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Enid Joyce Phillips was an outstanding Jamaica Baptist layperson whose contribution to JBU’s development deserves to be known and celebrated. She was born in Kingston to Kent Newton and Nina Maud Phillips.
Her father was the Principal of the Calabar All-Age School, then Assistant School Inspector and then Pastor of the Point Hill Circuit of Baptist Churches. He was, like several others in the Phillips family, except Kent Phillips’ wife who was an Anglican, a loyal member of the East Queen Street Baptist Church. A regular participant in JBU’s Spiritual Rearmament Conference, when the Conference venue was Calabar College in Kingston, Miss Phillips became the Secretary of the Young People's department of the Jamaica Baptist Union,
Miss Phillips was a musician with the Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music, (LRSM), London. She once operated the Kenina Preparatory School but closed it in 1938 to concentrate on working in her music studio, which attracted many students, who, from time to time, put on concerts to show off their prowess in several church venues in Kingston that were associated with different denominations.
A committed Baptist woman, she was an active member of the Jamaica Baptist Women’s Federation (JBWF) and its national leadership. In 1949, she was the only, though not the first, female member of the JBU Executive Committee. The honour of being the first female member of that Committee belongs to Louise Nash who, like Phillips, was a musician, and was elected to the body when the JBU Assembly met in Brown’s Town in 1946. Miss Phillips was re-elected to the Executive Committee in 1952, at which time she also served as Secretary of the JBU youth organization.
In 1950, Miss Phillips and Rev. Ivan Parsons, on behalf of the JBU, attended the Eighth Baptist World Congress that took place in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. A few years after Phillips’ first experience at a BWA Congress, Winnifred Leo-Rhynie, the wife of Rev Joscelyn A. Leo-Rhynie, helped establish links between the Jamaica Baptist Women’s Federation (JBWF) and the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Women’s Department in the 1950s. Mrs Leo-Rhynie and her husband attended the BWA Golden Jubilee Congress in London in 1955 – at which Mrs Leo-Rhynie participated in the first meeting of BWA Women’s Department, which had earlier operated as a committee associated with BWA. The Pre-Congress Women’s meetings provided much inspiration for the women, who listened to reports on work by Baptist women’s groups in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa and the fledgling Asia-Pacific region. Mrs. Leo-Rhynie returned to Jamaica motivated to help build up JBWF.
In 1952, Enid Phillips won the Irwine Scholarship that was awarded annually to overseas candidates belonging to the Methodist, Presbyterian or Baptist churches. This enabled her to undertake a one-year course in women's church work at Setty Oak, Birmingham, England.
Selly Oak was a federation of colleges and was renowned for its
heritage in ecumenism, interfaith studies, training in Christian mission
theology and mission training for women. Phillips was attached to the Selly
Oak’s Carey Hall Missionary Training College for Women that had been created in
1912 to train women for mission. This College was sponsored by the evangelical and interdenominational London
Missionary Society and the Women’s Missionary Association of the Presbyterian
Church of England. In 1955, the College started training deaconesses for
the Baptist Union in England and Phillips became a student there shortly before
this development occurred. In 1966, St Andrew's Hall was created out of the
merger of St Andrew’s College and Carey Hall.
Upon her return to Jamaica,
Phillips continued in her music career. From her music studio in Kingston, she
trained many young musicians who desired to acquire prowess on the violin or
the piano. Meanwhile, she also devoted much of her time to the administration
of JBWF affairs.
She was present when, at its Annual
General Meeting in 1957, JBWF voted an allocation of ₤104
per annum over three years as a contribution to the training of Deaconesses in
JBU. Addressing that meeting at the Hanover Street Baptist Church on February
14, 1957, Enid Phillips
drew attention to the fact that Jamaica was
experiencing an age of rapid development educationally, socially, and
financially. Pride should be taken in the great strides we have made…. In order
to achieve a goal, there must be a steady aim in view, with faith in each
member of the team and a determination to succeed, and the various branches of
the JBU have been exhibiting these qualities. [She said] that there has been
the manifestation of greater unity. [Philips pointed out that the subject of
training of Deaconesses has been given much thought. A communication was sent
to the JBU re the training of a Deaconess and to consider employing her
services, if such a person be called to surrender her life to the cause. A fund
would be raised towards the venture, there being sympathisers who have already
volunteered to contribute.[i]
Phillips was a visionary JBWF leader,
serving as JBWF Organizing Secretary from 1954 to 1960 and as its Recording
Secretary from 1978-1982. Together with Sylvia Lowe, she made a significant
contribution to the Federation’s initiative to urge JBU to act on the JBWF
recommendation on the introduction of Deaconesses in the Union.
After leaving Kingston for
Falmouth to marry Rev. Fergus Lewis in January 1959, Phillips’ service to JBWF
was reduced. Fergus Lewis, had completed many years of service in the Port
Antonio and Morant Bay circuits of Baptist churches, where he and his former
wife gave birth to Dr Rupert Lewis, internationally acclaimed Marcus Garvey
scholar. After his first wife’s death, Fergus Lewis became pastor of the Falmouth
Baptist Church.
I had the privilege of getting
to know Enid Lewis (nee Phillips) when she was music teacher at the Methodist
owned and operated York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St Ann, while I was
a student there. I knew her as a humble and unassuming person who was a truly gifted
musician, but I did not know then of her significant contribution to JBU’s
development.
After her husband’s death, she returned to Jamaica’s capital city in which she had grown up. She continued to serve, embracing whatever opportunity was provided, until 1982, when she died. Her funeral took place in the Barbican Baptist Church on September 13, 1982. “Instead of flowers, contributions received will be donated to the Jamaica Baptist Union Horizon Home and the Christian Education Building, Barbican Baptist Church,” was the information that accompanied her death notice in The Gleaner.
Enid Joyce Phillips should be
remembered and celebrated as a pioneer in both youth and women’s work in JBU.
[i]
Minutes of JBWF Annual General
Meeting held in the Hanover Street Baptist Church on February 14, 1957.
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