The Rev. Tweed Instrumental as AME Church Makes History in Bermuda
By Maj. Marc Telemaque, LVD, ED, 1stEpiscopal District
July 10, 2019, will be inscribed in history as a truly historic and monumental moment. After 116 years, the Rev. Charles Vinton Monk, the former pastor of Allen Temple AME Church in Bermuda and owner of the first black-owned newspaper in Bermuda—The New Advocate—was granted a full and free posthumous pardon.
The Rev. Monk was a champion for justice and human rights whose plight was chronicled in Ira Philip’s book Freedom Fighters: From Monk to Mazumbo. Philip recounts Monk’s fearless journalistic advocacy and prophetic witness which exposed injustice against Jamaican laborer’s brought to Bermuda to work at the dockyard and his subsequent unjust trial, conviction, and imprisonment for criminal libel.
In a statement on behalf of the First Episcopal District, Bishop Gregory G.M. Ingram referred to “the monumental significance of this unprecedented event” as a “victory for truth and justice.” Bishop Ingram continued: “From its inception the African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in response to racism, social injustice, and discrimination and has been a beacon of justice and equality…the late Rev. Monk fulfilled his calling by championing the cause of a people who had no voice.”
The modern advocacy which led to the grant of the pardon for the Rev. Monk was initiated by another pastor in the AME Church, the Rev. Nicholas Tweed, who from the pulpit of St. Paul AME Church in Hamilton, Bermuda, made the call for justice to be done. He crafted the request that was presented to the government. Bermuda’s Premier, the Honorable E. David Burt took the cause to the governor. After examining the case and seeing the inescapable injustice done to the late Rev. Monk, he was compelled to grant the pardon.
In a statement to Bermuda’s House of Assembly, Premier Burt said: “I must also recognize the leadership of the Rev. Tweed on this issue. Sunday after Sunday, he challenges a congregation, swelled by radio and internet listeners, to look beyond the walls of the church; to see what is possible through commitment to a common purpose and an [have] honest discourse around who we are and what we can become.”
The Rev. Tweed, who attended the House of Assembly to witness the statement and to receive the signed pardon from Premier Burt stated, “It is a tremendously historical moment that the same chamber where Monk was described as a dog and dehumanized, now vindicates him and acknowledges the justness of his cause, not just for workers but on the issue of race and equality. I think that this posthumous pardon goes some way towards coming to terms with our tragic past.”
This watermark moment, a first that we know of in the British Overseas Territories, brings an end to a 116-year injustice and finally vindicates the Rev. Monk. It is a long-overdue victory for him, his family, and the AME Church.
