REVEREND Glen Archer died as a dry martyr. The term is used to describe those who were not murdered or killed for the Christian faith, but endured hardships such as poverty or illness in order to promote Jesus Christ. The word ‘dry’ means that no blood was spilled, as in the case of ‘wet’ martyrs. That Archer opted to stay in Jamaica qualifies him as a dry martyr. Glen Archer was not only an exceptionally successful spelling bee coach, he was also a father figure for many of his students.

Glen Archer was a Church of God minister, not a Roman Catholic priest or religious brother, and not a monk in any monastery in any religion. But he was celibate in a church where he had the option to get married. He was never pastor of a church, but he carried out his apostolate in teaching students, and among his lessons was the teaching of values. Many Roman Catholic priests are not pastors of churches but give service in other areas, like most priests in religious orders.

Although we usually associate celibacy with Roman Catholic priests and nuns, there are many ministers in other churches who opt to take the route of celibacy, even in Jamaica. The late Anglican Lord Bishop Percival Gibson, the Reverend Denzil Savor Robertson, a Baptist minister who taught me at Jamaica College, and the late Norman McMahon, a firebrand anti-Roman Catholic Seventh-day Adventist comes to mind immediately.

Whenever anyone writes or speaks about the advantages of sacrificial celibacy for the population there is always a knee-jerk reaction to it. “What if everyone was celibate?” How would humanity continue? Celibacy was never about trying to end human life. Celibacy is about making a sacrifice to promote human life and marriages, which about 95 per cent of all human beings are called to. Marriage is a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church that has mandatory celibacy for priests in its Western rite.

In the Eastern rite of the Catholic Church, a priest who is ordained in the unmarried state is not allowed to marry, but a married man can be a priest. The bishops are obliged to be celibate and this rule applies to all branches of the Orthodox Church including the Ethiopian Orthodox Church where married men are ordained to the priesthood but their bishops are celibate. Married clergy in the Western rite are mainly deacons who were married before ordination.

The first reason for celibacy is to follow the celibate example of Jesus Christ. The second reason is for service. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it still remains only a single seed. But if it dies it will produce many seeds.” John 12: 48. Please also read 1 Corinthians: 7. Celibacy is a discipline in the Roman Catholic Church, but not doctrine. The law could very well change one day for celibacy to be optional for diocesan priests, but not for priests in religious orders because they take a vow of chastity.

In answer to all of those who say celibacy is only about providing a haven for paedophiles, I state again that paedophilia is unacceptable and wrong, no matter who does it; and second, the percentage of such people among the priesthood is very low. Incidentally, marriage is the biggest cover for homosexuality and paedophilia, not celibacy. Thanks be to God, I do not hear anyone saying that marriage should be abolished because of the thick wall cover that it provides for paedophiles and homosexuals.

Glen Archer attended St George’s College and I attended Jamaica College. We did not know each other in our high school days. One day in the early 1990s he recognised me from my photograph in the Jamaica Record and introduced himself. His car, which was a Lada, was being repaired while I had sold my Fiat 124 and resigned myself to being a commuter until I could do better. We had several conversations after that whenever our paths crossed.

My first article in the Jamaica Record in July 1988 was about priestly celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church. In that article, which was taken from my own newsletter that I published for Roman Catholic students in schools not Roman Catholic, I gave a historical account of how priestly celibacy developed in the Roman Catholic Church. Did Glen Archer’s attendance at St George’s College, when the school was far more “Catholic” than today, influence his choice of being a sacrificial celibate like the Jesuits who taught him? I do not know but it might have. May his soul rest in peace.

Fourteen years ago in 2001, in supermarket, I bucked up a JC old boy of my era who is an evangelical minister. He asked me, as minsters of religion in several denominations have, to address the youth fellowship at his church. He wanted me to talk about service because, as he said, if it is one thing the Roman Catholic Church can teach about, is service, and he gave Mother Teresa (Now Saint Teresa of Calcutta) and Father Richard Ho Lung as examples.

I told him that if I gave the talk I would have to talk about the advantages of having celibate priests and nuns for missionary service. He never called me. It seems that my JC evangelical parson colleague decided to duck this one quickly. A few years later I saw him somewhere and asked him why he never called me. He gave an excuse and said that he would soon do it. He never did.

Apart from the hearty laugh that I hope that you are having, I write this to reinforce the point that celibacy is about service, even though my JC schoolmate was not ready for service at that level. But he could not be, as he was already married and one of his sons was with him when he asked me to give the talk. Perhaps he did not want the youngsters in his church to ask him how come he is not celibate.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com