“The brave died never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men” [Minot J. Savage]
Time flies! It’s about 25 years now, [since] me and my family have lived [in] and worked [from] Brewerville, Montserrado County, the town about 13 miles from the city center of Monrovia, the Capital of Liberia. Two of my clerical acquaintances, man of the cloth, Rev. Dr. Walter D. Richards and Rev. Dr. Jeremiah W. Walker, both senior Baptist Ministers, have transitioned from labor to rest in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Dr. Richards and I were much closer.
He, the late venerable Rev. Jimmie K. Dugbe, Sr. from the Liberia Assemblies of God, and I led the tireless efforts that resulted into the conduct of the largest prayer crusade, estimated one-hundred-thousand attendants, in the history of our country, held in February 2002 at the SKD Sports Stadium in Paynesville, Liberia.
That crusade ran simultaneously across the country virtually in the headquarters of every county, the main political sub-division of Liberia. It brought all the churches together regardless of creed, status, etc.
“Walter D” as we called him sometimes, came to our home often and even participated in events at New Water in the Desert Assembly where Marie and I pastor. I served on the Board of Directors of Liberia Opportunities Industrialization Center (LOIC) with him for about 10 years and disappointed him when he tried to court me to succeed him as Chairperson of the Board during preparations for his retirement.
No wonder after his burial, his darling wife, Ora mentioned to me that she saw a surprising note in her husband’s apartment downtown, where he mentioned me as one of five persons to be contacted in case of an emergency. May his soul rest in peace!
Dr. Walker, commonly called “Jerry” was a ‘distant’ friend and a senior colleague in the ecumenical community. We interacted occasionally unlike Dr. Richards. But he was a committed and dedicated person. When he retired from Lott Carey Baptist Mission School in Brewerville in 2008, I visited him at his home a couple of times.
When he went to his eternal home last month, I wasn’t fortunate to be at his home-going ceremonies in Careysburg, Montserrado County – where he was born – due to other pressing demands, even though I visited his home, Lott Carey Mission and passed through the Wake-keeping program at Zion Grove Baptist Church in Brewerville where Rev. John D. Karmo, my ‘son-in-law’ pastors.
However, I feel like I am missing something by not saying something about “Jerry”, even if not on stage but on page, about the man I came to know and interacted with. The Apostle Paul admonishes us in Romans 13:7 to “render to all their dues… tribute, custom, fear, honor…” I don’t think I’ve paid him my due!
That’s why as a practicing instructor of Theology at the emerging Apostolic Pentecostal College in Brewerville, I’ve developed the outline below to reflect some of my memories of this astute educator and accomplished church leader, The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah “Jerry” Winslow Walker:
- ECUMENICAL LEADERSHIP: Dr. Walker, like Dr. Richards were founding members of the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) as members of the Baptist Convention. He became Second Vice President between 1992 and 1994, First Vice President between 1994 and 1996 and President – and by extension of the Inter-Religious Council of Liberia (IRCL) also, between 1996 and 1998 while Rev. Steven W. Muin, the dynamic Pentecostal pastor who raised the funds to procure the current 3-floor offices of the LCC, served as General Secretary. He was succeeded by Bishop William Nah Dixon of Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church. Rev. Walker led the LCC during the first post-civil-war Presidential and General elections in Liberia and took the [South African] Archbishop Desmond Tutu Peace Prize, on behalf of the IRCL for the religious community’s tireless efforts to help restore peace to Liberia and helped initiate inter-religious dialogue across the continent of Africa.
During 29th General Assembly of LCC held with New Water in the Desert Apostolic Pentecostal Church in March 2014, he along with other founding fathers including Archbishop George D. Browne (posthumously), Archbishop Michael K. Francis (posthumously), Bishop Arthur F. Kulah, Archbishop William N. Dixon, Rev. Dr. Walter D. Richards, among others, were honored for their Outstanding Leadership to the Church and the State. This was a part of the resurgence activities Episcopal Bishop Jon B. B. Hart and I initiated when we became leaders of the LCC in September 2012.
- CO-INCIDENCE: When Monrovia descended into chaos during attempts to arrest former ULIMO-J leader, Roosevelt D. Johnson, in April 1996 Dr. Walker and I showed up at Faith Baptist Church in Moulton Corner – Brewerville during one of their regular worship services when Rev. Abraham Brisbane served as pastor. It was like we had planned to be there together. The local church saw it as a blessing to have had the two of us worship with them on that day without any prior notice to them – at least not from me. I’ve often thought about his sermon on that day: “Where is God?” Psalms 14:1, in the midst of the April 6 chaos. When about 12 armed men later attacked our home in the AG “Bible College” community, on April 19 he was full of concern for our lives and safety. [Thanks to my wife who showed such extra-ordinary courage – through God’s grace – by disarming the robbers of their ability to cause danger when she took hold of their only fire-arm while they ordered me to sit on the floor with Korto crying besides me, before she, my wife, starting shouting like Blind Bartimaeus, for community help. And surely it came resulting in the formation of community watch teams to protect lives and properties in our communities].
