The Rev. Dr. Horace Russell as he delivered the sermon at the funeral of former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer on July 18 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston.
-Rudolph Brown photo
Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
AFTER BEING out of the national limelight for a long while, the Rev. Dr. Horace Russell resurfaced last month when he delivered the sermon at the July 18 State funeral for former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer.
Regarded as one of the foremost luminaries on Caribbean Church History, the Rev. Dr. Russell, who is now in his 70s, has in his long ecclesiastical career held many local and international posts that served the caused of ecumenism. At this point in his life, as 'A Senior Statesman of the Church', he is eager to share his knowledge and wisdom with young people, pastors, and politicians.
The Rev. Dr. Russell left Jamaica in the 1990s to become part of the faculty of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, where he was Dean of Chapel and Professor of Historical Theology until a few months ago when he officially retired. He still, however, teaches once-weekly a class called Integrated Seminar, in which he tries to help students set in a practical framework all the things they have learnt in seminary. But his substantive post these days is that of pastor of the 200-member Saints Memorial Baptist Church in Bryn Mawr, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
Pastoral work in Philadephia, he said, is not much different from doing ministry at East Queen Street Baptist Church in Kingston where he spent 13 years before migrating to the United States.
YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL
"The ordinary day-by-day ministry of counselling and administration is not very different except that you have to be very careful the litigious nature of the society is such that you have to be very careful what you say and how you say and with whom you say. So you have to always watch your back even with your best of friends, they might not do anything, but somebody else might," he said.
"Ministry (in the US) has been affected by the scandals that has accrued to the Church in terms of the innuendos of sex... gender issues, homosexuality etc-Young people are maturing much quicker, and you almost have to accelerate your programmes of ethics and morality but not to such an extent that they grow-up too quickly," Dr. Russell said. "We need to take seriously the whole sexual revolution. There are some things that are clear to me. Number one of which is that if you are a pastor and you are in active ministry, or if you are a bishop, in active bishopric, there is no place for this practising homosexual business. There is no room for it in ministry. If you are inclined that way, you are not supposed to be in the kitchen."
HOMOSEXUALITY
He acknowledges homosexuality to be, theologically, a sin. But in terms of its social dimensions, he admits his own hesitation in labelling it as sin. He leaves room to recognise a validity in same-sex relationships. "I am not so certain where I stand on some of that stuff (same-sex unions). I have seen situations where there are committed Christians who are in these faithful relationships. I look at them, and I don't know what to think. To ask me to call that marriage, I ain't get there. To ask me to say you must protect each partner in terms of economics, in terms of social benefits I am in their corner for that. It should be legislated.
THEY ARE HUMAN BEINGS
They are human beings, one can mess up the other, it is important that the innocent party don't suffer. I am all for that."
At its root, he said, homosexuality is a form of idolatry. He argued as follows:
God has created heterosexual marriage as the vehicle for the propagation of life.
Life is not possible in same-sex relationships.
Therefore, persons in same-sex relationships are proclaiming 'I know better than God how this thing must work out.'
Churches, he said, need to be at the cutting edge of technology as persons attending worship services these days are increasingly sophisticated. He is himself using Powerpoint presentations to complement his preaching, he told The Gleaner.
He disclosed that if he were able to start over his 40-odd year career in ministry he would devote more time to pastoral visitation. "Visitation is the key. Preaching is important and good. But it ain't
preaching that changes the lives of people. It is that little visit sitting down one-to-one. Holding people's hand when it hurts - sometimes saying nothing, just being there."
HAD CANCER
He recounted a treasured story about a time when he was ill with a particular type of cancer. While recuperating, after surgery, he was lying on a hospital bed with several tubes attached to him and he could not talk.
"The best hospital visit that I had was from one of my colleagues at the seminary (United Theological College of the West Indies), who came, stood beside the bed. I could not say anything, he could not say anything. He just held my hand, stood there, looked at me. He sat down read a book, I think. His presence was there in the room. Then he said goodbye. Said a prayer and left after about 30 minutes. He did not exchange a word, and now 14 years afterwards, and I can still remember that. That taught me something."
He said too that if he were just getting into ministry, he would spend more time in particular, visiting the bereaved after the funeral. Continued visitation after the funeral, he said, is crucial and critical as it helps people greatly to reorder their world after the devastating sense of loss that death brings.
At his Philadephia church, he has established what he called the Lystra Club. "This is a place where people can come to 'beef-off'. Whether it is a matter of bereavement, stress from divorce, abuse - whatever it is. There is no agenda. It is not convened at the church. On the third Saturday of every month, we just sit around a table and a prayer is said. Sometimes we might talk about how to handle grief or how to handle stress. Somebody might give a talk. People are free to speak. People free not to speak. They can come and leave anytime. If something is too touching and one feels like leaving one is free to do so and no one holds that against that person. There is a meal at the end of it. It (the Lystra Club) has been a tremendous source of healing," he said.
CLOSE FRIENDSHIP WITH SHEARER
Though he left Jamaica over a decade ago, Jamaica has not left him. He visits his homeland with some regularity. He keeps himself up-to-date with happenings here and occasionally he pens 'Letter From Philadelphia', an opinion piece which is published in this newspaper. All his life he has been rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of the island.
Few would have been surprised that he was chosen to deliver the sermon at Mr. Shearer's funeral as the two had a fairly close friendship dating back to the 1950s. Mr. Shearer, he said, was "A very private person- he ain't going out there to clap or shout hallelujah. But he was a deeply religious person and very principled in terms of what was right and what was wrong and was very hard on himself when he messed up. He was a person who prayed, but he ain't gonna kneel down and pray as such. Prayer was an everyday lifestyle - you just assume it. He practised the presence. He had a fear (reverence) of God. If you want to get him riled - then utter any kind of oblique reference that denigrates the spiritual or God."
Asked how he had evolved theologically after many years of experience as a pastor and theologian, he said:"I don't know that I have evolved as such. I think if anything, it is much more simple. I can give all the arguments for 'x, y and z' and I can give you a whole booklist. I think the older you get the simpler it becomes. I did not understand that at the beginning. As a young man, you can't come to it now.
"I say this, give me the conservative people when they are old. When you are young, you need to be liberal and passionate and questioning and be a little heretic and all of that. Give me those when they are young. But by the time they reach my age, they will nearly get it right. But if you get it right when you young, God help you when you are old. I use words like 'liberal' and 'conservative' but these are not true words. I don't know who is liberal and who is conservative. I have been trying to find that out all my life."
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