An alliance of pastors has taken steps to ensure that the monumental contributions of a friend are not forgotten by the community he loves.
Dr. Rev. C.V. Jetter will be honored for decades of service during an appreciation service on Sunday, Dec. 2 at 4 p.m. at Christ Missionary Baptist Church, 1001 Eugene St.
The service, which is sponsored by the Interdenominational Ministers Alliance and the Baptist Ministers Alliance, will include praise and worship and tributes to Jetter and his wife Cleveola.
“We’re trying to get as many people and churches as possible to come together and honor Dr. Jetter,” said Rev. Melvin Girton, pastor of Christ Missionary Baptist Church and host of the service.
Rev. Arthur Sample, pastor of Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, has been selected by the Baptist Ministers Alliance to serve as chairman of the event.
Jetter is serving in his 51st year as pastor of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church and at age 91 he is the city’s oldest presiding Baptist minister. He is among the few surviving members of a generation that included prominent Black ministers such as Andrew J. Brown, Arthur Johnson, Mozel Sanders and Stacy Shields.
It was this generation of pastors who, under Jetter’s leadership in 1960, established the Concerned Clergy, a local civil rights and advocacy organization still active today.
A native of South Carolina, Jetter earned the value of hard work and survival early in life. As a child he chopped firewood to earn 10 cents a day, and remembers his family being forced to eat horse meat during the desperate days of the Great Depression.
Jetter accepted Christ at the age of 16 and gradually worked his way through Grads Bible College while most of his six children were in high school. After serving at churches in Kentucky and Ohio he was asked to become pastor of Shiloh in 1956.
He immediately organized a successful $150,000 campaign to renovate the church’s original building at 701 West St. In 1970, after a devastating fire, Jetter led the congregation into its current facility at 3801 Forest Manor Ave., which has undergone expansions to accommodate growing athletic, child care and education ministries.
In 1967 Jetter became the first Baptist minister from the city to open a session of the U.S. Congress with prayer, and served on Mayor William Hudnut’s community Task Force. He has also been active as a leader in the National Baptist Convention USA, serving as moderator of the Indianapolis District during the 1980s and as a national vice president.
Congresswoman Julia Carson issued a proclamation honoring Jetter, and other officials have sent him letters of recognition. Mayor Bart Peterson praised Jetter for his “tireless dedication to reach out to those in need,” and Gov. Mitch Daniels thanked him for leading a “thriving congregation that has a positive impact on the community.”
Jetter has been sidelined by a series of illnesses recently and is living in a nursing home. Girton and Sample would like to see Jetter honored and not simply pushed aside because of the effects of old age.
“He has done mammoth work for this city and he is one of our most dedicated, outstanding preachers,” said Girton. “It isn’t right to just discard him after all that he has done for this community and the church he has built.”
Cards or gifts for Rev. Clyde Virgil Jetter may be sent to Regency Place Health Care and Rehabilitation Center c/o C.V. Jetter, 5226 E. 82nd St., Indianapolis, IN 46250.
