Born on October 11, 1933 in Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine, Clyde Aubrey Jennings was the fifth of eight children born to Victor and Jemina Jennings. While he was a child experiencing ill health, his parents were instructed in a dream that he should have been given the name Peter. This became his pet name from that time.
At first, Jennings attended the Anglican Church, but he became a Baptist and influenced by his pastor Rev J. Carter Henry and Mrs Amy Lord, Jennings grew in acceptance of his new church’s teachings, cultivated a relationship with its Lord and learned its traditions well. He grew up near the sea and learned to swim when he was only two. He never lost his love for the sea. He also became an avid fisherman. Unfortunately, some those whom he tried to form as fishermen confessed they didn’t have the patience for the craft – a patience wonderfully demonstrated by Jennings who could toil for long and catch nothing and then speak joyfully of the wonderful time he spent fishing.
After early schooling in the Old Harbour Elementary School, he was admitted to Calabar Theological College where he trained for the ministry, after having successfully sat the Third Jamaica Local Examinations. He thoroughly enjoyed his Calabar years, 1957 to 1961. On July 26, 1961, he was ordained as a minister of the Jamaica Baptist Union at Phillipo Baptist Church. On September 1, 1961, he commenced ministry in the Frankfield Circuit of Baptist Churches with its four churches – Frankfield, John’s Hall, Kilsyth and Douce.
On July 28, 1962, Jennings joined hands in marriage with Iona Molly O’Connor, a nurse from Conners District in St Catherine. The union produced Mark, Grace, Lois and Stephen who followed his father into the pastoral ministry. The children grew up in a loving home that was known to be a place of rich hospitality to others.
Jennings spent most of the years of his ministry in the Frankfield Circuit of churches in the parish of Clarendon. Using Frankfield as his base, he extended his service both within the reaches of Clarendon and beyond. He helped form the Clarendon Manchester Baptist Association and later the separate Clarendon Baptist Association, holding leadership positions in each.
An avid church planter, he was always on the look out for places to start new Baptist witness and to supply pastoral leadership where this was lacking. In this capacity, he worked as Moderator of several churches in Clarendon and, significantly, he coordinated the initiative of Jamaica Baptist Union and Clarendon Baptist Association to form the Grace Baptist Church in May Pen, Clarendon.
Jennings also offer pastoral oversight to several other circuits and churches. These include Porus and Thompson Town Circuits, Prospect, Mandeville, Crawle River, John Austin and James Hill churches. A reconciler, he ameliorated the relationship between churches that were estranged from JBU and brought them back into the fellowship of the Union. A gifted church planter, he played a significant part in the establishment of the Trout Hall and Chapelton churches.
Meanwhile, Jennings played an active role in the affairs of the communities in which his churches were set. From 1962 to 2004, he was chair, vice chair or member of the Board of Management of the Edwin Allen High School. He also volunteered as the school’s chaplain and presided over many external examinations conducted at the school. Jennings still found time for involvement in the Frankfield Community Council, Library Committee and Minister’s Fraternal. He also served as a Lay Magistrate. Jennings was the chair or member of nine school boards in the parish of Clarendon.
In the 1970s, he successfully pursued postgraduate studies in Counselling at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in its heyday as the flagship seminary of the Southern Baptists in the USA.
Jennings invested much of his time in ministry to the youth. His zeal for camp ministries, developed in part out of his studies at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, led him to contribute significantly to the life and vitality of the Young People’s Rearmament Conference at the Baptist Conference Centre in Duncans, Trelawny. There, he helped to influence many young people in following the path of discipleship.
Impatient of cowardly and timid surrender to what appeared to him to be unending discussion and analysis leading to inaction, he initiated projects to help upgrade the facilities of JBU’s Nutshell Conference Centre, undertaking to single-handedly raise funds to carry out the needed work to improve the facilities at the centre for the sake of its users in their pilgrimage of faith.
Taking note of his zeal for the mission of the church, JBU elected him to serve as Secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union’s Board of Mission and Evangelism. I remember accompanying him on a deputation to Grenada when he helped the Grenada Baptist Association (GBA) to recognize the danger of cultivating dependence on JBU for the supply of ministers for its work. Jennings helped the GBA to discern a better way, namely, identifying persons whom God was raising up for ministerial service among them and helping these persons born in their country discover their calling to serve the Lord by fulfilling the pastoral calling. This would be supplemented by the Jamaica Baptist Union that would provide scholarships for access to the formal theological education and training for the persons GBA identified.
Fully committed to real solidarity as a member of a Baptist minister’s family, Jennings poured himself into helping to develop and sustain an annual Ministers’ Family Retreat at the Nutshell Conference Centre and contributed liberally to the building up of real solidarity among JBU ministers and their families.
Jennings’ life was not without its challenges. In May 1997, thieves broke into the Mission House where he lived, held him at gun point, tied him up, beat him and relived him of some of his valued possessions, including his wedding ring and treasured Volvo motor car. He survived the ordeal and continued his ministry until his retirement on August 31, 2004.
He returned to Old Harbour to live in the house he had constructed at Belmont Park. He had much to thank God for when he reflected on the 44 years of his service as a minister of the Gospel.
While in retirement, Jennings said farewell to Molly, his beloved wife of 52 years who predeceased him in March 2014. This made him look forward to the time when he would be able to rejoin her in glory.
I had the opportunity to visit with him in the hours before his passing. He knew how much I appreciated him for the guidance he afforded me during my years as a young minister in his twenties. This kind gentleman never wavered in his care for others and those of us who ate his specialty Easter bun and other treats can attest to the cheer he spread among his circle of friends and the members of the churches she served.
On August 10, 2021, he transitioned from this life to receive the reward God has prepared for those who love him. He left behind many who lovingly remember him and give thanks to God for his stewardship.
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