Rev. Dr. Peter Nathaniel Cyril Spencer, J.P.
The Rev. Peter Spencer, former president of the Missionary Church Association in Jamaica (MCAJ), died at home last Sunday, February 2, after a brief illness. He was 80.
Rev. Spencer was widely regarded as a senior statesman of the Jamaican Church community. He had given more than 50 years of service both to the MCAJ and the wider Christian community. In his lifetime, he was:
- Pastor of First Missionary Church, in Kingston;
- President of the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals (now called Jamaica Evangelical Alliance);
- Executive member of the Evangelical Association of the Caribbean (EAC);
- Chairman of the board of Regent College of the Caribbean;
- Chairman of the Kingston Keswick Council;
- Chairman of the Jamaica Theological Seminary;
- Member of the Executive Council of National Evangelistic Crusades.
Sixty-two years ago Rev. Spencer surrendered his life to the Lordship of Christ at the Mandeville Keswick Convention held at the Ridgemount United Church. It is a decision that he never regretted. He once reported that since that day, “It has been a joy to walk with the Lord and to experience His daily presence in my life.”
Having surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and in obedience to the call of God to the Christian ministry, Rev. Spencer enrolled at the Jamaica Theological Seminary in 1960 and was a member of its first graduating class in 1963.
He pursued graduate studies at Columbia International University in South Carolina – breaking the colour barrier as the first black student to be enrolled there in 1963. (At that time it was against the law for a black student to be enrolled in a white college. In celebrating the 50th anniversary of this historic milestone for the University -- the Alumni Association of Columbia International University granted him the Kingdom Impact Honour Award in February 2013.)
After graduate studies, he returned to Jamaica in 1965, was ordained to the Christian ministry and assigned to the pastorate of the First Missionary Church on East Street, downtown Kingston. In 1971 he was appointed President of the Missionary Church in Jamaica.
Rev. Spencer retired from active pastoral ministry in 2008 after more than 50 years of service. As a tribute to his contribution to his local church, his denomination, and wider Christian community in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean, Rev. Spencer was in 2010 conferred with the Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology.
Rev. Spencer leaves behind widow, Cecelia (Madge); daughter, Laurie-Ann, son, Gregg; daughter-in-law Sandra; and two grandchildren; sisters, Valarie, June; brother, Clive and Sister-in-law, Thyra (Patsy); brother-in-law, Claude; nieces and nephews.