Shortly after
arriving in Jamaica, Price was elected as president of the Kingston Ministers’
Fraternal in 1913. Soon, he commenced representing Baptists in the leadership
team of Jamaica Council of Evangelical Churches and, in 1918, he served as that
organization’s president. In 1924, he was a member of the Executive Committee
of the Council of Christian Churches in Jamaica. Price was also actively
involved in the national leadership of church-sponsored organizations such as
the Young Women’s Christian Association and the Boys’ Brigade.
Notwithstanding his commitment to ecumenism, Price strongly influenced JBU to not join in the united church project pursued by the Jamaica Church Union Commission, 1927-1967. Several church communions in Jamaica, including Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Wesleyans, Moravian, Church of Scotland and Baptists had established this Commission with a view to achieving united status as one organizational body. Price made a distinction between unity and union, and he insisted that the former was to be preferred over the latter, which he said, tended toward uniformity. He urged JBU to pursue unity vigorously but not to embrace union with the
Because of the positions he occupied and the role he played in Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU), at Calabar, and in the wider society, Jamaicans held Price in high esteem. Apparently, this affected Price’s sense of power and self-importance, which contributed in no small way to his eventual conflict with the leadership of JBU.
His weakness – an imperialistic mindset – made it difficult for Price to make the adjustment that would enable him to work in a Christian Communion that fiercely guarded its autonomy and rejected the mentality some foreigners expected from formerly enslaved persons. Price needed to understand that he was a collaborator with JBU in Christian service, not an overlord. In his substantive office, he offered service on behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS), but within the context of an autonomous national religious organization that was working in partnership with, but not under the supervision of, the BMS. Although BMS had commissioned Price to serve in Jamaica and took responsibility for his emoluments, Price did not have liberty to ignore the concerns the JBU leadership expressed in relation to his ministry.
Price’s attitude led to the so-called “Calabar Impasse” that lasted from 1931–1937. The conflict began with Price believing he had a right to decide whether to attend a meeting to which the JBU Executive Committee invited him and it reached a crescendo when JBU ordered the closure of the Calabar Theological College and assigned the students there to ministers who should oversee their continuing training. Soon, Price was suspended from JBU, of which he had become a part by virtue of his office. BMS sent no less than two high level deputations to Jamaica to try to resolve the conflict, which the first deputation exacerbated. Eventually, Price retired and returned to England and BMS chose and sent Rev. Dr Gurnos King as Price’s replacement. The Calabar Impasse is the greatest internal conflict that JBU ever faced and it triggered the most turbulent period in the internal life of JBU to date.
Another aspect of Price’s indiscretion was his attitude to respected leaders in Jamaica. In a letter to the editor of Jamaica’s Gleaner newspaper, Price was utterly disrespectful to Marcus Garvey whom he described as “a blind leader who will lead any who are mistaken enough to follow him into a very dirty ditch.” According to Price, “the promises of Garvey are false and his exhortations delusive.” He mocked Garvey and alleged that “his record is so far empty. What has Mr. Garvey really done? Done not said. He has said plenty but as the saying goes, ‘words are cheap.’’’ He characterized Garvey’s speeches as “full of absurdities.” Price ended his letter by stating that some persons are truly honourable and trustworthy. “I beg you to follow such and let the boasters and the self-advertisers go their way.”
I
hate hypocrisy and, in this case, I cannot but characterize the writer of such
a salutation, being himself a white Englishman, as anything else but an arch
hypocrite. When certain white men desire to deceive Negroes, they call them ‘brothers,’
and ‘brethren.’ When they meet them in certain parts of the world where they
are independent of their support, they call them ‘Niggers.’ … I cannot
understand why Ernest Price a White Englishman, should interfere with a
proposition that does not concern him. Why won’t these dabblers leave Negroes
alone? Do they not know that Negroes are competent to handle their own affairs?
Price also showed disrespect to Rev. J. T. Dillon who, for several years, was chair of the Calabar General Committee. In a letter to the Gleaner, he harshly criticized Dillon for accurately stating that the idea of Calabar High School did not originate with Ernest Price. Price, insisted on his claim to paternity for the idea of a Calabar High School. could not concede that a Black Jamaica was more familiar with Jamaica Baptist history than he was.
