U. N. Leo Erskine – Character, Discipline and Effectiveness

 

Uriah Nathaniel Leo-Erskine was the son of John Nathaniel Erskine and Ann Elizabeth Erskine (nee Craig). He was born at Maldon in St James on November 23, 1910. The reason why his parents gave him this name may have to be left to conjecture.

Because his parents were fervent Christians, Erskine had early exposure to a life of faith and prayer. He attended the Maldon Baptist Church. When Erskine was only four, John Chisholm, one of the deacons at the Maldon church predicted that Erskine was going to become a minister of the Gospel.

When he was twelve, Erskine committed his life to Christ at a Christian Endeavour (CE) meeting. When, later in life, he became a minister, he was to spread the ministry of the CE movement. By the time of his death, he had made a great contribution to the Christian Endeavour ministry in Jamaica.

Rev. R. Gillette Chambers administered Erskine’s baptism at the Maldon Church. Before long, people were beginning to recognize Erskine’s outstanding gift as a speaker and Erskine was receiving invitations to speak at the Sunday School Anniversaries at the neighbouring churches – Springfield, Buckingham and Salter’s Hill.

Erskine’s educational development was nurtured at Elementary School under the leadership of Teachers H. H. Harrison, H. H. Allison and H. H. Morrison. He successfully completed the third year Pupil Teachers’ Examination and then gained admission to the St John’s College in Kingston where he passed the first- and second-year Training College Examinations and commenced studies toward the Senior Cambridge Examination – a general certificate of education that was administered in Jamaica, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore during the twentieth century.  

Erskine gained employment as an assistant teacher in the Roehampton and Salt Spring Baptist Schools. Rev. Glaister Knight, pastor of the Second (now Calvary) Baptist Church, Montego Bay, and manager of several schools, was deeply impressed by Erskine’s gifts and encouraged him to consider offering himself for the Christian ministry. Erskine successfully completed the Calabar College entrance examinations and commenced ministerial training in September 1933.

The ministerial student was an outstanding member of the Calabar College student body and, in the estimation of Calabar President Ernest Price, he was expected to become an outstanding minister of the Gospel.  When Calabar was temporarily closed, in the wake of the Calabar Impasse, Erskine was sent to offer help to Rev. W. P. Thompson, pastor of the Buff Bay circuit and thrice Chairman of the Jamaica Baptist Union. Pastor and members with whom he served held Erskine in very high esteem. According to a biographer writing about Erskine’s work in the Buff Bay circuit in the Jamaica Baptist Reporter:

 

He proved a great worker, a fine evangelist and an outstanding social worker. By his zeal and winsome personality, many young people were led into the ranks of the Baptists.

While serving in Buff Bay, Erskine formed a branch of the Christian Endeavour movement in the community.

On June 28, 1936, the Buff Bay circuit of churches bade farewell to Erskine who had completed his assignment there. Rev W. J. Thompson commended Erskine for “the good work” he had done in the circuit and the people paid tribute to the ministerial student for his work among them. The following quote from a letter that appeared over the signature of the pastor and four officers of the circuit, offers a good description of the circuit’s assessment of the kind of ministry Erskine had carried out in the Buff Bay circuit. It also previewed the impactful ministry Erskine would fulfil after his ministerial training course ended.

 

Your stay with us over a period of more than a year, has given us the opportunity of knowing and valuing your worth as a man and a Christian. Untiring, full of energy, willing at all times to cooperate in all Departments of our arduous work of the Church, but especially among the young people, who have attended and endeared themselves to you. As a worker you have never spared yourself in season and out of season. We can assure you that your stay with us will never and cannot be forgotten by us. Your many activities for the uplift and improvement of the com­munity will abide in our memories. We who are to some extent responsible for the administration and government of the Church, have been much relieved at times, as you willingly took on tasks which would of necessity fall on us.