Another record of co-incidence was when former Anti-Terrorists Unit (ATU) officers of former President Taylor assigned at the main gate to the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Stadium during the national prayer crusade in February 2002 turned he and others away on the third day because of the huge crowd already in and out of the stadium. I arrived just in time and intervened. When Dr. Walker turned around and saw me, he yelled: “Rev. Brown, Rev. Brown, they’re stopping us from entering the stadium”. One of the officers who later became a lawmaker walked in my back and remarked: “Rev. Brown, even in heaven there is order”.
I agreed but insisted that the prayer meeting was for the people – and not the government – and so the people should be allowed to go in and pray to their God to bring peace and tranquility to a troubled country. Dr. Walker and others made their way into the stadium.
- CONSULTATION: Another incident I recalled was when a group of church leaders met at his offices at Lott Carey Baptist Mission in early 1997 to consult on the role of the church in the planned 1997 Presidential and General Election intended to have ended a seven-year bloody fratricide in the country. The debate was intense but constructive. People argued for and against the “Church” getting directly involved in resolving the leadership question of the country. The desire to build on that meeting to more clearly define the role the church could play didn’t materialize as expected. So church leaders only grumble in their corners with some maintaining that the solution to the state of affairs was for church leaders as citizens, to get directly engage into providing leadership for the country, after-all, it was the churches that held up the country while politicians, who brought and/or supported the civil war, fled.
- BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS: I knew him as relationship builder also. He Invited me to speak at one of the weekly assemblies of students at Lott Carey Baptist Mission in November 2001. Before then he and boyhood friend, Baynard Benson bucked up my wife to play a leadership role in the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) when our daughter, Korto attended Lott Carey. During the 2007 general assembly of the Liberia Council of Churches held with S.T. Nagbe UMC on 13th Street, Sinkor, he suggested to me when he received a “note of concern” from a reported resident of the “Water in the desert” community that someone was trying to use our physical address to sow a seed of discord between us. When we married one of his successor pastors to one of our daughters, Bettie Simpson from New Water in the Desert Assembly, Dr. Walker participated in the ceremonies with keen interest in the detailed order of the solemn occasion.
- POLITICS: “Mr. President, it is a pressure-technique!” Those where his exact words during a 4-hour meeting between national church leaders and former President Charles G. Taylor in November 2002 at the Executive Mansion. The meeting turned out to be acrimonious when Archbishop Michael Francis suggested to President Taylor that he wasn’t interested in his job as some people tried to make him believe, because his assignment, as Archbishop [of the Catholic Church of Liberia] and by extension his religious responsibilities to the state, were more than being President of Liberia. The President took offense and the meeting slide into serious arguments with the President threatening to “disgrace” any church leader who will try to belittle his office.
Before then churches under the auspices of LCC and Liberia for Jesus Prayer Crusade (LFJ) across the country had ordered all their welfare institutions I.e. schools, health centers, etc. to go slow to protest government functionaries personal attacks on Bishop Francis due to his stance on human rights, rule of law, social justice, etc.
In the end, the President backed-off and appealed for the go-slow action to be lifted and the leaders subsequently accepted his appeal after consultations at the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church on 14th Street, Sinkor, Monrovia, a few hours later. Dr. Walker described the that serious commotion as a “pressure technique” intended to gain attention just before we left the Executive Mansion.
- CHALLENGES: The previous Baptist Convention or LBMEC leadership crisis I think was one of his biggest challenges. I remembered one night in 2005 I took one of the “parties” to the conflict led by Rev. Rudolph Marsh to his home in Brewerville to assure him of this group’s willingness to ‘compromise’ in the interest of the church and appeal to him to help intervene in order to resolve the conflict. Two days later, he ranged my phone to “complain” that the people I had brought to his house the previous night to help find an amicable solution to the church saga had taken the Convention to court while the body was seated at the Providence Baptist Church in downtown Monrovia. Rev. Walker had a lot of other challenges. In-fact some will argue that his intimidation by the erstwhile People’s Redemption Council (PRC) after the 1980 coup help laid the groundwork for the formation of the Liberia Council of Churches to strengthen the prophetic voice of the church in the country.
- LEGACY: The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah W. Walker will be remembered as an International Church Leader, Educator, Theologian, Philosopher, Teacher, Community Mobilizer, etc. He will be remembered for his years of toiling at Lott Carey Baptist Mission School and his work with such national impact groups like the Liberian Council of Churches, Inter-religious Council of Liberia, Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention, WAEC, Cuttington University, etc. He wasn’t faultless, like any of us, but he served his country and people well in the fields God destined him. He was a calm and assuring voice. He resembled a statesman and he led a stately life! Liberia lost him in his 83rd year.
Jeremiah Winslow Walker belongs to a generation of religious leaders who provided spiritual guidance to the people and nation of Liberia over the last 50 years. They were bold and courageous. They believed, like the people of Klay Town where I was born used to do in the past, in the “strength of the community “as opposed to the prevailing individualistic drive taking roots in the Christian community in Liberia at the moment. “We are stronger together!”
They eschewed selfishness and personal pride and laid their lives down for the church and the country. Many were educated in the West but they refused to be held captive by the mere thoughts of only seeking comfort for themselves and their families. They believed the motherland was worth standing for. So they risked their lives, their happiness, and their future. They heavily invested in the future of the country by focusing on the education of the younger generation.
They deserve their due! As Emily Potter once said: “Heroes never die. They live on forever in the hearts and minds of those who would follow in their footsteps”
By Rev. Dr. Kortu K. Brown