Two Trini priests to be ordained in Order of Carmelite Friars

For the first time in our history, two young Trinidadians will be ordained priests of the First Order of the Carmelite Friars. Brothers Gerard Tang Choon and Garth Eversley, will be ordained priests on Saturday December  6, at 10 am, by His Grace the Archbishop Edward J Gilbert, at the Cathedral of  the Immaculate Conception. From as early as 1513, there have been many religious orders in this country, for example, the Domini-cans, Franciscans, Augustinians, Capuchins, Jesuits, Holy Ghost Fathers, Benedectine Monks,  Arch-diocesan priests. Now for the first time we have the Carmelites. Although Carmelite nuns have been in Trinidad and  Tobago since 1908, it was only in 1997 that the North American Province of St Elias to which the local friars belong, decided to establish the Carmelite Order of priests here. American-born Father John Horan (O CARM) was sent to start the Priory which is situated next to the St Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in Maracas/St Joseph.  As a teacher at the Pope John Paul 11 High School in Boca Raton, Florida, Father John had met Trinidadian families whose children were his students. 

“They were certainly the most respectful in the whole school and among the nicest, so I started joining in their family functions,” says Father John, whose first visit to Trinidad in 1991 was arranged to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Carmelite Friars in New York to work among the Irish immigrants. “The Carmelite Sisters had long been here and so many of the leading male Carmelites began to think we should be going some place by this time to establish the male branch of the Order.  Around that time, the Friars started hearing from Gerard Tang Choon and the New York Friars saw it as perhaps a sign which meant Trinidad was the place we should come to.” “The main focus of the Carmelite Friars is prayer, solitude and silence,” explained Father John. “They looked at Jesus, the prayerful man who withdrew into the desert for forty days and nights, and so many other times in the Scriptures he got up early in the morning to pray. We believe that prayer leads to union with God.  Our Order began in 1200 with men who went to Mount Carmel in the Holy Land to live as hermits in imitation of the prophet Isaiah, who wholeheartedly lived in the presence of God and called people back to right relationship with God and with each other. Mt Carmel is seen as a holy mountain charged with the presence of God.  Men came from all over, many from Europe in the time of the Crusades, they could have been disillusioned and decided to live there.  And although hermits, they realised the benefits of joining together in community.”

They took the Rule of Albert of Jerusalem who, not a Carm but a Canon Regular, listened to the early hermits who stipulated the type of life they wanted to live and  gave them some canonical recognition.  A  Dutch artist has reproduced this rule which hangs on the Priory’s wall. It is purported to show “No Image Satisfies. Christ is Central” through the written rule around a cross leaving an empty  space at the Centre. The First Order of Carmelites are the male friars, some of whom choose to be ordained to the priesthood, others remain brothers, but all fulfil the call to Carmelite life rather than other  Orders.  A first year of novitiate vows gives a period of “Discernment”  and reflection on “Is this where God wants me to be?” The Second Order are the cloistered nuns, none of whom live in this country.  The Third Order are the Carmelite religious — the Corpus Christi nuns and their subsidiary arm of lay Carmelites.

At 30 years old, Brother Gerard Tang Choon, son of George and Marilyn Tang Choon of Diego Martin,  has accepted the Carmelite way as his calling and has gone on to become a priest. A graduate O’ and A’ level student of  St Mary’s College, he was employed at the National Commercial Bank, with thoughts of becoming an accountant.  After one year in the bank he realised he wanted to change his  life’s direction, and in 1993 started vocation retreats to explore different types of religious life in the Diocese. Around 1994 someone recommended the Carmelites: “But there were only sisters here, the men were somewhere else,” he said. “By 1995, Father John Malley,  Prior Provincial and others came on a visit and I talked with them.  I listened and felt even more called to want to try it out.  Banking was not for me.”  By March, he was on his way to a Vocational Retreat in Williamstown, New York, spent some time with other houses in New York, liked the spirituality, fraternity, and quite normal atmosphere. “It  was not really what I was expecting, the religion was there but not all holy and pious. I came back, resigned from the bank and by August started at St Eliseus Priory in Tappan, New York.  I went to St Thomas Aquinas College, one of the requirements was a degree in philosophy, and by 1998 entered the Middletown, New York Novitiate, a one year period  at which time you looked more closely at the spirituality of the Carmelite life, and see if you could make a go of it.” 