 

We shall always pray for your continued success in the preparation for your future ministry, and are confident that you, by the grace of God, will make good in that “high calling.” We commend you to God and to His word of grace which is able to build you up and to give you that inheritance with the satisfied.

 

Our regret is that your call to leave has been sudden and the weather conditions make it difficult to reach in person, members of our congregation so as to enable us to make a substantial contribution as a token of our appreciation for the invaluable help rendered.

 

We however desire you to accept this little gift and regard the motive behind it to be very much more. That God will be with you and bless you, is the prayer of ours in Christian fellowship.

 

From Buff Bay, Erskine went to Montego Bay to complete the Calabar ministerial training programme under the leadership of Rev Glaister Knight, who had studied with excellent results at both Calabar College and London University. Knight would prepare Erskine for his final Calabar examinations and Erskine did not disappoint him. His stellar performance in Greek, Biblical Studies, Church History and Ethics was what Knight anticipated it might be.

 

After completing the Calabar course, Erskine was called to the pastorate of Warsop circuit, which included Warsop, Litchfield, Troy, Chudleigh and Crown Lands churches. His ordination and induction service took place on Thursday, January 27, 1938. Dr Gurnos King, the Calabar President, was the preacher and his text was John 10:41.

 

On January 25, 1939, JBU President Stephenson presided at the Opening and Dedication of the refurbished and enlarged Warsop Mission House, the fruit of the church members’ efforts under Erskine’s leadership. The members’ cooperation under Erskine’s leadership also made possible the stone-laying ceremony on January 24, 1940, for the Chudleigh Baptist church building.

 

A man who served the communities in which the churches he served were set, Erskine was elected president of the Warsop branch of the Jamaica Agricultural Society.

 

In 1944, Erskine’s six years of service to the Warsop circuit ended. He spent the remaining 17 years of his ministry in the Trinityville circuit of churches, where he devoted much time to the churches’ membership expansion and growth, building refurbishment and reconstruction, and community development. Not surprisingly, in 1950, Erskine was made a Justice of the Peace.

In the 1951 hurricane, the church buildings at Trinityville, Mt Vernon, White Hall and Sunning Hill were badly damaged. Extensive work was done to replace or repair these edifices. In October 1956, the Trinityville Church opened and dedicated a new church building that could accommodate 450 persons. The cornerstone of Sunning Hill church was laid in October 1956.

 

In several communities across St Thomas, Erskine’s contributions were extensive. He was chairman of the St Thomas School Board. He was also chairman of the St Thomas High School, which was opened at Yallahs on September 1, 1958, under the auspices of Jamaica Baptist Union. He was also Manager of Prospect School, Danvers Pen.

 

Erskine served on the Managing Committee of the Trinityville Cooperative Society and was second vice president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society of St. Thomas. He was among a small group of leaders who planned the introduction of the 4 H Club in Morant Bay. Erskine was a judge in drama, speech and singing in the Festival Village competitions in St Thomas and was Chairman of the All-Island Welfare Association.

 

Erskine contributed significantly to the corporate life of the JBU. Over several years, he was Secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society and chairman of the St Thomas Baptist Association. At the JBU Assembly in 1958, he was made JBU Chairman elect. Ill health prevented him from serving his full term as JBU Chairman for 1959-60. In January 1959, he fell ill and was taken to the Princess Margaret Hospital in Morant Bay. When his health declined, he was transferred to the Kingston Public Hospital, where he remained a patient during JBU’s Annual Assembly meeting in February 1959. JBU members anticipated Erskine’s full recovery and resumption of his duties as a Pastor within a matter of weeks or months.

 

It is a sign of the disciplined and responsible person Erskine was that, prior to his hospitalization, he had prepared his presidential address to be delivered at the JBU Assembly in February 1959. Rev M. E. W. Sawyers delivered the address on his behalf. In this Presidential address, Erskine celebrated the birth of the West Indian Federation and reminded the leaders that “the superstructure they were endeavouring to build was sure to somersault if not erected on a true spiritual foundation.” He also proposed a ten-year plan for the Jamaica Baptist Union. This plan included such ambitious and far-reaching proposals as these – a drive for not less than 20,000 new members and the erection of twenty new churches in new areas.

