The mas-playing, fun-loving, ever-so-busy Canon Winston Joseph took time with Lisa Allen-Agostini to reflect on the last 25 years in the priesthood and gave her a peep into the future.
All Saint's Anglican Church was filled to the gills on Wednesday night. The congregation wore mostly black and grey somber colours, reflective of the solemnity of Lent. But this was no sombre occasion; over at the Parish Hall silver and white balloons hung and tables laden with paper party plates of snacks waited for the mas to end and the party to start.
It was all in honour of Canon Winston Joseph, who was celebrating his silver anniversary in the priesthood with much pomp and ceremony. In a two hour-plus mass, officiated by Joseph himself along with Bishop Rawle Douglin, Bishop emeritus Clive Abdullah and three other priests, he recommitted himself to his ordination vows.
Joseph is known as "Fr Joe" to his congregation. Aide from being parish priest there, he is also the chairman of the school board of two girls' schools: Bishop Anstey High School (St Hilary's) and Bishop's Centenary High School (St Cecilia's). He serves as chaplain of both schools, and said on Thursday, in an interview at his All Saint's office, that he often felt that his message to the girls was not getting through.
"You know what amazes me about that? You look at these girls…you wonder as though, sometimes, you throwing out this Word and it's falling on barren ground. And what amazes me is how many of the girls, even though they're not Anglican, come back when they want to get married, they want me to do it. They remember things that I have said at chapel. Chapel meant a lot to them."
As an Old Hilarian myself, I can relate. Fr Joe's lighthearted approach to chapel, his wit (he was famous for his stale jokes), his ability to relate the Gospel to our lives as Trinidadian teenagers, were his biggest selling points to us. We were shocked, then pleased, to note that he played mas religiously every year, a fact that our older relations didn't find so amusing.
Joseph makes no bones about his involvement in the festival of the flesh, or his readily admitted penchant for drinking alcohol in public. "I like to lime, and I enjoy people. If you're not a 'people person' in this job, forget it," he said. If he takes that view too far, making himself look "too regular", as he puts it, then he has a strong Biblical precedent to counter his critics. "What they don't understand is, that is what Jesus was," he said, citing His befriending of prostitutes and sinners. But John the Baptist, an acetic, was also criticized, Joseph notes. "You can't win!"
Joseph, whose 50th birthday came one day before his ordination anniversary, may be in line for nomination as bishop when Bishop Douglin retires next year. He said that he has no ambitions in that direction but "Whatever God wills, I'm going with the flow." To be made a bishop, he would have to be elected by a two-thirds majority in both the house of the clergy and the lay people. "The question people are asking, is whether lifestyle, controversy, is this the kind of person we want, or are we looking for someone pious and holy? Then I don't stand a ghost of a chance, if you want the traditionalist, set apart," he said.
The Canon has a picture of a beaming Jesus on his office wall. "I believe in a smiling Jesus. To me, the Jesus I worship, that I picked up in the Bible, was always one who was meeting people, and making them smile, was a happy man. He wasn't a killjoy!
"He see Zacheus (a tax collector converted by Christ) in the tree, he say, "Zachie, come down boy!' He changed water into wine…"
The smiling Jesus took me back to the mass the night before, when Dean William Lake, rector of St John's Cathedral, Antigua, delivered a homily on Joseph. The Antiguan cleric, who was at Codrington College with Joseph in 1971, remembered his friend having a photo of a woman on his desk. Fr Joe would later in the mass jokingly dismiss Lake's claim, saying that it was a picture of the smiling Jesus, not Moilan, his future wife. But Moi, as she is known, has kept faith with Joseph, supporting him "quietly" through his work as a priest and his thousand and one other commitments.
In addition to his fund raising to build the All Saint's geriatric home, to re-roof the church, and to add new wings onto St Hilary's, the busy priest is rector at another parish, St Agnes in St James, and a chapel at Maraval. He is chaplain of the Cadets, sits on the boards of FEEL, the Guardian Neediest Cases Fund, and the FPA; did a stint as a Senator; and edits the diocesan newsletter,The Lookout.
All of which leaves little time for Moi and his children, Damian and Sabrina.
"They know that daddy's always involved. And it was sad for them growing up. On weekends, you spend time with your family, most families go to the beach. I don't think I've been to the beach with my family in about 15 years," he said, adding, "The little time I have with them I cherish it, and they cherish it."