Thursday, July 9, 2009

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A dedicated soul By THEA RUTHERFORD ~ Guardian National Correspondent ~ thea@nasguard.com: Bullocks Harbour, BERRY ISLANDS - The Bullocks Harbour community David Dean knew growing up has changed much. The water-trimmed settlement is home to not just settlers but the descendants of settlers from a handful of surrounding islands. People thrive on trickle down jobs from the cruise ships that visit the outlying cays almost every day. And St. Bartholomew's, once the small island's only church, is now one of a growing group of places to worship. Dean has changed too. He is no longer the young man who finished school in Nassau, only to return to his beloved Berry Islands where the idling pace of life suited him more than life anywhere else. But he has continued the family tradition, even as times change and people move on. The son of an Anglican catechist and the nephew of two uncles who served their church in the same way, Rolle has been a catechist at St. Bartholomew's, the island's only Anglican church, for the past three years. He was the assistant to the senior catechist who recently died for 12 years. "I came from a family who was always in church," he said, seated outside St. Bartholomew's one evening as the choir he is also a member of sang hymns for the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival inside. "My father was a catechist. I had an uncle who was a catechist. I had another uncle who was assistant catechist. Our family always played roles in the church." A souvenir shop operator throughout the week and chief councilor for local government on the island — a post he has held for all but one term since the inception of local government in the mid 1990s — Dean has been honored to serve in the church. He has long respected the role of the catechist and has been grateful for the contribution he has been able to make, but has also adapted to the needs of the congregation as time has gone by. "We must realize in this day and age, this isn't a catechist age," he observed. "People expect more than a catechist now. People are more educated. They want more [than] the kind of service a catechist can give." So Dean, as catechist, has graciously adjusted his approach, serving where he can, visiting the sick and ministering in the choir, while ever mindful of the change in times since his childhood in the church. "But we still have to, in some cases, fill the gap because sometimes the priest for many reasons has to not be around," he said of being a catechist. The one thing that has not changed is Rolle's heritage of dedication to the life of the church. "I was drawn into church life," he said. "I grew in the church but I also realized that the time will come when all of this here will be past. So you have to do something for the other side because plenty things don't last ... You have to understand that we're living in trying times." Thursday, June 11, 2009