The Tribune

By SIMON

Like other manifestations of beauty, moral beauty in its various forms, such as kindness, perseverance, compassion, courage, faith, charity, and a rainbow of spiritual virtues, attracts and compels others “to go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37)

Such moral beauty is exemplified in the witness of Gail Wisdom and Rev Angela Palacious as women of faith, active citizens, and pioneers. They have preached this beauty and companionship with Christ in word and deed.

As noted last week, in an emerging sovereign nation, Mrs Wisdom and Rev Palacious became master teachers, and beacons of faith, hope, and joy, fires of light, signals of celebration, lighthouses of guidance. Teaching was not confined to formal classrooms.

Their journeys of faith and education deeply influenced their private struggles and public witness. The Sisters of Charity from Riverdale, New York, were Gail’s primary high school instructors at Xavier’s College.

Their witness and encouragement proved pivotal in her religious formation. She became a Roman Catholic in 1965 at aged 17. The nuns helped plant and nurture the teaching seeds that blossomed in 1972, in Rock Sound, Eleuthera, at St Anne’s Catholic School, where her teaching career began.

Other female religious orders also helped fashion her teaching ministry. She was nurtured and guided by two master teachers, Sisters Mary Lucia and Clare Haas, Grey Sisters from London, Ontario, in Canada.

As noted in her biography: “After returning to New Providence in 1974, she served as a Grade 6 teacher at St. Joseph’s School, on Boyd Road, under Principal, Sister Annie Thompson, OSB.

“In September 1976, Sister Maedene Russell, OSB, the first Bahamian head of the Catholic Board of Education appointed her as the first Bahamian and first lay principal of St Francis Xavier School at the Priory Grounds.

She helped supervise the amalgamation of the Sts Francis and Joseph Schools in 1979, serving as principal of the new school, then the largest of the Roman Catholic primary schools, until 1981.

Mrs Wisdom went on to attain a Master of Arts in general education. Her ensuing specialty was working with children and youth with specific and general learning disabilities and significant achievement challenges.

Angela Bosfield grew up Anglican. She attended St Elphin’s, a boarding school for Anglican girls in Derbyshire, England in the UK. There she would meet now retired Supreme Court Justice, Diane Sands, later Stewart, who became a lifelong and dear friend.

Stewart describes Palacious as a voracious reader, non-judgmental, and who was committed even from a young age to wanting to leave the world a little better. “Angela has a spirit of calm and always leaves you feeling a little better than you were,” Stewart enthuses admiringly, adding, “She is a deep listener.”

The studious Angela would go on to obtain “a BA in English from Durham University, England in 1975 and an MA in English from Concordia University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1978”.

At Princeton University in New Jersey, she obtained her Master of Divinity in 1981 and her Master of Theology in 1982. Theology broadly and Christian spirituality in particular captured her interest in her young adulthood.

Her beloved first cousin and friend Arlene Nash Ferguson recalls a telling story from when they were teachers in the Anglican school system. While the two were discussing a spiritual matter, Arlene suggested to her cousin: “You should marry a priest.” Angela responded: “I want to be a priest.”

Rev Palacious enjoyed an expansive and ecumenical imagination. The spirituality of St Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits left an indelible imprint on her spiritual longings and process of discernment and prayer.

The call to ordained ministry she experienced came to fruition after the Anglican Diocese of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, finally agreed to ordain women. She applied to become a deacon in 1992.

In 1994, she earned a Certificate in Anglican Studies from the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan, New York. After further training she was ordained in 1994 as the first woman deacon in the Diocese’s then 138-year history.

She did go on to marry a priest, Rev James Palacious. However, she also became a priest. They were ordained the first husband and wife couple in the region.

While there were those vociferously opposed to female ordination, including a number of male priests, the majority of the Anglican community accepted her priestly ordination, which came in 2000.

This does not mean the path was easy. The inevitable sexism and misogyny was in evidence in certain mindsets and quarters.

