Archbishop Gordon on Telfer’s passing: “…a great Catholic, and true patriot of T&T”.

“ I remember the first time I heard ‘O Creator’, Peter Telfer and the Mawasi Experience in liturgy, it woke me up. It woke me up because here you had this rhythm and this chant, and this music that was so different from others we had or experimented within the Church, and it was us, it was our rhythm, our chant. It resonated with us, a Caribbean people. That’s Peter’s gift to us as Church. He brought music that was ours. He was a true son of the soil, he was a creative and was always in his Red, White and Black and his identity with Trinidad and Tobago.. A cultural icon for us in the Catholic Church and a true son of the nation. I mourn the passing of Peter, and I thank God for him and his life. I give condolences to his family, friends and those he worked within Mawasi Experience. WE have lost a wonderful man, and a great Catholic, and a true patriot of Trinidad and Tobago. The Catholic Church mourns for him. And we pray for him and the eternal rest of his soul. “

Archbishop Jason Gordon expressed his sorrow at the news of the death of Catholic and cultural icon, Peter Telfer this morning.

In a brief message to the Catholic News, the Archdiocese, he said, has lost a “wonderful man, a great Catholic, and a true patriot of Trinidad and Tobago”. He described his first experience of hearing Telfer’s ‘O Creator: A Call to Praise’ in a liturgy: “It woke me up because here you had this rhythm and this chant, and this music that was so different from others we had or experimented within the Church, and it was us, it was our rhythm, our chant. It resonated with us, a Caribbean people…”

This he said was Telfer’s gift to the Catholic Church, the music that was ours. He was, “deeply Catholic, and constantly holding the Trinidad and Tobago experience, with the experience of his Catholicism and fusing both of these into music and into art”.

The Archbishop noted Telfer’s profound commitment to his national identity as well, shown in always dressing in the national colours, “a true son of the soil”.

The Catholic Church, he said, is mourning, and he did as well, “I mourn the passing of Peter, and I thank God for him and his life.