Monsignor Gregory Ramkissoon, a Trinidadian priest domiciled in Jamaica for more than three decades has to be the epitome of the new evangelisation.

That he has been been honoured and has received several accolades, has nothing to do with the raison d’etre behind his decision to launch the Mustard Seed Community (MSC) in Jamaica 32 years ago. It had to be the need he saw for some kind of true evangelisation.

Msgr Ramkissoon, working as a lecturer on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies in 1978, realised that God’s people were being exposed to serious problems in Kingston.

Obviously the “mustard seed” he planted in inner city Kingston was in fertile soil and as it grew and flourished, its “branches” worked assiduously to provide care services for children with disabilities in the many impoverished districts in the wider Kingston area.

It has continued to flourish, which has allowed it to expand its mandate. It now provides educational facilities, home care for the elderly, day-care services for children and caring for people living with HIV/AIDS.

But that mustard seed continues to grow to the extent it is now reaching out over the ocean and its developed seeds have begun to flourish in the nearby Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, the United States and faraway Zimbabwe. This is in addition to the 13 chapters in Jamaica itself. It is the largest Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) in the Caribbean and Central America for disabled and abandoned children.

The cogent mission of Msgr Ramkissoon’s mustard seed has brought him recognition in several countries of the Caribbean and from educational institutions in the United States and his native Trinidad and Tobago.

While there are several “mustard seeds” in our country working with the poor, disabled and abandoned, there is an urgent need for more Church “farmers” to plant mustard seeds.