Joslyn Carter Henry : Profile in Courage

Springfield Baptist Church

Born in Buckingham, St James, Joslyn James Carter-Henry received his early Christian formation at the Mt. Peto Baptist Church in Hanover. His parents, who were fervent Christians, were on staff at the Elementary School in the community.

Rev. John Jair of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church officiated at Carter-Henry’s infant dedication and, after his confession of faith, Carter-Henry’s baptism at the Sutcliffe Mount Baptist Church was administered on Good Friday 1932 by Rev. Arthur Kirkham, long-serving General Baptist Missionary Society agent in Jamaica. 

Carter-Henry attended the school his father headed. He was a gifted student and, while still very young, he was successful in Teacher’s Training College Examinations as an external student.

Carter-Henry answered the call to the Christian ministry in 1934, but his entry into Calabar College was delayed because, at that time, the institution remained temporarily closed owing to the Price impasse a Calabar. While waiting to start his formal ministerial training, Carter-Henry was tutored in Latin and New Testament Greek by the Rev. Glaister Knight in Montego Bay. He also served in the churches and gained much practical experience that helped prepare him for future ministry.

In 1937, Carter-Henry finally entered Calabar College, under its new principal, Dr Gurnos King, who had been commissioned to Jamaica by the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) of London. The new student had a brilliant college career. He excelled in Greek, Theology and Church History and played violin in the College Orchestra.

While he was at Calabar, Red Hills, Cypress Hall and Sunning Hill Baptist Churches benefited from Carter-Henry’s service as Student Pastor. In 1941, after completing the Calabar course of study, he was ordained at the Springfield Baptist Church. After accepting a call to serve in the Second Baptist Church, Spanish Town and its associated churches in Sligoville, Old Harbour Bay and Kitson, he settled in the town and commenced ordained ministry. He needed a partner and Brown's Town Baptist Church provided him with one – This church has provided several JBU ministers with their life’s partner.

J J Carter Henry

Brown’s Town has provided several JBU ministers with their life’s partner. In 1942, the new pastor of the Spanish Town circuit of churches was married to Pearle Millicent Forde, a teacher from Brown’s Town. The union produced two daughters, one of whom is the musician, Grace Carter-Henry Lyons, the founder and director of the Heritage Singers, Canada. The group’s mandate is “to promote the development of Caribbean folk music and theatre to the greater community.”

Carter Henry agreed to offer assistance to the First Baptist Church owing to the ongoing ill health faced by their pastor, Rev Hugh Gillette Chambers. In 1947, when Gillette Chambers resigned the pastorate of First Baptist Church in Spanish Town, and it seemed opportune that the two Baptist churches in Spanish Town should unite. Such a move had been contemplated over several years. Carter-Henry became the first pastor of the united Spanish Town Baptist Church, which later was renamed Phillippo Baptist Church. 

Several churches were added to the Spanish Town circuit during the period when Carter-Henry had pastoral responsibility there. Meanwhile, the minister served faithfully as a chaplain at the St. Catherine District Prison, chaplain of the Boys’ Brigade, a Justice of the Peace, and manager of several schools in the parish of St. Catherine.

J. J. Carter Henry

Carter-Henry was an outstanding evangelist, a hard-working and devoted pastor and he extended his sphere of service to include several additional Baptist churches including Yallahs. Former Jamaican Prime Minister, P. J. Patterson, who resided in the Carter-Henry household for several years, has spoken, with gratitude, of his time travelling with his uncle as he embarked on the journey to serve his many churches across St Catherine, Clarendon and St Thomas. Writing in the Jamaica Baptist Reporter, Rev. T. J. Gallimore of the Warsop Circuit of Baptist Churches described Carter-Henry as “an outstanding evangelist, a forceful preacher … and a hard-working and devoted pastor spending all his time in the service of the churches and the community.” He added that the pastor was “strong-willed and undaunted and tackled all his many hard tasks with courage and determination.

Rev J. J. Carter Henry’s ministry in the Spanish Town circuit came to an end in on August 23, 1969 when he died. His remains were interred in the Spanish Town church yard.