Reverend Joseph Atkinson - Wapishan villager, Anglican priest 

    Anglican priest Father Joseph Atkinson. Photo credit:  Joseph Atkinson           

On the feast of St. Joseph 19 March 2020, Father Joseph Atkinson who has roots from Santa Rosa celebrated his fourth anniversary as an Anglican priest at his parish on the Essequibo Coast. As such, I would like to share with the Catholic Standard about how Reverend Atkinson became a pastor to shepherd God´s people in one vineyard of Guyana.

Father or Reverend Atkinson, as he is called, was born in Sawariwau, a little Wapishan village, in South Rupununi. However, his parents were originally from Santa Rosa. He narrated to me that in those days, there was an exodus of teachers, namely the Abrahams, the Atkinsons, the Browns, the Robeiros and others, from Santa Rosa to serve in the Rupununi and his late father Conrad Atkinson was among those recruited and he served as an Assistant Teacher.

The Amerindian Anglican sacerdote credited his father´s life-long career as a teacher for inspiring him into becoming a teacher himself. This subsequently prompted the young educator to pursue studies in Primary School Administration at university level. Paralell to being an educator for several years Reverend Atkinson practiced his Catholic faith that was cultivated by this parents who were staunch Catholics.

When I asked what led him to become an Anglican priest, Reverend Atkinson’s response was, “I remembered that first voice or calling several years ago. Like the story of Saul in the New Testament. At the end of a chain of events, I had to yield when the 'Light' metaphorically flashed and I asked, like Saul ‘Who are you, Lord?’ A question that opened up a relationship with God as he slowly reveal my priesthood vocation”.

He continued, “I wrestled with the calling for a long time in my life as I worked as Head Master of the school. To be honest, many times I doubted God and questioned him, how could God choose someone like me to become a priest, a nobody, to be servant of his?. But like Saul, who had committed so many atrocities, God still called him and there's hardly a way one can escape. From then, I will never doubt that God can choose someone as a vessel, whom he had from the beginning to do his work in the vineyard”.

             Anglican priest Father Joseph Atkinson. photo credit: Joseph Atkinson

After retiring from the Head Master position in 2007, reverend Atkinson narrated that everything started to point towards him becoming a leader in the church, as a visible sign to his vocation to the priesthood. He then began to be more active and served as a Parish Lay Assistant in an Anglican community of St Denny, Tapakuma village in Region 2.

His retirement from the school freely allowed him to participate in many events of the church such as training and workshops, along with being engaged in reading, meditating and reflecting of scripture. According to him “these weren't taken for granted and by then I had committed my life and began to look to God for guidance, as the events and circumstances changed my life for ever. Thus, the chain of events literally proved glaringly that God did want me to become a minister in his vineyard, and I never looked back since”.

He continued, “Today after studying at Codrington Theological College in Barbados, here I am assisting to pastor several churches. I was ordained in 2016, Feast of St. Joseph. Currently I serve on the Essequibo Coast and, on a monthly basis in the hinterland as well as far as Quebanna on the Waini”.

Reverend Atkinson leads a normal a life as anyone else being a married Anglican priest. He recognises that there is a restriction for a priest to marry elsewhere. Nevertheless, having a family and being a priest he juggles both responsibilities very well. The priest highlighted that he was long married prior to priestly ministry. According to him “working with my 'better half' at church is phenomenal; my wife sings a lot, while I play the guitar. We enjoy our mission in the hinterland and sense the blessings of God shepherding his children. I value my wife´s complementary tasks in assisting in the Lord´s vineyard”.

When asked what he thinks of the Anglican church in Guyana, he narrated that “It’s doing well although in certain ways I would want it to respond in more effective ways to a changing environment, and our bishop has been very responsive. I know that the church is willing, but due to limited resources there isn't much it can do. Presently our manpower is limited, and the number of churches is increasing also. There is that task to meet the needs of every church community, irrespective of its size and location, especially those in the far reaches of the creeks and rivers”.

“As a 'roving' priest I encounter quite a handful of challenges, in my jungle trails experiences especially, but God has been good, using his creation to aid the spread of His word, unimpeded. His promises are sure and will continue to be so because with God everything is possible. For some it can be challenging to reach out to God´s people and for others like me it’s a glorious opportunity to reach out to the faithful wherever they are placed, or displaced. Including, in some instances, Catholics that attend our services and vice versa.”

Reverend Atkinson´s message to the church is “let’s continue to pray for more priests in Guyana. An inadequate number of priests in Guyana might lead to the inevitable, but with the knowledge that God is in charge, I am excited that many young people will rise to the challenge so that someday our team of priests will be bolstered with the addition of bright young people to carry on the Great Commission of Jesus, in serving God’s people in Guyana”.

