MISSION TRIP FOUR - 4-10-16

AN ADVENTURE 

WITHIN 

AN ADVENTURE

R J Mission Projects Expands Its Reach

An Opportunity to Address Twenty-One Caribbean Bishops 

at

The Antilles Episcopal Conference Meeting

April 10-13, 2016

This afternoon, I flew from Kingstown, SVG, to Port of Spain, TRINIDAD, on an airline that I have come to dread to give an address to this Caribbean Bishops Conference on Tuesday afternoon, April 12.  Tomorrow on Monday, April 11, I volunteered to offer a class at the local regional seminary on presbyteral theology (priests working together with the bishop as a team). 

PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD

ANTILLES EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE

The English, French and Dutch territories of the Caribbean, with the exception of Haïti, constitute the geographical area entrusted to the pastoral care of the Bishops of the Antilles Episcopal Conference.

The Catholic Church within these territories comprises five Provinces, consisting of five archdioceses, fourteen dioceses and two Independent Missions, i.e., twenty-one ecclesiastical units in all. Politically, within the five Provinces there are thirteen independent nations (Belize, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, Guyana, Suriname, The Bahamas, St. Kitts-Nevis, three Departments of France (Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique), two parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands having complete internal autonomy (Curacao + and Aruba ), and six British colonies (Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands). In addition, one United States Dependency, St Thomas, enjoys observer status.

Archbishop Patrick Pindar of Nassau is the President of the Conference 

The Permanent Board

The officers of the Conference are the President, the Vice-President and the Treasurer. They are elected every three years. The current officers are:

President: Archbishop Patrick Pinder, Archbishop of Nassau, the Bahamas

Vice-President: Bishop Francis Alleyne, Bishop of Georgetown, Guyana

Treasurer: Bishop Neil Tiedemann, Bishop of Mandeville, Jamaica

The Permanent Board continues the work of the AEC between Plenary Sessions. It is composed of : 

the President (Archbishop Patrick Pinder) 

the Vice–President (Bishop Francis Alleyne) 

the Treasurer (Bishop Neil Tiedemann) 

the Metropolitans (Archbishops Joseph Harris (Port of Spain-Trinidad), Michel Méranville (Fort de France- Martinique), Robert Rivas (Castries-St.Lucia) and Charles Dufour (Kingston-Jamaica) 

two elected members (Bishops Emmanuel Lafont (Cayenne) and Luis Secco (Willemstad-Curacao). 

Archbishop Nicola Girasoli 

Apostolic Nuncio - Ambassador - from the Holy See

Vatican Embassy, Port of Spain, Trinidad