Glaister Knight: Devoted Minister of the Gospel

 

Ebenezer Baptist Church, Four Paths

Born on May 30, 1894 to John and Susan Knight in a district near Four Paths in Clarendon, Glaister William Knight was the younger brother of Randolph A.  L. Knight who, for many years, was pastor of the Knibb Memorial Baptist Church in Falmouth and Secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union.

Glaister Knight received his early schooling under the famous T. B. Stephenson at Calabar Elementary School at East Queen Street in Kingston. There, he won a scholarship to Wolmer’s High School, the second oldest high school in the Caribbean, where he studied Greek under the watchful eye of William Cowper, the University of Cambridge-educated headmaster of the school. His first foray into the working world was in the civil service. Soon, however, he decided on what would be his life’s work.

At the age of 19, Knight gained admission to Calabar Theological College, where he successfully sat the Inter Bachelor of Divinity examinations as an external student of London University. During his final year in College, he was the beloved student pastor of Christ Church, Jones Pen, together with the other churches in the circuit – Constitutional Hill and Canaan Mount.

After graduating from Calabar in 1918, Knight commenced his ministry in the Jones Pen (now Jones Town) circuit of Baptist churches, where his brief stay was impactful. Reporting on Knight’s farewell service at Christ Church, Jones Pen in July 1919, a Gleaner reporter noted that “The Rev. gentleman during his ministry at Jones Pen worked zealously and lovingly, and visited nearly all the homes of the members, thus coming in close contact with them.” Rev. James Blake, a recent graduate of Calabar, succeeded Knight as pastor of Christ Church.

Arriving in Montego Bay on December 19, 1919, Knight was set to commence his ministry at the Second (now, Calvary) Baptist Church in Montego Bay. However, his induction service did not take place until July 22, 1920. It had been delayed because Knight was the first person of Jamaican birth to pastor the church and, as the welcome address delivered by the church Secretary, Mr. Ethan Smith, at Knight’s induction, clarified, Mr. Knight was required to serve six months of probation. During this time, Smith stated, Knight took keen interest in both  the church and the community. The people of the Second Baptist Church also expressed appreciation regarding “the pastor having acquainted himself with the local conditions, for the zeal he had shown in his work, including his pastoral visits and his “emulating his Master’s example by going on the byways and hedges gathering in the lost. They prayed that his ministry as pastor of the Second Baptist Church would be an unqualified success and that he would receive Divine guidance in its performance.”

In August 1940, shortly before Knight completed his service in Montego Bay, the Evangelical Book Room in Brown’s Town published his book entitled The Story of My Life. Of the book, several highly respected Jamaican church men gave their reaction.

Rev. A. S. Herbert, Principal of Calabar Theological College said this, “It is a disturbing book because it is candid: but it is a book which many of us need because of its description of the practical nature of the Christian experience.” Respected educator and Anglican cleric, K. D. Carnegie added, “Let him who thinks the Christian ministry to be a bed of roses read it. He will correct many of his estimates and revise many of his values …. It is one of the most effective witnesses to God’s love and power that I have read.” After thanking the author for helping him pass Latin as a student at Calabar, Methodist scholar Philip Sherlock said this: “I share the writer's hope that the experience which he relates will help many readers. Any frank statement of a man's thoughts and experiences is of interest, especially when, in the telling of them there is such disarming ingenuousness and obvious sincerity as there is in this book.”

The farewell service for Knight and his family took place at Second Baptist Church on August 26, 1940. In the report on what was described as an impressive service, Knight was said to have been invited to Montego Bay to serve for six months with a view to being called as the pastor of the church. Glowing tributes were paid to Rev. & Mrs. Knight. Reference was made to his “earnest sincerity in his ministerial work.” Knight was described as a “strong man of God whose life was spent in prayer.”  According to a Gleaner reporter, “The entire congregation joined in singing “Blest be the tie that binds.” The singing was very subdued and there were many husky voices and tear-bedewed eyes as the townspeople filed by at the end of the service to shake hands and give their fond farewells to these two who had proven themselves good friends to the poor and needy of the town.”  

The Second Baptist Church invited Rev Sidney Helwig, pastor of Bethel Town circuit of churches, to become acting pastor among them and later confirmed him as their pastor.

In an article in the Jamaica Baptist Reporter, Terrence Duncanson described Knight as “an ardent and enthusiastic preacher, cheerful and optimistic, with a spirit which bubbles over with the hilarity of youth and the joyousness of service.”

After 21 years of faithful work as Pastor of the Second Baptist Church, Montego Bay, Knight went to serve in the Balaclava circuit, as successor to of Rev. J. T. Dillon. He served in Balaclava from 1940 until his retirement in 1971. As he had been in Montego Bay, Knight was zealous in the Lord’s service and endeared himself to the hearts of the people whom he served in church and community.

After 55 years of ordained ministry, Knight retired from the pastorate. He and his wife, Pansy Beryl Knight, nee Crichton, with whom he had been joined in matrimony on June 4, 1923 at a service in Lethe, Hanover, went to reside at the Elizabeth House in Mandeville, Manchester. Within three years, Pansy Knight died leaving her bereaved husband, sons Glaister, John Llewellyn and William McLaren, who became a pastor, and daughters Annadel Julia and Monica who migrated to USA.  Her funeral took place on April 28, 1976 at Mandeville Parish Church.

Two years later, in August 1978, Knight, aged 84, also died. His funeral took place at the Balaclava Baptist Church with interment in the Mandeville cemetery.

Knight’s rich legacy of devoted service as a minister of the Gospel, a gifted evangelist and a man with a strong ecumenical commitment will long be remembered. In 1924, he had been elected President of the Jamaica Christian Endeavour Convention and during his retirement, insisting that all Christians are one in Christ, his aim was to preach in churches of as many denominations as possible – including Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic. Earlier, as a committed Baptist, Knight had also found time to serve the Jamaica Baptist Union as chairman from 1936-1938.

Like his brother Randolph, Knight had been a gifted scholar. Trained in classics for seven years under Mr. W. M. Cowper at Wolmers, in theology at Calabar over six years, he gained the inter-Bachelor of Divinity degree as an external student of the University of London and in 1926, he completed his Bachelor of Divinity degree at Durham University. After this, he went to London to continue his studies at Spurgeon’s College, but, while there, his health broke down and he was forced to return to Jamaica. His last course of academic studies was undertaken in Toronto.