By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Right: Fr. James Munroe, third year Anglican theological student at UTCWI. Left: The Rev. Dr. Artnel Henry, Minister at the Red Hills Methodist Church and Rock Hall Methodist Church. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer. Far left: The Rev. Dr. Garnett Brown, executive chairman of the Church of God in Jamaica. - Contributed
This week The Gleaner continues its profile of five well-known Jamaicans, who, in their mature years, opted to study theology in response to the call of God on their lives to pastoral/priestly ministry. These are the Five Theological Late Bloomers. Last week, The Gleaner featured, Fr. Easton Lee, of St. Margaret's Church, Liguanea and Fr. Ralph Michael 'Jim' Parkes, final-year student at the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI). This week we profile the Rev. Dr. Artnel Henry; the Rev. Dr. Garnett Brown; and
Fr. James Munroe.
FOR ALL his life, the Rev. Dr. Artnel Henry has been in the church. In fact, he was a lay preacher for 36 years until he entered the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) in 2001 as a 69-year-old student where he did a one-year certificate course specially designed and arranged by the Methodist Church. He believes being of mature age aided his studies. UTCWI, Pastor Henry explained, represented a kind of formalising of a lot of what he already knew as an active churchman and lay preacher.
Mixing with persons who could be his children, he said, was a pleasant experience and he willingly and generously supplied advice when fellow students sought him out.
For the last two years the Rev. Dr. Henry has been the Minister at the Red Hills Methodist Church and the Rock Hall Methodist Church. He works closely with Rev. Gilbert Bowen, Minister at Saxthorpe Methodist Church on Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, in giving pastoral oversight to the other churches in the Western St. Andrew Circuit. These churches are located at Stony Hill, Allman Hill, Essex Hall and Sterling Castle.
Best known for his pioneering work and service as executive director of the Jamaica Bureau of Standards, the Rev. Dr. Henry reflected: "Throughout my 28 years at the Bureau I kept looking back and saying 'how do I say thanks to God for a successful academic career and successful professional career?' I said the only way I can say thanks is to spend my last days in ministry."
He continued: "I recognised I had a call but it was not a dramatic call. It was something that was built up over time and which grew on me." For his wife Merle, pastoral ministry was not a major adjustment, as she had grown accustomed to accompanying him and lending her support to his ministry as a lay preacher. Interestingly, he is not the only clergyman in the family. His son, Michael Henry, pastors a Seventh-Day Adventist Church in St. Mary.
Ministry, he concedes, is exciting, challenging but not without its culture shocks. "I am somewhat shocked, when I see people living a double standard in the church. Christians who gamble for example; the words that they use in a simple argument; and the lifestyle that is saying I am in the world and I am in the church."
Pastor Henry maintains that his experiences in the public sector has made him more effective in ministry. "The reason for the downturn in some churches is that their administrative capabilities are weak. Hence things like communication, planning, delegation and organisation are loose-ended. These need to be much more formalised."
He is into systems-management and is crafting short and long-term plans for his pastoral charges. "One of my strong areas is the area of administration. If given the opportunity to help strengthen the administrative end or the administrative area of ministry then I have a contribution to make." Furthermore, he says, "The church has quite a bit of resources that need management (However) the hardest thing right now is to get those who were there before to change their method of approach to management. You have to slowly offer the service from your area of strength," he said.
REV. DR. GARNETT BROWN
Unlike the other theological late bloomers, the Rev. Dr. Garnett Brown did not attend the UTCWI. Instead he did his theological studies at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology. He did two degrees there a Master's in Caribbean Ministries and the Master's in Divinity. A life-long public servant, Rev. Dr. Brown figured prominently recently as part of the Tribunal at the Commission of Enquiry, which investigated the shooting deaths and events of July 7-10, 2001 in West Kingston. His nomination to the Tribunal was initially opposed by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). However, the Opposition party seemed to back down in the face of swift declarations from a wide section of the Christian community which affirmed Dr. Brown's integrity.
A former Permanent Secretary in the now defunct Ministry of Mining and Natural Resources, Dr. Brown has been an institution-builder for most of his career. He has spearheaded the establishment of the National Irrigation Commission (NIC); Management Institute for National Development (MIND) and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).
While he is no longer involved in the day-to-day running of a public sector entity, he has not severed all his ties to the public sector. He still does consultancy for the state and continues to chair the NIC.
His father was a Jehovah's Witness and his mother a Methodist. While a student at Holmwood Technical High, he converted to Anglicanism from Methodism and he has remained such until he lived in Kwara State in Nigeria in the 1980s where on secondment by the Government of Jamaica to the World Bank he was engaged in the setting up of a state-run agricultural training college. Not finding any Anglican churches within close proximity, he attended a nearby evangelical church. When he returned to Jamaica, he stayed on the evangelical path and joined The Church Dayton a.k.a. Sister Kelly's Church , at 6 Dayton Avenue, St. Andrew, which is pastored by Mr. Justice Martin Wright, a retired Supreme Court judge. By the time he was finished with theological studies, he began his pastoral apprenticeship at the Constant Spring Church of God under the Rev. Cleve Grant. When the internship was over, he was assigned to work with the Franklin Town Church of God under the Rev. Rupert Lawrence. Then about two years ago, he was elected to be executive chairman of the denomination with a membership of 107 churches.