In concluding. During the Lenten season, the church is asked to fast and pray. And in this period of the Coronavirus pandemic, there is need to stop the spread of it and for people not to panic. Let our families pray at home to avoid it. God bless!

Married priests in Amazon - just a matter of time 

The Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia or Beloved Amazon just published, confirms that, in Pope Francis’ pontificate, politics takes priority over religion. While keeping his foot on the accelerator of “integral ecology,” he has brought the synod’s religious agenda to a sudden stop.

For the conservatives who fervently defended priestly celibacy, they have reason to be satisfied, or else if Pope Francis had agreed to allow for married priests in the Amazon it would have been a schism within the church. Now the “defenders of faith” can look down on promoters of the married priests/ viri probati, and deaconesses in the Amazon region.

However, traditionally celibacy or the ban of married priests, is not a matter of Canon Law. It’s a tradition, enforced by popes over at least 1,100 years to free priests to be available for mission. But the rule is not absolute. Married Anglican priests who convert to Catholicism may after evaluation and special dispensation from the pontiff be allowed to be Catholic priests but can´t remarry if their wife dies. Data shows that there are 125 married priests, mostly from former Episcopalians, serving in the United States.

When one analyses the discourses of Pope Francis, he raises hopes of people and afterwards keeps them in suspense, but at the bottom line it’s good to generate provocative thinking of the faithful.

The pontiff speaks to different and unique groups of people in the world for example: to gays he told them “who I am to judge you”, to Catholics, “it’s better to be an atheist than to be hypocrite Catholic who most times live a double life”. In this message to atheists he recognised their unique contributions in comparasion to ‘most’ hateful and judgemental Christians. To the Communists he says “they are really closet Christians” meaning that they are fighting to reform capitalism that is distroying humanity, nature and the poor similar sentiments shared by the church´s social teaching. To indigenous people he valued their contribution living sustainable with the nature etc.

To me the pope´s message to these groups echoed a pastoral voice to those who are not getting enough attention from mainstream society to be listened to and valued. Also the different messages to different groups sprang topics of heated discourse within the church with the aim of seeing the good in them and hopefully have an effect on the ground with a view to generating diverse pastoral approaches of the church in our modern world.

The topic of having married priests in the Amazon, of which Guyana is part, I think will happen in its own time. Pope Francis just pushed the button to raise hopes of the people. I believe it´s not impossible but it’s an issue that needs to be carefully discerned and thought out.

Perhaps the Bishops of the Amazon could allow it in their respective dioceses. After all the Bishops are ones in charge of their flock in their respective countries in the Amazon. They know their people and the needs of the local church in the dioceses.

But personally, will married priests solve the problem of shortage of priests in Guyana? For me it’s no. Take the history of Santa Rosa where I am from. My ancestors who came from Venezuela were Catholic when they arrived in Moruca 200 years ago. They survived thirty years without a priest to minister to their spiritual needs. When the priest arrived, he found them strongly united and firm in their Catholic faith. They carried it on by themselves with a lay leader; except the need for some special sacraments like celebration of the Holy Mass that only the priests could perform.

They were grounded in their faith as lay people. So priests or no priests they continued.

The same occurs in the Rupununi and Pakaraimas over the years, where the people are trained and empowered to carry on the local church. This means, they are less dependent on priests or not much priestly oriented in contrast to other areas of the diocese where priests are perceived almost as power houses and gods. This pastoral reality of the indigenous people in Guyana showed that the church in the interior already had the Amazonian face led by lay people. Except the need for important sacraments like marriage, confirmation inter alia which are performed quarterly by the visiting sacerdote.

Thus, married lay people in the interior continue to do wonderful work for the church, despite there being challenges and difficulties. This being said, the danger is having too many priests and missionaries among them to jeopardise the unique church approach by over clericalizing it, which can disempower the laity. If this happens, it would be sad.

As a lay man I am not against priests and sacramental ministries, I valued their pastoral roles shepherding the faithful. But where a cultural tradition of a lay led church or lay vocations has been cultivated over the years, it should not be thrown out of the window for something new which we haven’t fully understood.

In conclusion, from an anthropological standpoint, before western religions like Catholicism entered indigenous culture how did we survive? Having priests and missionaries to journey with us are all “new” traditions and practices. This doesn´t mean that we must ignore the conventional vocations to the priesthood, religious life mission, and the teaching of Christ to bring people closer to God.

M.A