Commencing on Sunday past, we are this week celebrating our Feast of Dedication.    As our esteemed Rector, Archdeacon Brown, reminded us in his message in Sunday’s Bulletin, the Feast of Dedication is the most important festival in the Annual Church Calendar of a Parish, apart from the three major festivals of the Church’s liturgical year.   The Feast of Dedication is a time when a worshipping Parish family celebrates its organized gathering for worship, and their dedication to Almighty God under the auspices of a particular Patron Saint, such as Saint Agnes or some other chosen sacred title, such as Holy Cross.

A few years after the abolition of slavery, the decision was made to establish a place of worship “over the hill”, here in the heart of Grant’s Town, to enable the freed blacks living in this community to assemble for praise and worship.   This became a reality in the year 1845, and it was decided to dedicate this Church under the auspices of St. Agnes, who was a young thirteen-year-old virgin, the daughter of a noble Roman family, who had become a Christian at the beginning of the 4th Century at a time when there was widespread persecution of Christians.   Young Agnes was martyred in about the year A.D. 305 when she openly professed her love for Christ and gave her life as a martyr rather than renounce or forsake her belief.

During her trial Agnes was told of the good life she would have if she gave up her Christian faith and became married.   However, she refused to give up her faith, and also refused offers of marriage from several wealthy young men, including the son of a Roman official.   She was threatened and subsequently tortured; however, she still refused to deny her faith and was prepared to die as “the bride of Christ”.    She was taken to the Roman Temple and instructed to offer a gift at the altar of the goddess Minerva; but instead she made the Sign of the Cross and accepted death at the young age of 13.

Her enraged persecutors attempted to burn Agnes; but when she bravely faced the fire and was concerned only that her stripped body be covered by her long hair, the attempt to burn her failed so her persecutors then decapitated her.   Testimony, to the courageous witness of this young and saintly martyr for Christ, has been recorded in accounts of her martyrdom which were later written by St. Ambrose, and also by Pope Damasus.

Since the middle ages, St. Agnes is usually depicted holding a lamb as a symbol of her purity.

More and more today, as the Christian religion spreads over the many countries of the earth, the popular view is generally believed that a saint is a Christian who has died and has been officially recognized by the Church, in order that people may pray to him.

Often we hear people say. “Well, I’m no saint,” meaning they are not sinlessly perfect.    But what, classically, according to the Bible, is a saint?

We get a glimpse of the answer to that question from the Acts of The Apostles, in Chapter Six and verse 13, where we are told that Saul of Tarsus harmed or persecuted the saints at Jerusalem.  If that were true, then certainly Saul, who later became Paul, was persecuting living people, not dead people.

Who were those persons whom Saul persecuted?  In the Acts of the Apostles we are told that Saul persecuted the disciples of the Lord…..the followers of Christ, who were later called Christians.

Earlier in Acts – at Chapter 8 and Verse 3 – we are told that Saul persecuted the Church. So Saints are simply Christians…. disciples of Jesus….. members of His Church.

In fact, the word "saint" literally means, "a person who has been sanctified." To be sanctified means to be set apart or dedicated to God's service. New Testament Christians were saints because they had become sanctified or dedicated to God's service.

So, the question is, how does a person become sanctified? First, as the Gospel according to St. John teaches us, one must hear and believe the Gospel, then one must be cleansed of sin by the power of Jesus' blood.   Paul, the converted Saul, told the Hebrews that Jesus died "that He might sanctify the people with His own blood."

But how does a person receive the benefits of Jesus' blood? Paul wrote to the Romans saying that we are baptized into His death, and in Ephesians he says that Christ gave Himself for the Church "that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word."

So a person initially becomes a Saint, when he is baptized in obedience to the word of the Lord.  That means that anyone can become a Saint, once he or she is baptized and thereafter remains in obedience to the word of the Lord.

At a significant stage in his life, William Edward Thompson, decidedly became a Saint.    As a Priest of the Church he devoted his entire life’s purpose to being a servant of Christ, teaching thousands the pathway to sainthood.   And during his Thirty-two years as the leader of the flock here at St. Agnes, he certainly remained true and obedient to his call.    Indeed, all of us should strive to be saints.

