Sam & Carmen Reid
Clarence Samuel Reid was a distinguished minister of the Jamaica Baptist Union, a statesman whose ministry traversed the landscape of both church and state.
Born in Dumphries, St. James, on July 7, 1936, Reid received his early education at the Unity Primary School. In 1953, while he was still a teenager, he was admitted for ministerial training and formation at Calabar Theological College where he excelled as a student. On September 10, 1960, he and Carmen Charlotte Reeves were married and they remained partners in the service of God’s church and world for the rest of their life. The union produced two children, Susan and David.
From Calabar, Reid went to the prestigious Regent’s Park College, Oxford University. In January 1962, a few months after his graduation from Regent’s Park, Reid started serving as pastor at the Moss Side Baptist Church (now called Trinity Community Church) in Manchester, England, where several of the church members had roots in the Caribbean. Reid’s ordination to the ministry took place at Moss Side Church. A visionary and risk taker, Reid showed how to integrate a church with multiple ethnicities and he opened the eyes of the people to the vital role a church can play in the development of the community in which it exists.
After completing three years at Moss Side, Reid returned to Jamaica in 1965 and became pastor in the Bethany circuit of Baptist churches in St Ann. He spent two years in this circuit after which he was Chaplain at Calabar High School from 1967-1969. During his time as Calabar Chaplain, Reid served as Moderator of the Tarrant Baptist Church. In this way, he continued a long tradition of persons attached to Calabar rendering pastoral service at Tarrant. Reid led Tarrant to conceptualize and then start the redevelopment of the property on which their small edifice had existed for more than half a century. The size and design of the building the church decided to erect suggest that Reid and the church leaders at Tarrant had a large vision of the future of the witness of the Tarrant Church. After two years as Calabar Chaplain and Tarrant Moderator, Reid relocated to Montego Bay, St James, where he spent 34 years as pastor of the Calvary circuit of Baptist churches.
Once again, Reid’s displayed vision and courage as a leader. Under his leadership, Calvary Baptist Church relocated from its well-established address on Market Street in the heart of Montego Bay to Corinaldi Avenue, adjacent to Jarrett Park. This increased the scope for the church’s ministry to the wider Montego Bay community.
Jamaica Baptist Union made good use of the gifts God gave to Sam Reid – gifts that Reid generously made available to the nation’s Baptist community. He served the Union in many capacities including as JBU President from 1971-74 and 1983-85. He was only 34, when he commenced serving in that office. Reid and Azariah McKenzie understood that the future of Jamaica was linked with that of the Caribbean and they set their sights on building an ecclesiastical institution for Baptists in the emerging Caribbean. Reid and McKenzie became the founding fathers of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship (CBF). They convened and facilitated the first consultation at Nutshell, Duncans, that resulted in CBF’s formation. Recognizing that Jamaica and the Caribbean should take their place on the global scene, Reid made his gifts available to Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and served as one of the organization’s Vice President from 1995-2000.
When the JBU was celebrating the bicentenary of Baptist witness in Jamaica, Sam Reid wrote Sam Sharpe: From Slave to National Hero, which was published under sponsorship by the Bustamante Institute for Public Affairs. In this book, he evaluated the contribution of a former enslaved Baptist deacon on whom, in 1982, the Jamaican government and people conferred the Order of National Hero. Sharpe, c. 1801-1832 was the leader of the Christmas Rebellion or “Baptist War” that drove the final nails into the coffin of slavery in Jamaica.
Not confining his efforts to the Baptist community, Reid was active in ecumenical circles. He was a member of the founding team of Caribbean church leaders that initiated the process leading to the formation of the Caribbean Conference of Churches in 1973. He was also President of the Jamaica Council of Churches from 1975-1977.
Reid understood the mission of the church to include the holistic flourishing of human beings. and he understood the value Jamaica Baptists attach to the role of education in human and community development. Reid’s contribution to education is reflected through his membership or chairmanship of the Board of Governors of Calabar, William Knibb, Westwood and Montego Bay High Schools, and the United Theological College of the West Indies. He was also a member of the nation’s Teachers’ Service Commission, 1983-1988.
Not satisfied to confine his efforts to JBU, the ecumenical community and education, Reid reached out to serve the Jamaican community through other channels. He was, for many years, a columnist of The Gleaner newspaper and also a talk show host of Radio Jamaica’s “Hotline” programme. Never afraid to enter the fray when controversial issues of public concern were being discussed, he attracted many admirers and some detractors as well.
With characteristic independence of judgment, Reid served in Jamaica’s Senate under the two main political parties. In 1972, he was appointed during the administration of Michael Manley and the People’s National Party and served as such until 1976. When the Jamaican government faced a crisis resulting from the withdrawal of one of the two main political parties from a general election and Prime Minister Edward Seaga decided to appoint persons to serve as independent Senators, it came as no surprise that Sam Reid, as he was affectionately called, was among them. He occupied this position from 1983-1988.
Reid served the Jamaican nation in several other ways. For example, he was a member of the National Advisory Council on Crime and Justice, 1984-1989. He served on the Board of Directors of the Grace Kennedy Foundation. Credit belongs to him for proposing the introduction of the annual lectures sponsored by that Foundation.
It came as no surprise when Reid was awarded a Certificate of Merit for his work as a minister of religion. In 1980, he was a recipient of the Gleaner Honour Award and later, of the National Award of The Order of Distinction.
In 2003, after 41 years of ministry, Sam Reid retired from full-time service as a salaried JBU pastor. His earthly pilgrimage ended on April 18, 2015, when he was 78. JBU leaders praised him as a man who was “blessed with a pastor’s heart, a keen intellect, clear thinking, [and] outstanding communication skills.” He was described as a “shaper of thought nationally, regionally and internationally.”
I had the privilege of serving as a Vice President when Sam Reid was JBU President and I benefited immensely from his willingness to provide me unsparingly with gifted mentorship for which I am grateful.
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