Young people, witnessing the celebration marking the official installation of the new Anglican Parish Priest, Canon Reid Simon, have been encouraged to aspire to entering the Ministry as it is “a wonderful vocation.”
The advice, on Sunday, October 24, came from the Rt. Rev. Errol Brooks, the retiring Anguillian Bishop of the Dioc
ese of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba. He was at the time delivering the sermon during the installation of Canon Simon.
In giving that advice, Bishop Brooks may have reflected on his own Christian life and persuasion when, as a young man, working in the Government’s Treasury Department, he opted to become a candidate for the Ministry and initially graduated from Codrington Theological College in Barbados. Rather than pursuing a secular and lucrative profession later on, he chose the humility of the priesthood, eventually becoming Bishop of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba, while also serving as a priest in his beloved home, Anguilla.
“All baptised persons have been commissioned for ministry,” he told his listeners. “Ministry is a matter of response to a commitment and self-sacrifice…God wants us to participate in what He is doing. If only we could direct our energy in supporting God what He is doing in his work, God’s congregations would be on fire for Christ.”
He continued, with his COVID-19 mask partially obscuring his words: “We need to encourage our sons and daughters to consider the sacred ministry as a vocation. The ministry of the church is a wonderful vocation. If you commit yourself to the service of God, you will never regret it – never! It doesn’t mean that it is going to be smooth-going all the time. The strength comes from God to assist you. But it is a wonderful opportunity to enter the ministry.”
The Bishop was speaking as two long-serving and retired Anguillian priests, Canon Emerson Hodge and Reverend Menes Hodge, sat in the congregation. They, like him, were among a number of Anguillian nationals to enter the “wonderful ministry” at appropriate times in their lives.
