More than 800,000 Anglicans worship in the eight dioceses of the Province of the West Indies (WI). The Province is 1800 miles by 1200 miles and includes 14 independent Caribbean and Central American nations.

Episcopal lay persons and clergy from Grace Church, White Plains, and St. Peter’s, Peekskill, established Caribbean Ministries Inc. (CMI) in July 1988. Many members and supporters of the Ministries trace their family histories back to the West Indies. CMI was organized to assist the bishops of the Province of WI in temporarily filling vacant parishes with retired clergy from the United States and to meet the needs of parishes in the Province.

“After World War II, economically the situation in the Province of the WI was hardly livable — there was very little for the 364 clergy families to live on,” Canon Noel Titus, present principal of Codrington College, Barbados, said to the Anglican Seminary of the Province of WI. Titus continued, “ The Episcopal Church can not be blamed for the drain of clergy to the U.S. during this time frame, even though now, for example, more clergy from Belize are serving in New York and New Jersey than in the Diocese of Belize, and this is true for other WI Dioceses as well. As a result of this clergy drain in the last century, there was a severe clergy shortage in many of the Dioceses of WI.”

To meet this clergy shortage in the Province of the WI over the past 15 years, Caribbean Ministries Inc. arranged to have retired Episcopal clergy serve in more than 100 congregations in the Province of the WI, for periods of one month to one year. CMI has actively recruited, evaluated, and trained the clergy who responded to this opportunity for ministry and service. As the shortage has lessened, more Caribbean clergy are now leading congregations. CMI has also granted a total of $10,000 to men and women of the Province preparing in seminary for parish ministry as deacons, priests or youth workers. In partnership with the “Adopt a Seminary” program of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge/USA, the Ministries has financed the shipping of theological books to libraries at Codrington College and at the United Theological College, Jamaica.

CMI also raised funds for the Province of the West Indies following severe hurricanes that devastated churches and their congregations. Hurricane relief has since became a part of CMI’s annual budget. The Ministries sent more than $20,000 to support bishops and priests providing ministry after such natural disasters. CMI just concluded its largest fund-raising campaign for the St. Mary’s Preschool, Anguilla, building project. In 2002, a new, specially designed preschool replaced a 50-year-old building. Now children are taught in 10 new, modern classrooms featuring new equipment and supplies. CMI in the last two years has shipped $45,000 worth of furnishings, play equipment and supplies to St. Mary’s Preschool. Responding to this financial support, the Rt. Rev. L. Errol Brooks, Bishop of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba and priest of St. Mary’s, Anguilla, wrote, “We thank God for the privilege of offering this outreach ministry to our island community, and by extension to the world. We are confident that given the proper foundation, these children will be encouraged to further their education and be productive members of the church and citizens of the world.”

St. Mary’s Preschool in Anguilla, above, is one of the projects funded by Caribbean Ministries, Inc.
                                                                                                                           Photo courtesy of the REV. ROBERT HAMLYN

The efforts of St Mary’s Parish and the Ministries were recognized with a $15,000 W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant “to improve the quality of teaching in an expanded preschool program, for the children of working mothers of Anguilla.”

Caribbean Ministries Inc. is an independent ministry which meets at Grace Church, White Plains on the first Sunday of each month. The ministry is holding its annual fund raiser, an evening dinner cruise, on Saturday, July 19 aboard the M. V. Commander. The cruise is from 6 pm to 10 pm and leaves from Peekskill Dock. There is music and a Caribbean food buffet. For more information, contact Walter Simon at 914-682-7082.

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