Stephen James: A Baptist Stalwart

        Stephen James                        Kettering Baptist Church, Duncans

Stephen S. James was born to Samuel and Rachel James in Elderslie, St Elizabeth on April 18, 1904. He trained for the ministry at Calabar Theological College during which time, he was active in the Sunday school ministry of Christ Church, Jones Pen. On completing the course at Calabar, the people of Christ Church expressed their deep appreciation for his services and unsuccessfully petitioned his service of ordination taking place at Christ Church.

James received an invitation to serve as pastor of the Richmond Vale Baptist Circuit. The members of the circuit made clear their expectation that their pastor would serve as “manager of schools, ministerial and legal advisor, peacemaker and general Church physician… [and a] Justice of the Peace.”

James was ordained to the Christian ministry in a service at the Richmond Vale Baptist Church in March 1933, the same year in which he was appointed as a marriage officer of Jamaica. He served in the circuit from 1933 to 1937 and was actively involved in the life of the communities in which the churches were set.

James’ leadership in the communities he served was on display when, in January 1935, he arranged a meeting involving the citizens residing in the area and the Hon. R. Ehrenstein, their representative to the Legislative Council. The public meeting took place in the Bethesda School in Llandewey, in the parish of St David’s. The citizens questioned their representative concerning the social problems they faced, including road, river and transportation challenges. 

James met his future wife at Ludford Mount, where she was on staff at the Ludford Mount Elementary School. On May 31, 1937, On March 31, 1937, while James was pastor of Richmond Vale Baptist Church, he was joined in marriage to Constance Melborough Walters, daughter of Rev J. M. Walters, pastor of the Jericho circuit of churches and former headmaster of the Baptist elementary school in Redwood, St Catherine. The wedding took place at Christ Church, Jones Town, the church James attended during his student days at Calabar. Officiating ministers were Rev. W. J. Thompson of Buff Bay, Portland, Rev. D. A. Morgan of Springfield, St. James, Rev. M. E. W. Sawyers, of Jones Pen, and the Rev. W. Copeland Bennett of Yallahs.

In 1937, JBU commissioned James as missioner pastor to the Turks and Caicos Islands and he occupied this position for three years. During this period, Mr. and Mrs. James offered sacrificial and committed leadership to the mission assigned them – helping to resuscitate churches that had been without pastoral leadership for too long.

In 1940, James succeeded Edmund Greaves as pastor of the Mt Hermon Circuit.  Six years later, he resigned from Mt Hermon to assume the pastorate of the Duncans circuit, which had just lost its outstanding pastor, John Maxwell. He had responsibility for the following Baptist churches – Duncans, Waltham Abbey, Clark’s Town and Good Hope in Samuel Prospect.

It was while he served in Duncans that James was to face a major tragedy. Twenty-nine years after his marriage to Constance, his wife died on February 15, 1966, at the Kingston Public Hospital, leaving behind her husband and four children Sheila, Maurice, Gurnos and Pauline. The funeral service took place at East Queen Street Baptist Church on February 20. In the Jamaica Baptist Reporter, Menzie Sawyers wrote concerning Mrs. James:

Constance James possessed one of the sweetest dispositions of any of the ladies of the manse in Jamaica. In the midst of turmoil, she remained calm and unruffled. During the time of her husband’s illness, she saw to the smooth running of the circuit and she was always a strong rock on which he and the children leaned…. Hers was a poise born of an implicit trust in a Father who can in the end cause all things to work together for good to them that love him.

 James leadership at Duncans was marked by lofty vision and bold, transformative action. In 1965, the 16 hectares (40-acre) Nutshell property in Duncans was procured through the initiative of Stephen S. James, then pastor of the Duncans Circuit and John M. Bee of Brown’s Town. The land was originally purchased as the proposed site for the establishment of a school as a memorial to the emancipator, William Knibb. It became the site for the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) Conference Centre. The Southern Baptists funded the purchase of the land and the construction of 24-room dormitory-type buildings.

 James was the primary person behind the establishment of the William Knibb Memorial High School, which was officially opened on January 16, 1961. People gave due recognition to James’ contribution during his lifetime. For example, in May 1988, the William Knibb School commissioned a Wainwright Robinson painting depicting the William Knibb/Stephen James association and presented it to James at a specially planned dinner to honour James as the founder of the school.[i] Addressing the function, JBU minister Clarence Reid described James as “an inspiration to me as one of the greatest JBU ministers and one of its hardest workers.” He added the following:

 

There are some of us who pass through life and there is nothing to indicate that we have been here. There are others who keep erecting milestones. In the life of Rev. Stephen James there have been many. It is very fitting that one of the institutions he established, has honoured him.

 William Knibb Memorial High School named a school house and a scholarship in James’  honour.

 James’ contribution to education exceeds what he did for the William Knibb School. He chaired or served on several school boards in the parishes where he pastored, for example, at Refuge, John’s Hall and Waltham Abbey. When representatives of eleven church communions in the Caribbean met at Caenwood College, Kingston, in May, 1964, and signed a pact to establish United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI), James was the JBU representative.

In retirement, James moved to Kingston and assumed the role of Inspector of the Poor. He married Iris Maud, a State Registered Nurse who had joined the staff of the George V Sanatorium Hospital from its inception in 1940. She served that institution for 38 years, retiring in 1967.

Mrs. James was active in the Jamaica Baptist Women’s Federation, the Friends of the YWCA, and the Nurses Association of Jamaica. In 1976, Mr. James sat again at the table of grief. On June 14, 1976, after a brief illness causing her hospitalisation at the Medical Associates Hospital, Mrs. James died on June 14. She was in her 68^th year. After her funeral service at St Matthews’ Anglican Church, Allman Town, she was buried in the Mamby Park Baptist Church cemetery.

Stephen James’ contribution to JBU included his many years of service as Moderator of Trelawny Baptist Association, his work as JBU Treasurer, 1960-1961, JBU Acting Secretary, 1948-49, JBU Chairman, and later, President of the JBU – 1954-55 and 1964-65. James also gave several years of service as Secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society (JBMS).

In July 1980, after the departure of Jeffrey McKenzie from Hanover Street Baptist Church, James was appointed acting pastor. In August 1981, Rev Trevor Edwards assumed leadership in the church, thereby bringing James’ service there to an end. A decade later, in 1991, James breathed his last at his home at 44 Border Avenue, Havendale, Kingston 19. In reporting on James’ burial, the Gleaner, in its October 30, 1991 edition, declared:

 

Former President of the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU), Missionary to the Turks and Caicos Islands and founder of William Knibb Memorial High School, Trelawny, the Rev. Stephen James who died at his Havendale residence on Heroes Day (October 21) after a protracted illness, was laid to rest yesterday at the Mamby Park Baptist Church cemetery, Constant Spring. The Baptist stalwart founded the Trelawny Baptist Association which he served for 26 years and was also instrumental in the establishment of the JBU’s Nutshell Conference Centre in Crawl, Trelawny.

 

James was survived by his children Sheila, Pauline and Gurnos. Maurice, his eldest child, predeceased him. Many mourned the passing of a stalwart of the JBU, whose interment took place in the Mamby Park Baptist Church Cemetery. Stephen James is certainly one of the most outstanding ministers to have served within JBU.

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[i] On James’ contribution to the establishment of William Knibb Memorial High School, see Ewart Walters, William Knibb Memorial High School: The First Fifty Years, 1961-2011. Kingston, Jamaica; Ian Randle Publishers, 2018.