, Horace
Russell has always maintained a simple but profound understanding of the
Christian faith and a love of his homeland. He has been a beloved mentor and
friend to hundreds of young people and a wise counselor and beloved Pastor. He
is a man who measured his life’s work not in the accolades he has been given
but quite simply by the love he gave to his family, the love shared with his
people, the doors he was able to open for others, the guidance and
encouragement he gave to all he met in daily life, and most importantly the
measure of his obedience to the God who called him into ministry to do great
works.
As he writes in the final lines of his memoir: “God has taken me a long way since my birth and God still leads on. The Scriptures tell us, and I believe it that, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard what God has in store for us.” There is by God’s grace always a sunrise after a sunset.”
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In 1982, Russell
was in Lima, Peru, with the other members of the World Council of Churches’ Faith
and Order Commission when the historic text Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry
was finalized. The text bears the marks of Russell’s own contribution.
I once compiled a lengthy bibliography of Russell’s published literary corpus – books, chapters included in edited works, journal articles, articles in encyclopedias, book reviews, etc. –published in English, French, Spanish and German. Two noteworthy books not included in the obituary are: Much To live On: The Life of Terrence Haddon Duncanson 1886-1969, Missionary to Panama, 2011 and Samuel Sharpe and the Meaning of Freedom, 2012.
Wonderfully unselfish, Russell had a remarkable ability to see intellectual potential in young people and was liberal in encouraging and facilitating their pursuit of further studies.
When he died, many of his former students lost a valued mentor and exemplar.
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