Against that background, I wish to say that I share entirely the view of our present Rector, the Venerable Archdeacon I. Ranfurly Brown, that we need to take pride in our Church, and in our Community, in honouring, even to the extent of bestowing our own idea of sainthood, on those of our Christian leaders who have made a positive and outstanding difference in the Church, in the community, but especially in the individual lives of the people, to the honour and glory of God, by their examples of godly living and Christian teaching, and by their outstanding examples of striving for a saintly lifestyle.

As a people in the Church, we have come up in the old colonial tradition, and in that tradition we have been taught from childhood to revere and respect the Saints and to follow their example of godly living.

There have been others in our midst who came up in the same way in this Church, following the example of godly living by the saints, and who, in turn, took seriously the command of the Almighty to feed my flock, feed my lamb.

In the vestibule of the great St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, there is a plaque bearing the inscription which is also on the tombstone of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul’s, the largest cathedral in England.

Written in Latin, it translates into 'If you seek his memorial, look about you.'

Here at St. Agnes we today worship in a modern cathedral which is daily being enhanced and more elegantly pavilioned in splendour.   It is an endless work based on the blueprints of a succession of rectors – Christian architects – of this Church through the years. One of the most influential of them in modern times was William Edward Thompson, now succeeded in that great and noble work by one of the most illustrious of Archdeacon Thompson’s protégés, Archdeacon Ivan Ranfurly Brown.

Were William Edward Thompson yet alive, come December of this year, he would have celebrated his seventy-sixth birthday.

When he passed away nine years ago, on June 23, 2002, Archdeacon William Thompson was but sixty-six, and had devoted thirty-two years of his priestly life to the leadership of the flock here at St. Agnes Church in Grant’s Town.

Archdeacon Thompson, when he succeeded the late Canon Milton Cooper in 1967 to become the 9th Rector of St. Agnes, he inherited what had become a rich Christian dynasty which over time, since the establishment of this Church 164 years ago, in 1845, had become without doubt the largest and brightest star in the galaxy of the Diocese of Nassau and The Bahamas.

It is true that his work and his influence spread far beyond the walls of this Church, into the wider community….. because much had been given to him, and of him much was required and exacted.

He had become the ears, the confidante, and the advisor of successive Bishops of our Diocese.   He was called upon to serve on school boards, on various government and national bodies, and was even Chaplain to the Bahamas Cricket Association.

He held the posts of Examining Chaplain to the Bishop, Hospital Chaplain, Diocesan Missioner, and early in his service as a Priest in Holy Orders was the priest-in-charge of St. Andrew’s Parish in Exuma, and St. Paul’s Parish in Long Island.

He had a passion for Education, and served as the Chairman of the Anglican Central Education Authority, which had supervisory authority over all Anglican Schools.    Earlier, he had served for four years as a full-time Master at St. John’s College, his old alma mater.

During his ministerial guardianship as Rector of this Church, he carried his strong passion for education of the masses even into his pastoral work, impressing upon St. Agnes families the urgent need to ensure that, to the best of their affordability, they should make it possible for all our children to have a solid education.

Outside the Church, he gave public service in many areas.   He served for 20 years on the Public Disclosure Commission, and was a member of the National Drug Council, in addition to serving as a member of the Commission on Crime which eventually recommended ways in which violent crime might be curbed in The Bahamas.

Yet from 1967 the fullest measure of his priestly service, and of his devotion, was to the people of his beloved St. Agnes Church where he was baptized and confirmed, where as a boy he served around the high altar, and where he later married his beloved wife Rose Marie.

Archdeacon Thompson was the second longest serving Rector of St. Agnes, next only to Father James Hartman Fisher, who served for fifty years from 1856 to 1906.

On Archdeacon Thompson’s watch, together with an aggressive vestry, there was spearheaded the construction of the present bell tower at the western main entrance of the Church, which replaced the old wooden structure in the churchyard.

