Special to Mid-Ocean News

By Ira Philip

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Great Earl Cameron is back home. He's back, poised to receive during the next several days, accolades never before accorded him in his native Bermuda homeland.

The Bermuda International Film Festival has spearheaded it all, inviting him from London to be its featured guest during this milestone 10th anniversary year of the festival.

We cannot help noting over and over that mention of Earl Cameron always seems to evoke something exciting, even magical, whether its in Britain, where his is unquestionably a household name or elsewhere in the world. Often he's merely referred to as The Great Earl Cameron, with utmost respect, because there something iconographic, enduring, most extraordinary about this stage, screen, television and radio actor; this pioneering Bermudian, who in his 90th year is a hale and hearty as they come. And at the back of it all are the multitude of credits to his name.

BIFF has been most timely in choosing this 'son of the soil' to be its featured guest for "A Conversation With," and to show some of his movies, included the much vaunted "Pool of London," which we will deal with historically later in this article. BIFF would have been most timely if it were for no other reason that the fact of Cameron's role as a Portrait Artist in the recent Academy Award winning film, "The Queen." Or even if it was for his part as "Houdini's Ghost." in the 2006 television series "Dalziel and Pascoe." Or just as contemporaneously for his starring role as Zuvani in the 2005 film "The Interpreter."

But we are assured by BIFF that it's simply because Cameron, with his vast and varied experience is in a class by himself. He's a living legend, Bermuda-born and bred; and to give even more sentimental exactitude, his family homestead was in Victoria Street, Hamilton, one block away from the Liberty Theatre where his films are to be featured during this Festival.

Hopefully through this festival the people of Bermuda will get more profound insights into the background of Earl Cameron and learn something about the massive 60-movies to his credit, to say little or nothing about his radio and television performances. And even before then about his roles in the live theatre.

Back to Pool of Londo> which was his stepping stone into the movies. That was a 1951 film set in postwar London involving racial prejudice, inter-racial romance, and a diamond robbery. Cameron won much critical acclaim for his role; and for many years from then on, he became the best known black actor in England.

The year 1951 Bermuda was reeking with racism. It was almost a decade before the Theatre Boycott that desegregated government sanctioned segregation and racial discrimination in theatres, hotels and other public places. There was clamour in the island for the showing of Cameron's movie. As a reporter for the influential Bermuda RecordeI>the black-owned and operated. newspaper, I called upon the late former Member of Colonial Parliament, Mr. M.A. Gibbons, enquiring about when Pool of Lon would be shown in the Bermuda General Theaters of which he was the boss. He told me in so many words it would never be shown, because there was no way the sensitivities of the people of Bermuda would be violated by that type of movie.

The result was that Bermudians were obliged to travel to cities in North America and Britain in order to see the future Great Earl Cameron.

AMEs BERMUDA ANNUAL CONFERENCE SETS NEW HIGH

It was not quite business as usual at the 121st Bermuda Annual Conference presided over by the Rt. Rev. Richard F. Norris at the Fairmount Southampton Princess Hotel. It was unusual; to say the least, in that the spiritual dynamism overshadowed the business elements, most significant as the latter were. Very often at Church conferences the business overshadows everything else.

The five-day conference came to a climatic end Sunday with the amphitheatre of the hotel, noted for its lively secular and cultural extravaganzas, rocking like never before with powerful preaching, congregational and chorale singing, liturgical dancing and instrumental music. That was the Commissioning Service at which Bishop Norris evidently gave a vote of confidence to Presiding Elder Malcolm Eve and pastors of the eleven local churches by reappointing them to their charges. Not to be overlooked was the enthusiastic responses from segments of the congregation as each appointment singled out.

Bishop Norris is the prelate of the First Episcopal District of the AME Church, a district that includes Bermuda, New Jersey, Delaware, New England, New York, Western New York and Philadelphia. Traditionally the Bermuda Conference is the first of the annual conferences in the district; and it was attended by several dignitaries from various parts of the U.S. who participated in the conference.

The Bishop demonstrated his satisfaction with the work that had been accomplished all along the line during the conference year. He noted it at the dedication of the impressive new parsonage at Pembroke West for St. Paul's AAME Church, Hamilton, where the pastor is the Rev. Lanel Guyton. Also he said he plans to return to Bermuda in April to give further attention of the estimated eight million dollar wing planned for the Miltida Smith Williams Residence; and he smilingly told the Rev. Yvonne Thompson that he's looking forward next year to dedicating the new parsonage underway at St. John's AME Church, Bailey's Bay, where she is pastor.

ORDINATION SERVICE A H IGH POINT

Another high point of the 121 Bermuda Annual Conferences was the Service of Ordination. It took place at noon on Saturday at Mt. Zion AME Church in Southampton West, where the Rev. Dr. Wilbur Lowe is pastor. Although there were only three Ordinates, there was something extraordinary about them as a group and individually. It was the husband and wife team of Rev. Joyce and Rev. Gilbert Hayward, J.P.; and the Rev. Cyril S. Simmons. He is the son of the Rev. Conway Simmons, the veteran pastor of Richard Allen AME Church, St. George's, and a nephew of Rev. Dr. Erskine Simmons

Rev. Gilbert Hayward is one of the six children of the late Rev. Sam Hayward, and his wife Edith. Most significantly, four of the Hayward sibling has become ministers of the gospel, together with one of another of their spouses; and the other two siblings are Lay Ministers. Rev. Joyce Hayward, in her other professional life, is Bermuda's Accountant General.

Preacher at the Ordination Service was the oldest of the Hayward siblings, the Rev.Samuel Eugene Hayward. He is pastor of Hemingway Memorial AME Church in Washington, D.C., together with his wife Rev. Althea Lambert Hayward, daughter of Mrs. Helen Lambert and the late Reuben Lambert of Somerset.

Rev. Samuel Eugene was obviously emotionally charged as he began his sermon. He noted that the ordination of his brother as an itinerant deacon was taking place on exactly the 14th anniversary of the death of their mother. And furthermore, it was in the impressive new Mt.Zion edifice that their father had built during his pastorate there.

Five of the six siblings attended the service. Youngest brother Rev. Keith Hayward, who is pastor of an AME Church in Philadelphia, was unable to be present because of prior commitments abroad.

Siblings sharing in the experience were Rev. Carolyn Armstrong, wife of Rev. Henry Armstrong of the Rhema Ministries. Also Rev. Blanch Hayward Burchall, pastor of Glory Temple, South Side, St.David's; and sister Kathydell Ming, wife of Bro. Brian Ming, Lay Ministers in the Greater Smith Hill Church.

Rev. Joyce Hayward is also a doctoral student, and daughter of James and Eva Chesley of Indiana Head, Maryland. Her only sibling is Dr. James Chesley, M.D. Joyce and Gilbert married seven years ago, following the passing of the his first wife, Mrs. Cherrie Hayward, who was mother to sons Jarroeau Hayward a graduate of Dalhousie University and Jeremie Hayward, soon to graduate from the University of Toronto..