However, through her devoted ministry and pastoral style she demonstrated moral beauty and grace in both senses. She was a pioneer, with a number of other women eventually ordained as priests.

Rev Palacious and Mrs Wisdom are pioneers, who have first hew and then paved paths for others, removing material and immaterial barriers, stones and obstacles along the way. They have done so with humor and strength, eschewing cynicism.

Both have touched the lives of thousands through their professional ministries and community service.

A compelling, clear philosophy has guided Gail Wisdom as an educator, counsellor and mentor:

She believes she can teach just about every child to learn whatever their learning style or specific and “special needs” in the broadest sense of special, the synonyms of which are unique, exceptional, individual, singular and distinct.

The vehicle for her educational enterprise and mission was the establishment of a private institution, AcademiaA, which she founded in August 1981. Decades later, thousands of former students, parents, guardian, fellow educators, therapists and other professionals celebrate how she transformed the lives of scores of Bahamians and residents.

She taught them numerous skills of language and learning. But among the greater skills cum gifts she imparted are those of compassion, confidence and self-worth.

Mrs Wisdom notes: “For the last forty-three years from 1981 thru 2024, AcademiaA has served thousands of Bahamian children, youth and adults, who were provided with the motivation and means to overcome roadblocks to realising their fuller learning potential.”

Gail exudes the joy of giving, service and volunteerism. She has always had a particular devotion to older people. A Benedictine Oblate, who remains close to the Benedictine Sisters, she celebrates 60 years of being a Roman Catholic this year.

She has worshipped at St Francis Xavier Cathedral for years, serving as a commentator and volunteering to bring others to mass. She serves as a member of the Catholic Board of Education. She has offered myriad gifts to the laity, clerics and religious of the Archdiocese. Her faith teems with good works.

Rev Palacious’s biography notes her ministry in the Anglican Diocese. After ordination, she served “in Nassau as a deacon and as the Assistant Priest at St Mary the Virgin Church (1999- 2003) and St. Margaret’s Church (2003-2010)…

“[She also served] a short interim as Priest-in-Charge of Epiphany Church, and as the diocesan ministry coordinator (Diocese 2000 and Beyond, 1999-2010). She retired from the position of Anglican Hospital Chaplain (2010 to September 2024).”

In her hospital ministry she too has ministered to thousands, both Anglican and non-Anglican. She has encouraged young mothers, prayed with the dying, held the hands of the frightened, and offered Christian hope.

Rev Palacious also “served as Chaplain to the House of Assembly, [and as] a member of the College of the Bahamas Council, Public Hospitals Authority Ethics Committee, the National Women’s Advisory Council, the National Youth Council, the Chairperson of the Residential Care Licensing Authority…”

She currently serves as director of Pastoral Care and is chairperson of the Diocesan Family Violence Ministry, helping and advocating for women experiencing domestic and other violence. She also chairs The National Teacher Morale Improvement Committee.

She has authored eight books, among them daily reflection guides. Her pastoral outreach includes a communications ministry of videos and podcasts, spiritual direction, and counselling.

Mrs Wisdom and Rev Palacious are mothers. Each has a son. They have demonstrated a certain and enlightened Christian feminism in a deeply misogynistic culture that often pervades church, state and society.

Arlene Nash Ferguson fondly remembers a gift from Angela from many years ago, a chain with three stones, representing Anglican institutions in The Bahamas: one green for St John’s College, one red for St Matthew’s Church, and one blue for St Anne’s. Nash Ferguson wears this gift daily.

A friend recalls two loving gifts from Gail one year following a serious car accident. Through their gift giving, material and spiritual, these beacons have demonstrated generosity and kindness.

The thousands of lives they transformed and graced deserve recognition today, including as this writer’s persons of the year for 2024.

Moreover, happily, their legacy of moral beauty and of faith, hope and joy will reverberate for successive generations.