Fr John and Anne Twisleton’s visit to Guyana

26^th April – 12^th May 2011

Once you eat labba and drink creek water in Guyana they say you’re bound to return! If you were married there it is more certain. If you served as missionaries there - and remain in Guyana Diocesan Association - it’s for sure! Guyana will always be in our souls however much life for us is nowadays tied to England.

We worked in Guyana 1987-1990 at the Alan Knight Training Centre, Yupukari and were married there. Since then Fr John has taken Sabbaticals in the Diocese in 1995, 2000 (accompanied by Anne and our son James) and 2007 (accompanied by James and his friend Jon Hawes). Last year I approached the Bishop about fixing two to three weeks leave coincident with Diocesan Synod. Bishop Cornell invited him to conduct a two day pre-synod workshop for interior delegates at Annai Centre and Anne a clergy wives’ day retreat in Georgetown after Synod.

The highpoint of our visit was attendance at Synod Mass in St Philip’s where the Bishop issued a challenge based on Nehemiah 2.18 to rise up and rebuild the Church in the Diocese, to rebuild Guyana and, as a means to this, for members to rise from an external form of godliness into a new relationship with Our Lord. This solemn Mass involved catholic ritual, classical and Caribbean music, evangelical preaching and scores of young people in serving and ushering. It had been well prepared and the venue, so recently restored, was underlined as an example of church restoration to be emulated across the diocese.

Youth are the clue to revitalising the ordained ministry, which is the major challenge in the Diocese where many parishes are short of a resident priest. In his first year Bishop Cornell has built close relationships with many of the young people and this was evident at Synod Mass. He has also identified 5 ordination candidates, who met with us, and GDA will be paying for their second year of training.

I addressed the annual Diocesan Synod on behalf of GDA and provided the daily opening devotions on John 15, The True Vine. At Synod we were reminded of Bishop Cornell’s appeal for all Anglicans to tithe, which means to give 10 per cent of disposable income to the church. Synod learned that there is already a good response to this challenge. The Diocese is determined to stand on its own feet so that GDA’s partnership will be more reciprocal in years to come.

In the debate on the GDA report it was made clear that the door is open for overseas priests in the catholic tradition to come and serve in the Diocese and we invited prayer for this call to be heard by individuals in the UK.

At Synod I attended debate on the education committee report and met with one of its members, Fr Raymond Coxall. On arrival I handed the Bishop £420 raised by St Giles School, Horsted Keynes to purchase a computer for the Anglican school opening in September which will serve to link our pupils to one of the poorest communities in the Caribbean.

Over our pre-synod involvements in the Rupununi we were at pains to impress the priests and parish representatives on the need for better stewardship in response to the diocesan challenge. Plans are in hand both to provide better administrative oversight for the interior and to encourage more sharing of gifts and ministries between the interior and the coast. We were impressed at faithful ministry being conducted across around 20 churches spread over great distances. Since our 2007 visit improvements in community health and education were evident, especially the school meals scheme. Mobile phones will soon be operable in the north Rupununi aiding the fraught communications.

Difficulties in communicating with priests on the move led to absences at the workshop. This two day event brought out the need for practical schemes to serve the deepening of discipleship. Some of the catechists had not been to a training event before. Three challenges, as of old, were community divisions created by the uneasy co-existence of six religious groups in the parish, the poor state of buildings and the lack of human and material resources eg at Aranaputa and Massara and some problems linked to members and leaders’ excessive drinking.

On our return to the coast Anne’s wives’ day ended up being opened up at Synod to being a women’s retreat through shortage of wives. The women who attended demonstrated deep faith nurtured by the Anglican Church through scripture and sacrament. They were encouraged by the opportunity to come together in this way and asked for more such occasions. Bishop Cornell said Mass for the retreatants. Anne also helped foster Mother’s Union links with Chichester diocese on her interior visits and at the Transfiguration’s Mother’s Day Mass.

Over our visit we valued much time spent with Bishop Cornell. We also made a brief visit to Bishop Randolph and Sheila George who asked us to remember them to GDA. Besides the interior clergy we spent time with Archdeacons Reynolds, Spencer and Canon Riehl. I was able to record with Ron Robinson for Guyana radio’s Church Calling which has recently broadcast his forty part Firmly I Believe Premier Radio series.

In summary there is an awakening of new pride in being Anglican coming about in Guyana, alongside a new honesty and transparency about the challenging money, ministry and missionary needs.

We remain grateful for GDA’s financial contribution towards what was a hard working, inspiring and memorable visit that built further our love for Guyana and God’s people there.

Itinerary

27^th April Meeting with Bishop and senior staff about diocesan strategy and training

28^th April Flight to Rock View, Annai, Rupununi. Meeting and evensong at Holy Cross Church with Frs Jones Moses, William Bremner and Catechists

29^th April – 2^nd May Transfer by land rover and river to Karanambu Lodge. Visit to Kwaimata to meet villagers. Sunday Mass at St Mary, Yupukari, meeting with villagers and visit to Caiman House. Transfer back to Rock View, Annai

2^nd – 7^th May Pre-synod conference at Bishop Randolph and Mrs George Centre at Annai. Anne meets with clergy wives. Anglican Mission service attended by villagers. Synod delegates catch bus to Georgetown. Anne visits Bina Hill. Flight to Ogle, Georgetown

8^th – 10^th May Masses at St Aloysius and Transfiguration. Attend Synod Mass. Visit to the Georges. Fr John leads Synod devotions, attends Church School debate and presents GDA report with Anne. Meeting with Archdeacon Spencer and the interior clergy.

11^th – 12^th May Anne leads women’s day at Herdmanston Lodge, Georgetown. Fr John meets with Bishop and five Codrington College ordinands. Farewell dinner with Bishop.

PS Our Rupununi visit had a little drama when on our last night in Karanambu, I woke at 2.30am hearing Anne, I thought, rummaging around the room, and the bathroom thinking she must be ill. Then I realised she was right beside him, fast asleep.  I shook her awake, "There's something in the room!" I whispered, not the most welcome news to wake her with, and we both scrambled under the pillow for our torches and shone them fearfully towards the noise.  There was Miss McTurk's "pet" racoon, Bandido, loudly crunching my toothbrush, having ransacked the bathroom, consumed the toothpaste, and the shaving gel, the razor, knocking everything else off the shelf and breaking a bottle of medicine. We didn't know how to get rid of the animal. It had very sharp teeth and wouldn't take any notice when we threw a shoe at it! Rather it looked mildly interested and sniffed it, but then went back to the toothbrush, which being an electric battery one, was buzzing like an insect.  We went out and opened the bathroom door, and the main room door, but it took ages before we could shoo it out. It then ambled over to another cabin and stole a mango, which it ate under the bed, causing a plague of fruit flies! Everyone thought our adventure a real hoot the next morning, and said, "oh, didn't we warn you Bandido just loves toothpaste and you should have shut everything in the heavy drawer?"  Er, no!  We had all the windows and doors shut, but the beast had simply swarmed up the wall and over the gap between the top of the wall and the thatched roof.

PPS A week or so after our return I realised he had carried a couple of stow-away passengers back to the UK in the form of two jiggers in his feet who’d most likely jumped ship from Canon Riehl’s farm where a group of us enjoyed a relaxing day post-Synod.

Fr John & Anne Twisleton September 2011