13 Feb On This Day in UB History: February 13

The 1975 Jamaica Annual Conference, which began on February 13, represented a significant transition. First of all, it was the first conference held at the new Malvern camp. But the main change involved leadership.

For seven years, the conference superintendent had been Rev. A. N. Braithwaite. He was pretty much the last of the early leaders whose efforts, since the mid-1940s, had built Jamaica Conference. His colleagues had retired or moved on. Now, a new generation was ready to take charge.

It started with Rev. Lloyd Spencer (right), who was elected at the 1975 meeting as conference superintendent. He was a relatively young minister in a role which had always gone to an older minister or to a missionary. Whereas Braithwaite had served fulltime as superintendent, Spencer continued pastoring the York Town church.

Within two years, the conference council included five more members of this younger generation–Jasper Green, Owen Gordon, Donald Dacres, Ormande Harris, and Isaac Nugent. Others–Winston Smith, Basil Dunkley, Trevor Williams–were waiting in the wings. Many of these new leaders grew up in UB churches under the ministry of that earlier generation of ministers. Which is exactly the way it should work.

Lloyd Spencer continued as senior superintendent for 19 years, finally stepping aside in 1994. But a few years later, he returned as General Superintendent until 2002. At that point he concluded 40 years as a Jamaica Conference minister, church planter, evangelist, and superintendent.