On the day before Barbados’ 56th anniversary of Independence, His Excellency, Bishop Anthony Hampden Dickson accepted God’s gracious invitation to transfer his membership from the church militant to the church triumphant-expectant.
Immediately, our hearts were plunged into the painful depths of sadness and grief. The sadness was immediate because we lived with the fantasy that somehow he would always be with us. Grief because the nation was losing a faithful chief-pastor who had journeyed with us through some of the most significant moments of this nation’s development post-independence for over half a century.
While he was born in Jamaica to a Bajan father and Jamaican mother, Bishop Anthony served the majority of his pastoral ministry in Barbados. When he succeeded the illustrious Bishop Richard Lester Guilly, SJ, and Bishop Justin Fields, he not only brought a more Caribbean face and accent to the episcopate but also ministered as someone who truly understood the everyday realities of the people. For the first time nationally, the term “working poor” was used by him to not only accurately describe that burgeoning group considered ‘middle-class’, but that poignant expression gave insight into the monthly, lived reality of many Barbadians.
Immediately after the first Small Island Developing States (SIDS) conference in Barbados (1994), Bishop Anthony was the first cleric to not only portray an understanding of the urgency of the message that was conveyed, but he was the first to make it a faith challenge, by preaching about it and educating his brother bishops about the appropriate response of Roman Catholics regionally. With the gift of time in retirement, he made ‘Climate Change’ and other ecological issues around sustainable development his passion and purpose. This was long before they became truly global political issues.
In his very challenging episcopate as a diocesan for 25 years, he initially held together the dioceses of Kingstown (St. Vincent) and Bridgetown, uniting the Catholics in Bridgetown and St. Vincent, bringing his own passion for regional unity to life. While he ordained a number of clergy in both dioceses, three of the most familiar are Msgr. George Bardwell, Msgr. Harcourt Vincent Blackett and Fr. Clement Paul. At the ecumenical level, he was a staunch supporter of another integration movement, the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC). Being a contemporary and friend of many of the founders of CCC, he understood the importance and power of churches being united in mission and action.
Like his predecessors, Bishop Dickson deeply valued the contribution which the Religious Orders made to health, education and pastoral ministry, thus enhancing national life and the growth of the local Catholic Church. He, therefore, was an unsung hero of nation building at a critical time in our development. This small giant also spoke out fearlessly against social injustice and, on more than one occasion, received a tongue lashing from the Father of our Independence. However, his ‘Jamaicaness’ shone through, in that it never dampened his prophetic resolve.
While history may remember him primarily as the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Bridgetown, he was so much more. Throughout all of his active ministry, he was blessed to have the loving support of his beloved mother, ‘Mamma D’, beside him. In retirement, he was content to devote himself to prayer, being a confessor and spiritual advisor to many and a friend and mentor to his four successors. May Almighty God now bestow upon this faithful servant, eternal light and peace.
Ella N Hoyos
Honorary Consul for Jamaica in Barbados
