The Rev. James Boye- Caulker was born on January 9th, 1964 to Mr. and Mrs. Julius Boye- Caulker. He started his primary education at the United Methodist Church Primary School (Lower), Rotifunk from class 1-4 and the United Methodist Church Primary School, Njagboima in Bo from class 5-7. After successfully completing his primary education, he gained admission to the Government Secondary school in Bo where he schooled from forms 1-3 and later proceeded to the Government Secondary School Kenema from forms 4-6, and sat to the GCE O & A levels examinations and like the Selective entrance Examination, he came out with flying laurels.
After the A levels, the Rev. James Boye- Caulker had the sacred call to the ordained ministry and responded by enrolling at the Sierra Leone Theological College where he read for the Higher Certificate in Pastoral Studies (HCPS) from 1987-1990. He was appointed Student Union President at the Sierra Leone Theological Hall and Church Training Centre in 1989.
Upon graduation, he was ordained as a probationer (Deacon) 1991 and assigned to the Kercher Memorial United Methodist Church, Kenema as Assistant Pastor. He served at the Kercher Memorial United Methodist Church until he was ordained elder in 1993. At Kercher, Rev. Boye- Caulker brought both the young and the elderly together which made Kercher Memorial one of the most outstanding churches in the Kenema Circuit under the Bo District. He was appointed Acting Pastor at Kercher Memorial United Methodist Church, Kenema from 1993-1996.
In I996, Rev. James Boye- Caulker was transferred to the Trebes Memorial United Methodist Church in Bo as Senior Pastor in charge. He served as Senior pastor until 2003 when he was appointed district superintendent of the newly created Kenema district. One of the landmarks whilst serving as senior pastor at Trebes is the initiative of building a new church edifice. During his tenure, he ensured the foundation is laid before he was transferred to Kercher Memorial United Methodist Church, Kenema.
In his quest for education, Rev. Boye-Caulker gained admission to study for the Bachelor’s degree in Theology at the Gbarnga School of Theology in Liberia in 2006-2009. During his studies in Liberia he was appointed Senior Pastor at the A. P. Camphor United Methodist Church, Clara Town, Bushrod Island.
After graduation, he returned to Sierra Leone and was appointed Senior Pastor and Circuit Minister of the Bishop Baughman United Methodist Church in Freetown from 2009 to 2012. In 2012 he was transferred to the King Memorial United Methodist Church as Senior Pastor. During his tenure as Senior Pastor at King Memorial, he was appointed Acting District Superintendent in 2010.
In 2016, Rev. Boye- Caulker was appointed full time District Superintendent of the Western district a position he still occupies.
Rev. James Boye- Caulker also holds a Diploma in Theology from Cliff College in England and a Master of Philosophy degree in Theology from the University of Sierra Leone.
He is currently the Secretary of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry and also Chairman for the Lowell & Ruth Gess Eye Hospital Local Management Committee, Kissy, Freetown.
He is currently a PhD candidate at the Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.
Rev. James Boye caulker is married to Mrs. Janet Boye Caulker and they are blessed with three children James, Jimmy and Julia
Focus Points:
- Church Growth and Evangelism
- Transforming and strengthening congregations for worship
- Strengthening churches
- Making more disciples
- Increase the church membership by one third in the first five years
- Education
- Improve pre-primary and primary education by motivating and monitoring schools to produce enviable results in public examinations.
- Strengthen and encourage both junior and senior Secondary schools to also produce better results in public examinations
- Ensure our students imbibe the United Methodist culture
- Make functional the different schools of the United Methodist University and establishing the school of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences in Bo.
- Annual Conference Arrangements
- Review the Annual Conference arrangements as it relates to the number of days, feeding arrangements and organizations participation in evening programs.
- Ensure representation at Annual Conference is in tandem with the prescription of the latest version of the United Methodist Book Of Discipline
- Health
- Our health facilities to be improved and serve as referral hospitals in the areas they are located.
- Recruit experienced and qualified medical personnel to man our hospitals and health centers
- To establish additional health centers in other places of United Methodist operation thereby ensuring the three fold ministry of Jesus Christ (To teach, preach and to heal)
- Church Property
- To ensure that a property ledger is maintained
- Improve the state of the properties to make them attractive and valuable for business
- Use a portion of the proceeds from the properties for investment into profitable ventures
- Make the conference more business focus than before.
- Staff Welfare
- To review the conditions of service of conference staff including clergy
- Salaries to be reviewed in accordance with qualifications, years of experience and other factors.
- Consider introducing remote allowances and special facilities to pastors in remote mission areas
- Work with CCF&A and the conference finance committee to sort out the prompt payment of benefit to retirees.
- The Ordained Ministry
- Conference will consider qualification to the ordained ministry in accordance with the latest version of the United Methodist Book of discipline.
- The Board will also consider our situation as a conference and use local conference policies to deal with matters of qualification to the ordained ministry.
- Service organizations
- A special leadership summit to be organized for our service organizations. This summit will focus on assessing the state of the service organizations and putting resolutions on how to make them better and stronger.
- A special attention will be given to the Youth and Young adult ministries for very obvious reasons.
- Community Development
- Community engagements on life skills and other building messages in the areas of operation are crucial. CELAD and TRACE are UMC community development agencies and are doing so well in the community.
- We will further encourage an expansion of their work in all UMC operational areas and also include community development interventions.
- Agriculture
- Agriculture will be one of the main focus of the new administration
- Agriculture will be one of conference’s investment areas.
- The main focus is to produce enough for commercialization.
- Same Sex Marriage in the church
- LGBT is a popular topic in the UMC Global church
- The Sierra Leone annual Conference position will be in line with the dictate of the Holy Bible. The UMC/SLAC will also into strong consideration the culture of the African as it relates to same sex marriages.
- The Laity
- The laity is the most important entity in the United Methodist Church.
- This administration will work very closely with the Conference lay leader to empower the laity and ensure the rightful position of the laity is restored in the church.
- This administration will ensure power is given back to the laity. The voice of the laity is crucial and will be listened to.
- Partnerships
- UMC/SLAC has enjoyed a good collaboration from our international partners in areas of Health, Education, Community Development and women’s and Children’s Empowerment.
- This administration will seek to further strengthen UMC/SLAC partnership through continuous dialogue and engagement with our mission partners both international at home.
- We will create an enabling environment for new and existing partners through transparency, accountability and probity in the use of funds.
- Ensure that our partnerships affects the most needed in our societies thus empowering the “least of our brethren”.
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