GOING THE DISTANCE

At Paul’s recent retirement function as a Presbyterian minister at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Barbara Paul came in for her share of kudos. Malcolm Jones, executive chairman at Petrotrin and primary schoolmate of Paul, spoke not only of the indelible mark his friend has left on many persons and whose presence in the church will be sorely missed, but told of “Barbara, his wife, truly a partner standing at his side and helping him to achieve goals.”

Paul served the Presbyterian church throughout Trinidad and Tobago and in each parish. “Barbara, generally, has always given total support throughout my ministry and has undertaken and achieved important work,” Paul said of his wife.

In the couple’s first posting to the San Juan/Santa Cruz/Woodbrook church from 1971 to 1990, she started a choir which became a big one, and a youth group that attracted a lot of young people, including non-Presbyterians. She also became involved in a lot of fund-raising activities, tea and fashion and Christmas concerts, and got the women of the parish to recognise the value of jumble sales so they would accompany her from as early as 4.30 am to the San Juan market.

When her husband moved in 1990 to Susamachar in San Fernando — Barbara led the junior choir and sang in the senior choir, always according to Paul “leading by example which gave a lot of credibility specially to her fund-raising projects.”

In the Tunapuna church, she not only sang in the choir, but provided leadership in forming a bhajan group which translated the hymns into Hindi in keeping with the background of the church when the Missionaries from Canada had to learn Hindi, and taught English.

In Paul’s last church at Guaico, because they lived in Tunapuna, she did not do too much. “Hers was a parallel ministry,” says her beloved husband. “Barbara was also a great supporter of the Presbyterian Sports in which all churches competed and we did very well.”

Paul is supposedly in retirement but looks forward to coming back in October as there is still a lot for this man who has touched many, many lives, to do. A driving force in the Inter Religious Organisation, he has served three one-year terms as president, and has been a representative of the Presbyterian Church from 1971 to the present time.

Above all, while carrying out his pastoral duties, he served three, two-year terms as Moderator of the church, which led to heart surgery during his second term when he was also priest-in-charge of Susamachar, the largest church in the country. This he says has changed now “and they have wisely freed the moderator from pastoral activities and left him to carry out the duties of the Moderator out of the Synod’s office in San Fernando.”

“To God be the glory,” says Paul who has not only worked at national level but at Caribbean and international levels. “I have viewed every facet of my work as an offering to Almighty God, and have never regretted my chosen ministry, it is my life’s vocation. I would come back again and would do it all over again. I have never lost enthusiasm for all that the Presbyterian ministry entails. The Presbyterian Church allows retirement and return, and like Brian Lara, I look forward to returning to the pulpit.”