As a rule, the Church of God in Jamaica does not allow one to hold the office of executive chairman and have a pastoral charge at the same time. Since taking over the helm of the Church of God in Jamaica, he has expressed surprise at the extent to which the church, not just his denomination, "tends not to see itself as having a business side." There is need, he said, for improved asset management and better use of resources to generate funds.
The Rev. Mr. Brown, 66, while acknowledging that his life as a public administrator positions him to make a significant management contribution to the Church of God in Jamaica, he misses his first love which is giving pastoral care. If he opts not to allow his name to stand for re-election to the executive chairmanship, his love for being a pastor will be a major factor in that decision, he explained. For most of his professional life, he has been a CEO. He wants now to concentrate more fully on being a shepherd in God's church..
A former freemason, Dr. Brown rose up the ranks of that order to become a Worshipful Master. He sees nothing intrinsically incompatible between that movement and Christianity. Nevertheless, he gave up the Masonic Brotherhood as his denomination is firmly opposed to it.
His call to ministry is traceable to a tender age. "I got the call from about age 11. I developed quite a liking for the ministry and kept saying from then 'I am going to be a minister of religion.'
An active churchman for all his life, when he finally retired as a public sector executive, his wife Pauline who worships at Webster Memorial Church, children and friends knew that ministry beckoned. With his training in the sciences, some of his friends asked him how he could reconcile science with religion. "I took time out to explain to them that science is based on the notion that there is an order in nature that is explainable. I have found the explanation, while other scientists are still seeking."
In his secular employment, he has had to relate to all kinds of persons facing differing levels of poverty and need. Working with persons from poor and varied backgrounds, he acknowledges, was good training ground for his career as a pastor. Yet he still found that he needed to understand people a lot better than he did. He is distressed and shocked at the extent of denominational rivalry that exists, and is unhappy that in some quarters he is viewed with suspicion from fellow clerics who treat him as if he came through the backdoor to ecclesiastical prominence. Yet, he looks back at his career with the certainty that his steps were providential for ministry.
FR. JAMES MUNROE
During the 1990s, James Munroe felt increasingly that God was calling him to the priesthood, but he felt unworthy of such a calling. He said to the Lord, "If you want me bad enough, you have to knock me down." He reports "That could have been the worst thing I ever said in my life, because I did get knocked down."
Fr. Munroe, who was once the Commissioner of Lands, is still hurting from the knockdown. During the mid-1990s while appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) he figured in a scandal in which it was said he acted unethically in a matter in which his wife, Hermine, sought to obtain land. It was felt he had a moral obligation to declare interests to the then Agriculture Minister (who had portfolio responsibility for land transactions) and that was not done. Fr. Munroe maintains his innocence though arising from a hearing into the matter he was retired in the public interest in April 1996. Today, he receives one-quarter of what would be his due pension.
Fr. Munroe, 65, was the most cautious of the five theological late bloomers to grant an interview. He made sure to secure the blessings from the Anglican Dean of Students before speaking with The Gleaner. For, in his words: "The name James Munroe still connotates some bad things in this country. Because people do not know the truth of what happened I did not want that through me, the church gets a bad name."
His sense of call came about through a series of visions and an increasing appreciation and affinity with Anglican liturgy. His parents were church-goers but not Anglicans. A grandfather, with whom he spent some of his formative years, was a devout Anglican who influenced his choice of church.
James Munroe, the Commissioner of Lands, as some reporters remember him, was not exactly 'Mr Charming.' This reporter was in the press gallery of Parliament when the then PAC chairman Bruce Golding and Opposition member Audley Shaw mauled him. It was hard to feel sorry for him then. But today, he is an eminently more likeable man. He comes across as mystical and contemplative. "My spiritual formation has grown immensely since I have been at UTC," he says, and those of us who knew him back then will find it believable. Indeed, he cites how he was a lay preacher at St. Mary's but also a smoker and drinker until a series of provocative visions persuaded him to change his ways. Now he has a serious appetite for things divine.
So far, he has done pastoral internship at: St. Andrew Parish Church, All Saints in West Kingston and now he is serving at Holy Spirit in Cumberland, Portmore, South East St. Catherine. These congregations, he said, have been particularly affirming to him. At All Saints and Holy Spirit in particular many did not know who he was and when they did find out, they did not care, he said. "They have all responded very, very well. When I go to a church it is like I have been there for years. People have just gravitated towards me. It has been a very good fellowship. The church has been extremely good to me in that with all this furore the church has never turned its back on me."
Subsequent to the public furore, the Anglicans perhaps seemed to affirm him by electing him to the Diocesan Council of the Church. He basks in the support from his wife, family and friends. He explains that for some of his friends, he represents a kind of light to point them to Christ.
He takes the bus almost every day and is delighted to talk about God with anyone he sees while travelling. "It bothers me," he says, "that there are so many for whom God is nothing to them."
He too lists as one of his culture shocks, the extent to which people, especially rich folk, need pastoral care. Yet he is absolutely amazed at the tremendous devoutedness that a lot of people display towards God.
Fr. Munroe is in his third of the four-year theological course for ministerial students at UTCWI. He enjoys rubbing shoulders with his peers, for he says "I can move with any age group". He enjoys the study of theology and for those who are of mature age who are wrestling with the theological enterprise, he says "Stop wrestling. Subject yourself to God's will." Above all, he stressed: "If God calls you, don't wait to be knocked down!"
Send feedback to mdawes@gleanerjm.com.
