Orville TaylorWelcome His Grace, the Rt. Reverend Dr. John Sentamu, the second-highest Anglican prelate, next to the Archbishop of Canterbury. His official title is Primate of England. I had my suspicions regarding this title in a mainly white religion, since in biology 'primate' means, "the order of mammals that includes monkeys and apes." Nonetheless, according to taxonomy, human beings are also apes and we share 99 per cent of our DNA with chimpanzees.
However, despite the obvious resemblance that some of us have, the term primate in religion actually means archbishop. The University of the West Indies (UWI) is giving him an Honorary Doctor of Laws. UWI does not normally award its honoris causa degrees outside of the regular November graduation exercises. Only five times has this ever been done and it was for the likes of Desmond Tutu in 1986, Nelson Mandela in 1991, Colin Powell in 1994, Harry Belafonte in 1996, and Kofi Annan in 1998. All are well known globally and have had greater impact on the world and the lives of black people in particular.
Still, he quite deserves the honour. He was born in Uganda, studied law, was exiled in 1974, went to Britain, studied theology and was ordained in 1979. Appointed Archbishop of York in 2005, he moved from layman to 'deputy-Pope' in 26 years. Wow! Almost as great as Mandela soaking 27 years in prison, before ascending as President of South Africa, and slightly better than Bruce Golding, who languished for 18 years in Opposition.
Sentamu is here in commemoration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, which interestingly, was back in March. Yet, while Uganda did lose some of its population to slavery, he, unlike us, is not a descendant of those who suffered the horrors of the middle passage and centuries of slavery.
Honourable Jamaicans
Honoured to have him, however, he pales in comparison to two Jamaicans.
In 1893, Percival J. Gibson was born in Kingston, and, unable to afford tuition, gained a scholarship to St. George's College, where he maintained grades of above 90 per cent. After graduating, he became one of the first black students ever enrolled at St. Peter's Anglican Theological College and studying independently, was the first Jamaican to achieve the Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) degree. To this he later added two Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degrees, with honours, from the University of London both privately. At his death, he was arguably the Caribbean's most learned Anglican.
A man who never married, Gibson purchased the rectory of All Saint's Church and in 1925, founded one of the hemisphere's greatest high schools, Kingston College, his seminal work. Glenmuir High followed in 1958.
Playing two roles, as educator and curate, he established Bishop Gibson High in 1962, and Church Teacher's College in 1965.
His ecclesiastical and pastoral brilliance led to his appointment as deputy Archbishop of Jamaica in 1947, carrying the title Suffragan Bishop of Kingston. Eventually, history was made with his appointment as Lord Bishop of Jamaica in 1955, and the Montreal Theological Institute awarded him the Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) in the end.
Although appointed to the Legislative Council, the precursor of the Senate in 1955, he never received any Jamaican honours. Retiring from public life in 1967, he died in 1971.
Unlike Sentamu, Gibson did not know the comfort or support of a wife. This must have made his achievements that much harder to come by.
Nonetheless, St. George's produced an even greater Jamaican cleric. Monsignor Gladstone Orlando Stanislaus Wilson, born in 1906, was home educated until he won a scholarship in 1918. He entered the Urban College in Rome in 1926, gaining more degrees than a thermometer. These include the B.A. with honours, Doctor of Philosophy summa cum laude, D.D., and the Doctorate in Canonical Law (D.C.L.). He later added two masters of Arts (M.A.) in sociology and psychiatry and the diploma in social work from Fordham University.
This neon-black man shone brightly in the Vatican, winning the Latin, Greek, and natural-history awards, the chancellor's philosophical scholarship, the gold medal and Prizeman prize in psychology, moral philosophy, and history of philosophy.
an intellectual leader
Recognised as an intellectual leader by his peers, Wilson was elected president of the Newman literary club for Anglophone students. He was elected student representative to the tercentenary celebrations of the college in 1927 and again on the golden jubilee of Pope Pius XI in 1929.
Pius XI congratulated him personally on his verbal prowess after each speech and personally approved his early ordination on Christmas Eve 1931. Shortly afterwards, he broke the colour barrier, becoming the first West Indian and black tutor in the college's 304-year existence.
Two years later, he set another milestone with an associate lectureship in modern languages and missiology, the science of practical missionary work, at Vatican University.
With further training in Vatican diplomacy, he crossed, like Gibson, into secular government service serving the Jamaican Foreign Service. A published academic, this global traveller spoke at least a dozen languages, with fluency in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
One of the most highly respected clerics in Jamaica in the 1960s, he performed the reburial of National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey in 1964.
When he died in 1974, he was considered to be the seventh-most-learned person in the world.
At least 40 of UWI's current academics are the direct product of the combined legacies of Gibson and Wilson.
They taught us too well, because they never sought official honour.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the UWI, Mona.