Price’s indiscretion was in full display in the libel case involving him, David Davis and M. B. Rev. M. B. Burgess. Burgess took legal action against Price and Davis, alleging that they had made libellous statements about him. The plaintiff and the respondents hired some of the best lawyers in Jamaica to represent them. The legal teams included Norman Washington Manley for the respondents and the Hon. James Alexander George Smith, popularly referred to as J. A. G. Smith, for the plaintiff. The case dragged on for many weeks and embarrassing revelations concerning the conduct of Baptist ministers of the Gospel were made in court. For its part, the Gleaner published 110 reports on the case, doing so in graphic detail, including mostly verbatim statements that occupied many column inches of the newspaper. The Baptist community was left deeply embarrassed. The plaintiff lost the libel suit thanks to exceptionally skilful legal representation. The plaintiff appealed the case, thereby lengthening the negative exposure JBU suffered, but the appeal court upheld the finding of the lower court.[i] But the damage done to all the ministers involved in the litigation and to the JBU was serious. The case had dragged on in court for four years![ii] A number of persons associated with the JBU decided to abandon the Union to become members of another Christian Communion.
Many of Price’s students admired him. They deeply appreciated the contribution he made to their educational development, but some of them were not unaware of the fact that Price was a flawed person. Writing in the Gleaner, a former Calabar student, characterized Price as a Jekyll and Hyde personality. In his article, Alvin McClure, a retired Charter Accountant, claimed that:
Mr.
Price had two completely different personalities – one was excellent, the other
contemptible. He was thoughtful and kind – a devout Christian gentleman. He,
however, was a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” – both a superb and damnable
character! He is the cruelest human being I know - a sadist.
McClure continued:
I
found him to be an exceptional man. a magnificent teacher, particularly of
English Language and Literature. He was charming, had a marvellous gift for
telling interesting stories, and was a man of tremendous culture.
He
called himself "the lion". He walked around the school with his cane
hidden beneath his University gown. He kept on repeating “the lion is
hungry" and smacked his lips in anticipation of satisfying that hunger, by
seeking an opportunity to cane boys mercilessly for the most trivial offences.
He used the cane to inflict as much pain as possible by holding it by the end
and lashing boys with the curved part of it. As he gave each lash he expressed
tremendous happiness by saying “Lovely, Lovely” and joyfully smacked his lips.
He made other delightful expressions of “Ooh, Aah” and had a wonderful time
being cruel, as he saw the discomfort and pain of his victims. He punished not
only by caning - for he could quickly think up other ways of punishment.
McClure reported that he sent a letter to Mr. Price, a few years before Price’s death, in which he praised Price for his positive influence on his character and development and expressed amazement at his cruelty. Mr. Price responded: “When I remember my cruelty at Calabar, I do so with sorrow and shame. I ask to be forgiven.” McClure’s public response to Price was couched in the following words: “Because of your confession and request for forgiveness, I forgive you.”
Price’s tenure in Jamaica lasted for a total of 27 years, after which, he returned with his family to England in 1937. Upon returning to his beloved land, Price served at the Church of the Redeemer in Birmingham. He supplemented this responsibility by teaching Latin to fifth form students at a High School in the city.
In 1946, Price addressed a letter “to old boys and theologs of Calabar,” Jamaica, in which he advised that he and his wife had “sought a quiet village in which to rusticate. But the war found big tacks for the retired, and through those trying years I found myself the minister of the most beautiful Baptist church in England and a fifth form master at the four-hundred-years-old High School in Birmingham.”
After this assignment, Price and his wife relocated to Langport Road, Somerton, Somerset, in a final and true retirement.
When Price died in 1966, he was memorialised in a service in the Calabar Chapel on January 30, 1966. In celebrating Price’s life, his former co-worker David Davis, said this: “He had little physical strength. He was no giant. But he was tireless. He was capable of long hours of most exhausting work to which he gave himself unsparingly.” [iii]
To understand the workings of Price’s mind, one may wish to read his book, Bananaland: Pages from the Chronicles of an English Minister in Jamaica published by London’s Carey Press in 1930. In a scathing review of the book, published in the Gleaner newspaper, former JBU President John T. Dillon noted how Price’s mentality was reflected in the work that he believed portrayed Jamaicans in a negative light.
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