Father Becca hailed for his faith in God
PORT ANTONIO, Portland – Anglican priest Father Lloyd George Becca was Saturday eulogised as a man who exercised his faith in God, a humanitarian and a kind, gentle human being.
“We saw a spiritual leader who manifested unstaggering faith in the word and the will to go on,” Peter Clarke, one of Becca’s parishioners, told the hundreds of mourners who attended the funeral at Christ Church in Port Antonio.
“He projected a focus and strength that engendered the respect of those who came to know him,” said Clarke, who gave as an example of the late priest’s faith, his pulling through a major heart operation.
Clarke also said that Father Becca, who “worked with vigour and vitality to get things done”, had a vision for a home for the elderly in Port Antonio.
“He defended the rights of the poor, the defenceless and the oppressed,” Clarke said.
Father Becca, the twin brother of Gleaner sports journalist Tony Becca, died on December 6, a day after his Hyundai motor car was hit by a Mazda truck on the Lennox main road in Portland.
His death sent shock waves throughout the Anglican community and triggered deep mourning in Portland where he was very active, serving on a number of committees and doing work for the East Portland Ministers Fraternal and Portland 4-H clubs. Becca was also chairman of several school boards and was responsible for churches in Moore Town, Nonesuch and Fellowship.
In delivering the message, the Rt Rev Dr Alfred Reid appealed to motorists to practise safety on the country’s roads.
“We cannot deny the element of human responsibility for an accident that should never have happened,” Reid said. “I believe that many of the accidents that take place in our country should not happen. I challenge all of us who are here to be very responsible in our driving habits.”
Using Job 1:20 – 21 as reference for his message, Reid reminded his congregation that regardless of how painful death is, they should thank God for giving the departed person to us.
“Every death is a shock,” he said. “Nothing can prepare a family to accept this shock, although we know theoretically it must come some way. Even more difficult to deal with is the sudden death of a comparatively healthy person who has, in fact, conquered heart problems; a healthy person under tragic circumstances. And it is perhaps natural that we should suffer and lose perspective. But in the face of death, let us continue to thank God for having given the departed loved one to us.
“Today, we thank God that he gave us the gift of Lloyd George Becca, to know and love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage. The Lord gave him as a gift to his family and to us in the ministry.”
Reid said that “God works His sovereign will in and through, over and above, all human action. God works in His own mysterious way, even as He transforms the unspeakable tragedy of Calvary from an act of man into a redemptive act of God. Death is a giving back to God what is His rightfully, as our final act of self surrender. So live that when it comes it is a victory,” Reid said.
He said that Father Becca was “never a pushy person” and labelled him as a father, husband, friend, priest, evangelist and Christian gentleman, who “undoubtedly was a gift to his children in a society where so many children are without a father”.
Said Reid: “His consistency and dependability were gifts to his whole family; his ministry was a gift to the church; his commitment to evangelism and mission led him into the church army where he was commissioned and trained as an evangelist and he maintained this commitment when he was ordained to the sacred priesthood.”
Reid said that in today’s Jamaica, which is characterised by aggressiveness, vulgarity and violence, Lloyd Becca’s well-known gentleness, kindness and gracious demeanour were indeed rare and precious gifts.