Father Ulric Jones ends 12-year stint in New York

by Nelson A. King in New York 03.AUG.07

In a very impassioned farewell ceremony Friday night, July 27, commemorating his retirement from the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in the United States, popular Vincentian priest Fr. Ulric C-Jones broke down in tears, then sang “Adieu” to parishioners and guests as they returned the favour with a raucous standing ovation.{{more}}

“In the last 12 years, with all my shortcomings, I tried my very best,” cried Fr. Jones, 65, who served uninterruptedly for that period of time at St. James the Less Episcopal Church in Jamaica, Queens.

“I think God knows I tried my best,” he added at the gala ceremony, at the Crown Plaza Hotel, near John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, organized by members of the church’s vestry, at which Jacqueline Boucher, wife of ex-national football captain and coach, Rudy Boucher, played an active role.

“I want to ask those with whom I did not agree to forgive me,” he continued.

Then, after asking his very devoted wife, Marilyn, who flanked him, to hand him a tissue, which he never used to dry his tears, Fr. Jones, a Calliaqua native, sang the chorus for “A Tavern in the Town,” a very familiar elementary school song in his youthful days.

Fr. Jones, who officially retired from the priesthood on June 24, after serving the Anglican community for 30 years, saluted parishioners at St. James the Less, their seventh and longest-serving rector, stating, “You are the best.”

“The priest who succeeds me has a good heritage,” he said, disclosing that he goes into retirement leaving the parish on sound financial footing, with US$250,000 “liquid cash,” compared to US$45,000 when he first arrived in October 1994.

Fr. Jones, who left New York Tuesday, said he was returning to the “ancestral home” in Calliaqua, which he inherited from his grandparents and parents, to “live a quiet life” with his wife.

The Jones’ three children – Brentford Ulric, Eneka Ulric, and Sharon – all adults, will remain in New York.

Eneka, the youngest, wed Wendy Huggins, originally from Georgetown, on Jul. 21, just

before his parents’ departure; Sharon is the executive assistant secretary to Catherine Jefferts-Schori, the presiding Episcopal Archbishop in the United States; and Brentford Ulric, the eldest, otherwise known as “Soca Jones,” is a popular entertainment promoter in Brooklyn.

Fr. Jones told Searchlight after the ceremony, he’ll try to “discern where the spirit leads” after re-settling in Vincyland.

“I have no specific and immediate plans about preaching,” he said. “I’ll like to visit institutions, like hospitals, nursing homes, etc.”

“And I’ll be available for any pastoral help, but I’ll not be pressing that,” he added.

Fr. Jones, however, said his primary reason for returning to his native land is to spend his golden years in Calliaqua.

“I just love it,” he said tersely.

Fr. Jones entered the priesthood in August 1977, serving first as an assistant for four months, to Archdeacon Charles Adams in the parish of St. Mary’s in Bequia.

From January 1978 to August 1988, he served as rector at St. Phillip’s in the Marriaqua Valley.

He then moved to St. Peter’s Parish in Long Is., Bahamas, from 1988 to 1991.

After migrating to New York in 1991, Fr. Jones assisted the then rector, Fr. George Brown, of Bahamian roots, at Grace Episcopal Church in Jamaica, Queens, for three years.

He arrived at St. James the Less in October 1994, remaining until retirement.

“God was very good to me, but never better until He brought Fr. Jones,” said Fr. Brown, now retired, who was among a host of parishioners and well-wishers paying glowing tributes and offering gifts to Fr. Jones and Mrs. Jones.

“I needed his counsel and his tenderness,” he added. “Through it all, we maintained love for each other.”

Fr. Leopold Baynes, the Vincentian-born rector at Grace Episcopal Church in Corona, Queens, said his relationship with Fr. Jones spans over 40 years, and that Fr. Jones had asked him to “stand with” him when Fr. Jones administered his first mass at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Calliaqua 30 years ago.

Rev. Dr. Glyger Beach, a Methodist minister, who attended the ceremony, said he and Fr. Jones were both baptized at St. Paul’s, but “somewhere along the line, I left the Anglicans and went to the Methodist Church.”

Narissa Morris, an attorney and accountant, who is a member of St. James the Less’ Finance Committee, said Vincentians will miss Fr. Jones immensely, pointing out that the parish, an admixture of Caribbean nationals, including Jamaicans, Guyanese and Barbadians, has become a “haven” for her compatriots.

“We, Vincentians, love St. James the Less,” said the vice president of the Brooklyn-based Girls’ High School Alumnae, Inc., who chaired the proceedings. “It’s been like a haven to us.

“Fr. Jones is leaving St. James the Less better than he found it,” Morris continued. “The fortunes of the church have more than doubled since he came here. We’re going to miss him.”

Fr. Jones and the Very Rev. Patrick Mc Intosh will celebrate their 30th anniversary in the ministry with a “Solemn Eucharistic Service,” on Aug. 7, at St. George’s Cathedral in Kingstown.

The Rt. Rev. C. Leopold Friday, Bishop of the Windward Islands, will preside over the service, with the Rev. Canon Christian E. Glasgow, Rector of St. George’s Church in Grenada, Fr. Jones’s protégé, bringing the word.