Three aging Caribbean Anglican priests who were ordained together as young men, have returned on a pilgrimage to the Kingston Parish Church in downtown Kingston, the place where they solemnly pledged half-a-century ago to preach the gospel in all the earth.

To celebrate their 50 years in the priesthood, the three men, accompanied by their wives, yesterday relived the memory of their ordination in the century-old church and thanked God “with a lot of humility”.

“Surely goodness and mercy have followed them all these 50 years,” remarked the Rt Rev Alfred Reid, Anglican Lord Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, as he shared in the celebration of the Rt Rev Clive Abdulah, retired Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago; Rev Dr Alvin Robinson, Vicar of St Thomas Episcopal Church, Florida; and Rev J Ansell H Ramsay, Canon at the parish church of St Thomas, Kingston.

“No greater favour could be restored on man than to share ministry,” Bishop Reid said at the service where he praised God for their combined service of 150 years to the church. The ministers were celebrating 50 years as priests only because God had called on them to actualise his service, Reid said.

Rev Dr Alvin Robinson over the years has served as curate at St George’s, Kingston; Christ Church, Vineyard Town; the Parish Church, Lucea and at various churches in New York and Massachusetts, retiring in 1995. He is now the vicar at the St Thomas Episcopal Church in Palm Coast, Florida. In the nine years since he has been vicar, the size of the membership has doubled, Robinson told the Sunday Observer.

“Many members have come from the north from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland. In the first instance they were retirees. Now we have many young people coming to Palm Coast and the church is now composed of about 1,000 members,” he said.

Rev Robinson said he was celebrating 50 years of priesthood “with a lot of humility.” Above all “thanks to God that He has spared me and Bishop Abdulah and Rev Ramsay all these years. Because 50 years is a long time. And not only have we been spared to do ministry, but our wives are alive. You know in some instances ministers lose their wives. Some do not make 50, but we have made 50 with our wives. So this is an exceptional celebration for all three of us,” he said.

Bishop Abdulah, who was born in Trinidad, ministered at St Jude’s Church, Stony Hill; Kingston Parish Church and St Cyprian’s in Highgate. In 1970, he returned to his country to become the ninth Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago. On retiring in 1992, he went overseas where he studied for the Doctor of Ministry degree. In 1995, he started an Institute of Preachers for the Province of the West Indies.

“We did a lot of work in the early days teaching people how to preach better, ” he said. But the institute closed in 1998 after interest lagged. Bishop Abdulah is, however, still active. “I assist in the diocese in Trinidad,” he said.

Rev Ramsay, who was born in Barbados, came to Jamaica in 1947 to teach Latin at Excelsior High School and stayed on. He retired in 2001, having served at St Luke’s Church, Cross Roads; St Margaret’s Bay and Hope Bay; Snowdon and Pratville. He is currently an assistant priest to Rev Ernle Gordon of St Mary’s Church, Molynes Road in Kingston and serves at the Church of the Resurrection.

“I have been all over the place – Manchester, St Ann, Annotto Bay,” he said, noting that the idea to celebrate their jubilee was Bishop Abdulah’s. “I am very low-key and it is Clive who telephoned me from Trinidad to say it’s 50 years and he wanted to do something about it.”

During the years that he was ministering, Rev Ramsay also taught at Kingston College for 36 years and at Buff Bay Secondary School in Portland. He was also editor of the Jamaica Churchman, the Anglican church newspaper, and secretary of synod. He was named an honorary canon of the Cathedral in 1978.