September 2013


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Among our six honorees this year is the Rt Rev Dr Clive Orminston Abdulah, the first national to be elected Bishop of the Anglican Church. Bishop Abdulah was also the first Bishop to serve on the University Council (1971-1975) and the first West Indian to serve on the Board of Directors of the Anglican Centre in Rome. Bishop Abdulah will be conferred with the LLD and will address graduates of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the afternoon ceremony on October 25. He shared some thoughts with editor, Vaneisa Baksh.

VB: How far should the separation of church and state go in a society like ours?

CA: I am aware that in the USA, this has become an issue from time to time—banning prayers in schools and removing the Lord’s Prayer from public places—yet successive Presidents have closed their addresses ‘May God Bless America.’ Even now, the various State governments give very generous grants to religious bodies for the care of the aged, and other social outreach programmes. These instances demonstrate the difficulty in separating church and state activities, since ‘the bottom line’ is that both deal significantly with the same people. Lines cross inevitably. As I have earlier indicated, the church, in my view, is mandated to speak and act on behalf of the oppressed in the society, it cannot and must not fall into the condemnation of Karl Marx “that religion is the opiate of the people,” closing the eyes of its membership and others to the realities of life; as if the church must deal with “heaven above” and leave “things of the earth” to the state and others. There has to be a balance, and this is informed by an intelligent theology.

VB: You were ordained as the first national to be Bishop in September 1970, those were tumultuous times; the society was restless with revolutionary ideas; how would you compare these times with then?

CA: We are too close to the economic disparities that led to the situation in 1970. That said, comparisons are odious, as it is said. The faces of those “who have” have changed, but the “have-nots” are still primarily the Afro-Trinis. The cry today is for jobs, housing, crime reduction and the relevance of education. Then, it was for equality in the sharing of resources. There is an overlap, of course. Today, greed and the lust for power stalk the land. Then, the exodus of Caribbean people came almost exclusively from Jamaica, so that T&T had a strong middle class. Today, the middle class here is shrinking fast. When this happens narcissism sets in.

VB: What does this honorary degree mean to you?

CA: The decision by The University of the West Indies to award me the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws at the coming Convocation in October has brought a flood of mixed feelings. At first blush, I am thrilled to have been considered worthy of being a recipient of such a high honour. On the other hand, I am left wondering if, at this rather late stage of my life, there is more being demanded of me, and would I be in a position to fulfill the expectations that some may have of me. As I reflect over the years past, this award will stand above all others that I have received. I am so persuaded, since the University is a regional institution and its immediate purview is the Caribbean, making the award, in a real sense, a Caribbean one.