On  May 31, 1999,  Gerard professed simple vows — “temporary” vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He came home in August and began studying at St John Vianney and The Ugandan Martyrs Seminary,  graduating four years later  (last May) with an honours degree in Theology.  Before this, on  September 14, 2002, he took final vows at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church with  Prior Provincial Michael Driscoll.  On May 31, 2003, he was ordained a deacon by  Archbishop Gilbert at the Cathe-dral of the Immaculate Conception, and  has been doing Ministry at St Michael’s, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Blanchisseuse. Father Gerard (O CARM) will celebrate his first Mass on December 9 at St Anthony’s in Petit Valley at 6.30 pm.

Brother Garth Eversley  grew up in Tunapuna.  He is 40 years old, and is the son of Lucille and Bertie Eversley.  He  took a bit longer to decide on the Carmelites as a vocation.  A graduate of Curepe Junior Secondary and St Augustine Senior Comprehensive he worked at the Royal Bank but did not like banking and moved to what was then Telco (now TSTT).  He thinks the call to ministry came at age 16 when he was confirmed. “I knew I wanted to do something for God, to dedicate my life in some way. I was not really close to the religious but there was a desire to live more closely with God. I eventually entered the Regional Seminary at Mount St Benedict to study theology but left before completing as I felt I did not want to pursue that life any longer.”  Looking for a new environment, Garth moved to St Vincent and the Grenadines motivated partly by the fact that one of the Carmelite Sisters there had been his confirmation teacher. “I went for two years, something happened and it was eight years before I left.” He worked at an  8 am  to 4 pm job and also in the church among the youth, and the area of communications, and was part of what was then a fledgling lay movement. In 1995, Fr Mike Kissane, Carmelite Voca-tional Director in New York came to meet with those interested in the Carmelite Order, but it did not bear fruit.  The following year, Garth met Provincial Prior Mario Esposito in St Vincent and it was from that contact he got serious.  By 1996, he went to the Tappan Vocational Retreat and returned to St Vincent knowing “if I were to go back into religious life this is the community I would want to be part of. “Lots of reflection and  dialogue during my one-month-stay there and I decided this is what I wanted to do and would enter religious life. In 1998, I formally entered the Carmelites and  went back in August to pre-novitiate house in Tappan.”

Having already completed enough credits to qualify for a first degree, he was admitted to a Masters in Theology at Seton Hall in New Jersey University’s School of Theology while living at Tappan. After nine months, he entered the novitiate at Middletown and took simple vows in 2000, and  went back to complete his Masters also doing another programme at Fordham University simultaneously. Strangely enough, the results arrived during this interview that Brother Eversley had  been granted a Certificate In Spiritual Directions from Ford-ham’s Graduate Program-me, “with honours.”  In order to complete requirements for ordination in this Diocese, Brother Garth went back to St John Vianney for the past two years, made his solemn profession on July 16, 2003 at St Charles Tuna-puna with Provincial Prior Father Kissane, and was ordained five days later as a deacon by Arch-bishop Gilbert at St Michael’s, and is now assisting Father John and Brother Gerard at Maracas and Blanchis-seuse. “It is wonderful to have help” said Father John, who is Prior and Head of the local male Carmelites. Father Garth (O Carm) will celebrate his first mass at St John The Baptist Roman Catho-lic Church in St Augustine on December 7, at 4 pm. The Priory has already been extended at Maracas Valley but if Prior John’s vision is fulfilled, one day there will be a complete Order of Carmelite Bro-thers and a new Priory will have to be built. “That’s one of the reasons we chose Maracas Valley, there is room to expand, and what better place for solitude and prayer.”