Dear Editor,
The recent death of Randolph George, the retired Anglican Bishop in Guyana, is a moment of great sadness for Guyana. He was a Guyanese of extraordinary courage, wisdom, humility and integrity who became an iconic figure as the country confronted the prolonged economic and political crisis that became endemic after the 1973 election. He undertook the role of being a voice of reason in a country trapped by ethnic polarization and partisan paralysis – a state of affairs that continues to define Guyana in the contemporary context.
As a religious leader, Bishop George was an example of the thoughtfulness and reason that was absent in much of the political sphere. It was a measure of his intellectual and moral stature that the Burnham regime sought to demonize the Bishop because he was willing to advocate for better governance in a country that had been shattered by inter-communal tensions and violence in the decades preceding the 1970s. Having lived abroad for a number of years, Bishop George recognized the decay that had overtaken the country by the mid-seventies and sought in his public statements to gently remind Guyanese that the society should not allow itself to be held hostage to the bitterness and venom that had been unleashed in the political arena. His religious faith defined his willingness to speak truth to power, and his courage provided other religious leaders with a moral space from which they could offer their views and concerns.
When I joined the Caribbean Conference of Churches as a project officer, in the immediate wake of Walter Rodney’s assassination, it was with the recognition that I would be working with the Guyana Council of Churches at a critical juncture in the country’s history. Over the three years that followed, I came to appreciate the quiet, steady and thoughtful presence that Bishop George represented within the ecumenical movement and the wider society. Together with the Jesuit Father Andrew Morrison, the editor of the Catholic Standard, and Dale Bisnauth of the Presbyterian Church, Bishop George formed a core group within the diverse leadership of the Guyana Council of Churches engaged in the search for a humane politics in Guyana that could accommodate the ethnic and confessional diversity of the country.
Bishop George’s passing is a reminder of both the tragedy of Guyanese history in the second half of the 20th century, and of his exemplary assertion of the dignity that is necessary to heal the society – to create the “free community of valid persons” advocated by Martin Carter in 1974 at the University of Guyana.
May he rest in peace and our condolences to his entire family.
Yours faithfully,
Cary Fraser