Canon Claude Berkley is the new Rector of All Saints Anglican Church on Marli Street, Newtown. He replaces Canon Winston Joseph, who, two years ago, left the parish which he had served for more than a quarter of a century to take up an appointment in West Palm Beach, Florida.
And although Canon Berkley has brought his very own down-to-earth and practical style to this very large, urban parish, considered one of the plums in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago, he agrees that his predecessor's shoes "are very big ones to fill."
The size of the parish is not the problem for this Tobagonian who at one time served eight congregations as Rector of the Parish of St Mary's in Pembroke, Tobago. Nor is the fact that he must combine his ministry with full time teaching of history, moral education and General Paper at Bishop Anstey High School, a problem, because he says "we have a clergy team and other persons who share in the ministry of the parish."
"The thing is that we have to find the right platform from which to move forward and finding that standard is what the challenge is. I like to think that I am a rural person, suddenly here am I in the city. Therefore that is one of the adjustments I will have to make which is an interesting and stimulating challenge for me. Like the epistle reads, I will endeavour to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. So far I have had a very warm reception and quite a number of persons are volunteering assistance."
Born in Pembroke Tobago, 45 years ago on August 18, the eldest of five siblings, the Canon's mother, Anona, still lives in Pembroke. He is married to Dawn, also a teacher, and they have two daughters, Safiya, an econ-law student at Cave Hill, Barbados, and Fayola, a Lower VI student at Bishop Anstey High School.
The former student of Pembroke Anglican and Bishop's High School Tobago, always wished for three professions, a priest, teacher, and the only one not yet fulfilled, a policeman. After his O level exams, young Berkley taught at Elizabeth's College and Pembroke Primary before entering Valsayn Teacher's College. "I was one of the pioneers in that set of first year students at Valsayn after it was amalgamated with two other teaching institutions. " At the end of two years armed with a Teacher's Diploma, he went back to Tobago and continued teaching.
Having already been a Lay Minister in the church, Berkley continued with assisting in the choir, co-ordinating youth group activities, and more, when "that sense of call happened through the late Canon Grazette, who died after 18 years in the Parish of St Mary's. He had always been approaching me about going to Codrington. And I felt that was getting a little too serious so I never responded positively to him. There was a vaccum on his death in eight congregations. And I kept having a deep sense of being called to do something about this vacancy. There would be priests for the seasons, like Easter and Christmas; sometimes there was nobody. The priest from Scarborough came at times."
Eventually I spoke to Bishop Adbulah about becoming a deacon. His response was: "You need theological training, not just to become a deacon." Berkley started to go to Theology classes in Tobago. Meanwhile Bishop Abdulah sent him some forms of application for consideration to the ordained Ministry. "I did not know where it was going to end but I completed them and sent it back. The next thing I am on my way to Codrington College in Barbados to complete what I had started many years before." At the end of three years, Berkley graduated with not only an Upper Second Class Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree (Theology), but had along the way won the Colin and Pearl Kirton Prize for doctrine, the Lady Smith Prize for a Research Paper in Caribbean Studies, and the St Mark and St Catherine's prize in preaching as a final year student.
On his return he was ordained on August 6, 1992, by Bishop Abdulah to the diaconate at St Andrew's in Scarborough and was assigned to St Patrick's at Mount Pleasant for about five months, then back to Pembroke. Reverend Berkley was ordained a priest in October 1993 at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port of Spain and worked for one year full time with the church before being drawn back into the classroom at Belle Garden Anglican and finally in 1997 at his alma mater. In 1999, Reverend Berkley was off again, this time on a scholarship to Selly Oak Colleges at the University of Birmingham to do his M.Phil in Contextual Theology. Here again he emerged among the best and received the Constance Naden Medal for the best M Phil thesis submitted in the year 2000. By November of the same year he returned to St Patrick's in Tobago as Rector. And by October 19, 2001 was installed by Bishop Calvin Bess as a Canon, in the Stall of St Chad at the Cathedral.
And now, September 1, 2002, his first assignment out of Tobago, at All Saints. With a wry smile he said "I am not a mas player" as was his predecessor. "I like the expression of it, as it is the way we speak to each other in such deep ways through this cultural expression. People can read the mood of society during these cultural expressions." What has he already seen at All Saints? "Adjustments will have to be made to create the kind of worship that will appeal to this group of people. We will have to strike a balance between ancient and modern practices. You have a group fed a steady diet and they want it just that way as they always did it so. The younger generation was not brought up and fed that same way and they expect something different, something more, they expect to be more involved and therein lies another level of the challenge for me."
"Therefore, we will have to ask the core membership to be accommodating, understanding and nurturing because that way we will help to bring some of our young people forward and so maintain the lifeblood of the church which must be a concern for any serious thinking Anglican."
Canon Berkley has a vision of a church in which the mystique about All Saints can cause people to be curious enough to come and see what we are doing. However, he insists "people want to feel loved, that they belong and are part of a vibrant, living organisation. If we can get that feeling going through our membership we can change the face of the church. We have to minister to people - to some people that means service, to some conversation, sharing a thought, or people may need assistance. Our worship must be a celebration which flows out into the wider community bringing new life to everyone."