It’s being billed as the “Episcopal Ordination of the Most Reverend Monsignor Charles Jason Gordon” but, on Tuesday night, Living Water Community Director Rhonda Maingot made it clear: “He will always, alpha and omega, be Fr Jason to us.”

LWC members including co-founder Rhonda Maingot (background) and his mother, (second from right) pray over Bishop-elect Msgr Jason Gordon. Photo: Raymond Syms

She made the comment at the end of the farewell Mass for the Bishop-elect, who belongs to the Living Water Community and who will be ordained Bishop of the Dioceses of Bridgetown and Kingstown on September 21 in Barbados.

Bishop-elect Gordon was the chief celebrant at what was his last Mass at the LWC Chapel before being ordained Bishop. His brother priests in the LWC – Msgr Michael De Verteuil and Fr Christopher Lumsden – concelebrated. The chapel was almost packed and the congregation included acting President Timothy Hamel-Smith and his wife, both LWC members, and relatives of Bishop-elect Gordon.

In the homily, Bishop-elect Gordon told the gathering to live a life of recollection and gratitude. He urged them to not be a complaining people like the Israelites in the First Reading from Numbers, who spoke against God and Moses in the desert and who then had to contend with fiery serpents. He said fiery serpents were most destructive when people did not remember the deeds that God had done and warned against “spiritual Alzheimer’s”.

The Bishop-elect did some recollecting of his own. He recalled how he entered LWC at age 20 and how the Community helped nurture him so that he came to understand the value of surrender and that the call of God was the most precious thing in life. “My will wouldn’t be taking me where I’m headed. His will can take me wherever He wants,” he said. He expressed gratitude to LWC for helping to form him and to bring him to this point in his journey.

Bishop-elect Gordon disclosed that his motto would be “Totally Yours”, signifying the giving of his whole self to God. He said LWC would find new growth if more people put God’s will before their own and surrendered to God’s love. He added that Living Water would then become an unstoppable “force of holiness” and would bring healing.

Later, during dinner, Bishop-elect Gordon said having responsibility for the Dioceses of Bridgetown and Kingstown seemed a daunting task. He joked that he felt like a husband with two wives and he didn’t know what to do. But he added that in everything he has done, God has always been present and has showed him the way. He asked that people pray for him as he assumed his new post.

In a brief address at the end of Mass, Maingot said there were heavy but glad hearts in Living Water at this time. She said LWC existed for the Church, the people of God, and so it was a privilege to be able to give the gift of a bishop. Maingot joked that when the new Bishop of Bridgetown and Kingstown visits T&T, he would be wearing a “little red hat” and a “fancy dan-dan” and people might have to bow and address him as “Your Lordship”.

“But we will still call him Fr Jason,” she said. – Kathleen Maharaj