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| Fergus Lewis |
Born in Santa Cruz on October 6, 1905, Fergus Luton Lewis was the last son of Thomas and Eva Lewis, nee Temple. His early schooling was in Santa Cruz.
Upon Lewis’ profession of faith, Rev. E. C. Eccleston administered his baptism and thereafter Lewis gave himself enthusiastically to the work of the Santa Cruz church. He served as Sunday School Secretary of the local branch of the Christian Endeavour Movement and as a lay preacher in the Sharon Baptist Church. During this period of his life, Lewis felt led by the Holy Spirit to offer himself for the ministry. He decided to resign his position at the Central Store and relocate to Kingston, where he took advantage of the opportunity to attach himself to the student body at Excelsior College.
While in Kingston, Lewis joined the East Queen Street Baptist Church where he became an active and respected member active in the Christian Endeavour and Laymen’s Association (now Brotherhood). Lewis was persuaded to accept a position as manager of Standard Bakery in the capital and served in that position for a short time. In 1927, Lewis resigned that job to enter Calabar Theological College to prepare for the ministry. He had as college mates such outstanding future JBU leaders as Menzie Sawyers, David Morgan, Ivan Parsons, Albert E. Brown and Joscelyn A. Leo-Rhynie. When the addressed the funeral service for Mrs. Eccleston in August 1949, Lewis credited the deceased wife of his former pastor for being the primary human agent who influenced him to enter the Christian ministry.
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| Sharon Baptist Church, Santa Cruz |
Arthur S. Herbert, president of Calabar Theological College and head of the High School officiated the ordination service during which he described Lewis as “a man whom God has directed the Church to set aside and who has himself responded to the call of God to him to spend his life as servant of the Church. In that sense, he is the Church’s representative to do the work to which the church pledges itself, but which for practical reasons the church members are unable to discharge.” Herbert told the congregation that Lewis was “not a combination of Gabriel, Paul and Spurgeon. He is a man as much in need of the grace of God as you are. It is your responsibility to see to it that so far as you are concerned, he is fully enabled to discharge his great responsibility to God and to the Church.” Rev. Frederick Cowell-Lloyd, the pastor of East Queen Street Church offered the ordination prayer.
During the ordination service, the Christian Endeavour Society of the East Queen Street Church, in appreciation of Lewis’ service to the society while he was associated with the East Queen Street church, presented him with a financial gift.
Is time as member of East Queen Street Baptist Church, Lewis had preached often in the Morant Bay church. It was therefore not surprising that the Morant Bay circuit issued him an invitation serve there. After completing a three-month probationary period in the Morant Bay circuit, Lewis received a unanimous call to the pastorate of the circuit, which he accepted.
Soon, on June 3, 1941, Lewis and Inez May Hanson, a “sales lady,” were joined in marriage in the Sharon Baptist Church, Santa Cruz. Officiating minister was Rev. F. Cowell Lloyd. Now, Lewis had the assistance of his wife in his service in the Morant Bay circuit, which, at one stage, included the Stokes Hall church.
Mrs. Inez Lewis gave herself to youth and children’s work. She was the special speaker at the Sunday afternoon Sunday School Anniversary programme at White Horses church on June 28, 1941.
November 13,1941 Lewis inducted as pastor of the Morant Bay circuit and, under Lewis’ leadership, the Morant Bay church was able to liquidate a large debt on its building. However, Lewis’ tenure in the circuit was to be relatively short. On April 8, 1943, Mrs. Inez Lewis died and this appeared to have adversely affected her husband.
After
remaining a widow for about 18 months, Lewis took a second bride. On August 16,
1944, he married Lettice Blanche Monteith, a teacher from Mulgrave, St
Elizabeth, who had been employed at Springfield, St James. The wedding took
place in the East Queen Street Baptist Church with Rev. David A. Morgan
officiating and with Rev. M. E. W.
Sawyers serving as bestman.
Four months later, after completing four and a half years in service at the Morant Bay circuit, the people, on December 28, 1944, bade farewell to their minister who was leaving at the end of the year to assume the pastorate of the Bethtephil circuit in St James.
In March 1945, Lewis was inducted into the pastorate of the Bethtephil circuit, with JBU President The Hon and Rev. John W Maxwell presiding. During Lewis’ tenure in the circuit, the Bethtephil church celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1945. The Somerton Baptist church building was opened and dedicated and the Christian Endeavour bodies in the circuit received renewed vigour. In 1945, Lewis was elected acting vice president of the North Western Local Union of Christian Endeavourers.
