Diaconal Duty in Jamaica

As a newly ordained deacon, Br John spent July and August working in our parishes in Jamaica, and here shares some of his memories from the summer.

Forty-eight hours after I was ordained a deacon by the Archbishop of Birmingham, I was on my way to Jamaica, there to spend the next two months learning the pastoral ropes and supporting our work in the Caribbean. Our Kingston set-up is perfectly suited to a Dominican mission, and there was plenty for me to get stuck into right-away. We live in a house on the site of the Diocesan seminary, there is a major hospital and university across the road, and our two parish churches are a short drive away, one (Aquinas) 2 minutes up the road, and the other (Christ the King), 5 minutes down the road.

The first responsibility I had, beginning the day after I arrived, was to preach at Mass every day. It was a great learning experience among a very encouraging and appreciative congregation, aided by voluble responses and the spontaneous completion of scripture-quotes. Fr Clifton is the superior and parish priest, and I learnt a huge amount from his tireless ministry. Much of his time is spent driving round Kingston, responding to the various needs of his parishioners, whether home visits, deliveries, bread runs, or transporting case loads of frozen vegetables. It is said that the work of a parish priest is to hatch, match, and dispatch, and I was certainly given plenty of exposure to these typical, and some other atypical, parish duties. I prepared a couple for marriage, I preached at funerals and led prayers for the dead in funeral homes, and my summer came to a wonderful conclusion when I baptised five babies during my final Sunday Mass.

Preaching at Christ the King

Each of our parishes has its own character, and both were incredibly kind and welcoming to me. The first evening I was at Mass at Aquinas I was given a huge hug by one of the children after he received a blessing at communion, and that set the tone for the next two months. Aquinas was originally set up by the Jesuits as a parish for the university and hospital, and much of our congregation works at one or the other in some capacity. The parish has a very active SVP that does lots of important work in the neighbourhood, and a devoted prayer group, to whom I gave talk on the rosary midway through my stay. Next door to Aquinas is a mission called Mary’s Child, a home for teenage mothers and one of a number of projects set-up by a local charity. The mothers all attend Sunday Mass at the parish, and I had a wonderful time running some catechism classes with a group of them who had asked for their babies to be baptised.

Our other parish, Christ the King, is in August Town, a rougher part of Kingston that still has a military presence put in place to combat the dominance of the gangs. The parish has a ‘Basic School’ nearby (2-5yrs old) and Fr Clifton organises a distribution of bread round the parish each week, aided by some of the teenagers. The congregation there enjoys longer homilies and has a vibrant music ministry. Shortly after arriving, my 25 minute Sunday homily was followed by another 25 minutes of electric praise and worship (correlation not causation!). It felt wonderfully spontaneous, the music accompanied by plenty of dancing down the aisle, and all led by Peggy, the parish cantor and headteacher at the Basic School.

A noticeable reality in both parishes is the lack of young people. Although secularisation feels quite distant in such a faith-filled culture, fewer and fewer actually practice their faith, and with a small Catholic population (1-2% of the country), young adults ministry is an especially important one. In this context one of the most enjoyable and rewarding parts of the summer was a young adults retreat we organised for both parishes. Together with Fr Bede, who had arrived halfway through my stay to begin his first assignation, we gathered around 30 teenagers and young adults at a retreat centre situated on the grounds of one of Kingston’s major Catholic schools. There was an encouraging enthusiasm from those who participated, particularly from the older group. It’s an event we hope to repeat, and served as a launch pad for more regular young adult work in the parishes.

Some outdoor games during the young adults retreat

By the end of two months driving round Kingston and beyond I felt I had got to know the city pretty well, and almost felt comfortable driving myself. The first piece of advice Fr Peter gave me on arriving was ‘assume cars with a red number plate (taxi drivers) want to kill you’. It’s an important instinct to develop on Kingston roads, along with the assumption that there will always be a pothole just in front of you. The road signs provide helpful reminders too, such as “the undertaker loves careless overtakers”. On a few occasions we got out of Kingston, whether driving up to the edge of the Blue Mountains for stunning views over the city and the sea, or making a day trip to Montego Bay on the north coast for a swim. We ate very well too, treated to great Jamaican food in the house by Miss Dawn, our cook. Miss Dawn was a source of plenty of Jamaican wisdom and Clifton often sent me off with a grin on his face to quiz her about Jamaican culture. Miss Dawn’s preferred radio station, on all day in the kitchen, is Radio Jamaica, which has a lunchtime discussion show with a very Dominican tagline: Radio Jamaica, where truth comes to live and lies come to die.

Among the most moving of my pastoral experiences was a visit to a woman named Theresa, who was in a coma at a local hospital. Her family had asked Fr Clifton to anoint her, and we made our way there after the Sunday morning Masses at Aquinas. The two of us were left alone in her room when we visited. I remember the beep of a hospital machine chiming in rhythm with our recitation of the litany of saints as we commended her soul to God. There was something especially powerful about the depth and simplicity of the rite, a faithful Christian soul sent forth from this world. Theresa died later that night. It was clear from that visit that what we brought was not ourselves, but the prayers of the Church. The only reason we were there was to represent Christ.

I had the same thing in mind towards the end of my stay when I was asked to attend a small gathering for a recently deceased parishioner of Christ the King, Mr Roy. The women of the parish had arranged to visit his widow, Mrs Roy, and hold a prayer service in her home. We met-up at around 8pm, and walked through the lively streets of August Town towards Mrs Roy’s house. I was certainly grateful for the company of Peggy, Sandra, Donna, and the rest of the group as we walked through a rowdy 5-a-side football tournament on our way there. When we arrived, Peggy led us in praise and worship, interspersing her beautiful singing with prayers and words of comfort, and during that time I gave a short reflection. We had some food afterwards on the street outside, some chicken foot soup, whilst the men were playing dominoes nearby. It felt like an immense privilege to be there, welcomed into the heart of this community as a group of women gathered and sang and prayed to comfort their mourning sister. The only reason I was there was as some kind of representative of Christ.

The end of the two months came round rather too quickly. I headed back to the UK for my final year of studies greatly enriched by all that I had received in Kingston. There were so many encounters to treasure, whether with the faithful group of daily Mass-goers, hope-filled young adults, or dancing Archbishops. The brothers are doing an enormous amount of good in Jamaica, and it was a great joy to share in their work for a couple of months.

If you would like to support the friars’ work in Jamaica and Grenada, please donate here.