 

That was to be Erskine’s last word given at a JBU Assembly. In March 1959, Erskine died, leaving his wife and three children. He was only 48 years of age. That U. N. Leo Erskine was able to pack so much into a ministry of only twenty years is simply amazing.

 

Several years earlier, the nuptials of Erskine and Lynda Gloria Murray from Warsop in Trelawny, had taken place when they were relatively young. The wedding was at the Calvary Baptist Church, with Rev Glaister Knight officiating. The union produced three children – Noel Leo, Faith (now resident in the United Kingdom), and Winston (now deceased). Noel Leo Erskine, whose father helped to influence his decision to become a minister of the Gospel, is a theologian of international acclaim. As Professor of Theology and Ethics at Candler School of Theology and at the Graduate Division of Religion of Emory University, his influence has inspired and equipped many graduate theology students from USA and around the world. He is the celebrated author of several highly prized books, including Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement: The Life and Times of George Liele (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024), Black theology and Black Faith (Eerdmans, 2023), Plantation Church: How African American Religion was born in Caribbean Slavery (Oxford, 2014), and Black Theology and Pedagogy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). His Decolonizing Theology: A Caribbean Perspective (Africa World Press, 1984) is required reading for all who desire to understand what lies behind Caribbean Theology. A prolific writer, Noel the son reflects the discipline his father exhibited.

 

The first of two funeral services for Erskine took place at East Queen Street Baptist Church the day after he died. In addressing the gathering, Rev Joswyn Leo-Rhynie, pastor of the church and Secretary of Jamaica Baptist Union, praised Erskine's life and work, and gave thanks for his “many years of happy association” with the man whose “fine character” he said he had greatly admired. Leo Rhynie spoke of the “valuable work he [Erskine] had done as Secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society” and celebrated Erskine’s great enthusiasm in “whatever work he decided to carry out.” His ministerial career, the Rev. Mr. Rhynie said, was “20 years of success.”

 

The second funeral service followed in the Trinityville Baptist Church where, once again, Rev. M. E. W. Sawyers presided. Erskine was laid to rest in the Church Cemetery in Trinityville.

 

At its meeting in May 1959, the St Thomas School Board paid tribute for “the outstanding services rendered by the late Rev Leo Erskine for several years in the cause of education.” 

 

In October 1959, the Trinityville circuit, in conjunction with St Thomas Baptist Association, arranged a Memorial service for Erskine. Addressing the gathering, Rev. A. E. Brown described Erskine as “one who did his duty to the best of his ability and to the utmost of his capacity.” Rev Cleveland Russell spoke of Erskine’s “brilliant and sustained endeavours as a tireless clergyman.” Representative speakers described Erskine’s contributions to their organizations – The St Thomas School Board, Trinityville Primary School, St Thomas Associated Jamaica Agricultural Society, the Jamaica Social Welfare Commission, and the Prisoners Aid Rehabilitation Committee.

 

JBU itself convened a Memorial Service at East Queen Street Church for Rev. Leo Erskine, former JBU Chairman, and Rev. Othnell T. Johnson, former pastor of Oracabessa Baptist Church and member of the JBU Executive Committee. This took place during the Assembly in 1960.    

 

Erskine was an outstanding Baptist minister who, in the span of only twenty years, proved right the assessment the leaders of the Buff Bay circuit made of his potential at a time when he had not even completed his ministerial preparation at Calabar Theological College. He provides a model of the blend of giftedness, character, discipline and effectiveness in pastoral ministry. Gratefully, in October 2025, Mrs. Lynda Leo Erskine, who undoubtedly helped make her husband the minister he was, is now 101 years of age and resides in Florida, USA. Elderly people of the churches the Leo Erskines served continue to thank God for their ministry among them.