Once again, Lewis’ tenure at Bethtephil was to be relatively short. One of his last acts was the conduct of the baptism of 40 candidates from Wakefield, Hastings and Unity Baptist churches in the Golden Grove River, Trelawny. This took place at 6:00 a.m. on March 23, 1958.
Later that year, Lewis was on the move again, this time to the Port Antonio circuit. Not long after the commencement of this new phase of his ministry, Lewis was again to suffer personal loss. His second wife, Mrs. Lettice Lewis died on December 8, 1957. Her funeral took place at the Port Antonio, Baptist Church, the following day. Interment took place in the Mandeville Cemetery in Manchester, with the Rev. Glen Walters, Chairman of the Jamaica Baptist Union officiating. Many of Lewis’ colleagues attended both the funeral service and the internment.
Once again, Lewis faced the grief of the loss of a marital partner. Soon, he left Jamaica for a three-month long preaching tour of the United States, returning home on July 7, 1958. Lewis preached in churches of both the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention. New Orleans, Chicago, Washington, D. C., and New York were some of his preaching centres.
Lewis returned to his work with characteristic dedication, not neglecting any of his churches. Whether at Port Antonio, Fellowship or Millbank, the people could count of Lewis’ faithfulness. He was prolific in leading the churches in upgrading their buildings
Under Lewis’ leadership, the members of the Hephzibah Baptist Church in Priestman’s River opened and dedicated their new church building which had been erected to replace the previous building that had been destroyed in the hurricane of 1944. In 1952, Lewis started a new church building for the Fellowship Baptist Church, which was officially opened and dedicated on Christmas Day 1953, with Rev. O. T. Johnston, Chairman of the Jamaica Baptist Union presiding. But, soon, Lewis was on the move again.
When, owing to ill health, Rev. R. A. L. Knight resigned from the Falmouth circuit, the people extended an invitation to Lewis to become their pastor. He accepted the call and assumed leadership in Falmouth in toward the end of 1958.
Lewis was not one to remain a widow for long. In January, 1959, he took a third wife – Enid Joyce Phillips, daughter of the late Baptist minister, Rev Kent Phillips and Mrs Leonora Phillips. Lewis had served alongside Phillips on the JBU Executive Committee and in JBU youth work. In January 1959, their wedding took place at the East Queen Street Baptist church. The Rev. J. A. Leo Rhynie officiated. He was assisted by the Rev. F. Cowell Lloyd and Rev M. E. W. Sawyers. This was to be Lewis’ last marriage.
He served in Falmouth with characteristic intensity and devotion to duty. However, at the end of 1962, illness forced Lewis to retire from the pastorate.
It may seem incredible, but Fergus Lewis found time for JBU’s organisational work. He was active in the JBU Spiritual Rearmament movement. In 1951, he was elected to serve as JBU Chairman and, in 1960, Lewis was elected clerk to the JBU Executive and Assembly.
Meanwhile, he never wavered in his commitment to the Christian Endeavour Movement. Small wonder that, in a letter dated April 24, 1934, that he wrote to the Editor of The Gleaner newspaper, when he was a layman, Lewis argued passionately that Baptist ministers should not be “aspirants for Legislative honours.”
The world is charging
the Church as impotent and powerless and when one compares the present
condition of the Church or may I say the actions of certain ministers of the
Church, how could one venture to contradict the statement that the Church is
powerless?... ministers are not spending enough time with Jesus…. Ministers, we
still have rejectors, scoffers and mockers to win for Christ; let politics stay
in the hand of those for which it is intended, and fight faithfully and
lovingly for the breakdown of Satan’s stronghold in the world.
When, on October 29, 1967, the Port Antonio Baptist Church opened and dedicated their new education centre building, they named it in honour of Fergus Lewis. The people explained that the building was named the Fergus Lewis Education Centre “in memory of the work done in the Port Antonio Church by the late Rev Fergus Lewis.”
Perhaps, Fergus Lewis modelled for his son, foremost Garvey scholar, Professor Rupert Lewis, pride in the God-given and inalienable dignity each human being possesses and the virtue of discipline and hard work. Certainly, in sending his son to the old Calabar High School, he opened the door for his son’s commitment to excellence.
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