Not even the rain that fell could dampen the spirits of the more than 500 family, friends and well-wishers who turned out to wish Reverend Father Richard Johnson farewell at the very church that he was priest until his death on the night of November 12.

Father Johnson, former priest of the St. Jude's Anglican Church, was killed at the rectory where he lived, less than a mile from the church, about 9:30 that night.

Described as a gentleman who had a passion for helping others, church members of the the Gilnock Anglican Church in St. Elizabeth on Friday remembered his "organisational skills, his robust laughter, his endearing personality, his love for life and things of beauty, his sense of humour and all those things that made him distinctly who he was." The Right Reverend Alfred Reid, Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, in delivering the homily, encouraged the congregation to be steadfast in their faith in this situation of "extreme uncertainty."

Referring to the negativity that has surrounded the death of his brother, Bishop Reid said some persons who seem most certain are really whistling in the dark.

Negative, evil, dark and ugly

"Some people, of course, are very sure that they know everything about everything and everybody," the bishop said. "However, isn't it strange that the people who are always so sure that they know everything are usually only sure of what is negative, evil, dark and ugly?"

He said while the effect of the event on the congregation and on the Anglican Diocese is not yet known, members of the faith should be sure that God is in charge and will bring good out of evil.

"Out of this ordeal ... let us come together, renew ourselves in a faith and hope born out of our experience of the Father's love in Christ," Bishop Reid implored.