Called from infancy

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Topic: Called from infancy

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Dj Moet

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Status: Offline

Posts: 2267

Date: 17:46 03/30 2008

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Faith in God and religious issues are mainly about relationships. That's the thinking of moderator of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the Right Reverend Henley Bernard. The church leader believes that the subject is centred on the right relationship with God, and relation-ships with our fellowmen.

"Even if we are not able to heal anybody, and that is not to say that I despise healing, but I am simply saying that beyond all of that and the clothing, and the giving of drink to the thirsty, is to have this caring concern and committed expression of care towards all people," explained Rev Bernard.

He added that he longs for a community in which persons learn to be neighbourly. Like the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King said in years gone by, 'The world has become a neighbourhood, but we have failed to become neighbours'. Bernard, who supports that view, said the greatest witness that we as a people can exert as a nation is to be neighbours.

Reverend Bernard thinks that his sense of call to the ministry pre-dates infant school. According to him, his walk with God can be easily attributed to illness bordering on death during his early life.

He said his father's comment was that due to the state of his son's health which was next to death, it was part of the bargain with God for him (Henley) to start serving the Master from an early age.

"He prayed for my survival and some kind of commitment for me to move in that direction. But even without that being said to me, somewhere along the line, I am told that, from earliest time, I expressed the desire to be a minister," said Bernard.

UTS graduate

The United Church leader, who is a past student of the United Theological Seminary, did his training at that institution between 1975 and 1979. Upon leaving, he started his pastorate in the Giddy Hall Charge in St Elizabeth, while overseeing five churches. He worked in that charge for about 18 months and was ordained in May of 1980.

After his tenure there, Bernard was transferred to Kingston and he worked at St John's United Church as the associate minister for two-and-a-half-years before he was called to the North Street United Church. He spent nine years there before going to the Ebenezer- Andrews Charge in Manchester, where he worked for eight years.

Reverend Bernard, who has been involved in theological education over the past two years, lectures in systematic theology. He also has other responsibilities, including being privileged to be the moderator of the United Church. In addition to his duties, he has to play the role of being Warden for United Church students at the United Theological College.

"The moderator is largely pastoral. You literally become pastor of pastors or pastor to the pastors. That is largely what my thing is. But there is also the ceremonial and the representative functions that I have", explained Rev. Bernard.

Reverend Bernard is married to Patricia and has two daughters, Heather and Peta-Ann.

In addition to all those roles, the pastor also gets invitations to preach to various congregations. All this, according to the church leader, is done through lots of planning and time management.

Now going 29 years in ministry, Reverend Bernard said he has been having a good time serving God and humanity. He noted that if he were to live his life again, he would choose to be involved again in ministry, because it is not so much that he has chosen the ministry, but that ministry has chosen him.

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