Building on that, his successor, the late Father Patrick Johnson, had installed the clock in the tower and, of course, the present Rector, the Venerable Archdeacon I. Ranfurly Brown, added the automatic bell and the chimes.

Additionally Archdeacon Thompson modernized the lighting in the Church, prompted the reconstruction of the Parish Hall, and initiated the installation of the present stained glass windows in the main nave and in All Souls Chapel.

Here at St. Agnes Archdeacon Thompson served well, he served productively, he served effectively and, where necessary, he served  sternly but always with understanding and compassion, often indulging even those in the Church who criticized him.

When he was done with that multiplicity of services, and his time for retirement had come, he left St. Agnes as an infinitely improved and enhanced monument to his work, a monument of service to God and Man, in Grant’s Town and beyond.

I had the enormous privilege to attend the final Mass Archdeacon Thompson celebrated in the Ladies Chapel on the morning of 31st December 1999.   He was serene.
He was no doubt sad to leave, but he had reached the Diocesan’s  established age of retirement, and being a man of order and of discipline, he followed the rules and went, quietly, and with great dignity.

As a young Father Willie Thompson, he was only 34 years old when he was installed as Rector of St. Agnes in 1967 to succeed the recently departed Canon Milton Cooper who had served as the 8th Rector of St. Agnes for 20 years; and when Father Willie preached his first sermon as Rector, he drew his text from the 16th Psalm of David: “The lot has fallen to me in fair ground; yea, I have a goodly heritage.”

He plunged with vigour into his challenging assignment as the spiritual head of this great Parish of Grant’s Town, never aspiring to outshine his noble predecessors, but instead striving to build on what they had so nobly advanced.    His untiring efforts paid great dividends of success in all areas of his ministry, and his name soon became identified as synonymous with the challenges and successes of this outstanding and historical parochial segment of our Country.

Indeed, Canon Willie of Grant’s Town personified Grant’s Town as one of its greatest sons.  In his time here he was able to build a St. Agnes which became effective and relevant to the Church and the community.

Archdeacon Thompson was no coward or casual observer of the passing scene.   He jumped in to set right and to correct where he saw the need, he told you when you were out of line or when your lifestyle, in addition to the injury it inflicted on yourself, was causing pain to others.

He was a super intellectual, a renaissance Bahamian, and a powerful pulpiteer, but Willie Thompson was also a very humble man, he forgave those standing on the brink of sinning, and earnestly coaxed others back onto safe paths.

Archdeacon Thompson especially frowned upon fellow clergy who took too lightly the vows they made, and who thus set poor examples for the religiously-inclined young Church people.

William Edward Thompson impressed a new dispensation upon the Church. His attitude both inside and outside the Church was one of negotiation, but no compromise with sin…..an attitude which,
interestingly, we are now also seeing with the present Rector of St. Agnes.

This was William of Grant’s Town….. a beloved and outstanding son of this Parish and of this historic Over-the-Hill community.

Yes, he became a saintly man.
Yes, he became Saint William of Grant’s Town.
Yes, if you would seek his memorial in this Church, in the Grant’s Town community, or even across the Bahamian landscape, simply look around.

In his own words back in 1995, when this Church was observing and celebrating its 150th year of dedication, this is what Archdeacon Thompson had to say:

“The St. Agnes story . . . is merely representative of the important part that all of the Christian Churches in our Caribbean region have played in the ongoing spiritual, moral, social and economic development of this area of God’s creation.”

Although he left us tragically nine years ago, Archdeacon William Thompson of St. Agnes…..Saint William of Grant’s Town….still lives forever in the hearts and in the lives of the hundreds in this Church, and of the thousands in this Community, to whom he constantly reached out, frequently touched, and so often changed.

His favourite hymn was Number 431 in our Hymn Book, and I believe it is fitting that I conclude my remarks with the first verse of that hymn:

I am proud and honoured to lend my full support to our Rector in formally recognizing, during this our Feast of Dedication, the tremendous contribution made to us all by the life and witness of Saint William of Grant’s Town.