Ninety years young is a hackneyed description for some non-agenarians, but it fits Bishop Norris Dickenson perfectly.

For he is still a very active citizen who preaches occasionally at Warwick Holiness Church, enjoys travelling, and has just passed his annual driving test with flying colours.

Soft spoken and with all the qualities of a true gentleman, Bishop Dickenson is a man who loves life, his family, his God and planet Earth in equal measure.

Born in St. Kitts as one of six children to James and Berniece Dickenson, young Norris Nathaniel was an eager student who applied himself diligently to what he describes as "a first class British education'', including his favourite subjects: history and literature.

Along with the words of Shakespeare, the boy committed to memory some of the world's bestloved poetry of Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Keats and more. In fact, so well did their immortal words become embedded in his memory that today he still recites long works with perfect recall and great feeling.

Gray's `Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' remains a great favourite.

"I love that poem. The way he began it is so simple,'' he says.

When his family moved to Bermuda, they settled in Somerset where he completed his education before entering into a three-year machinist's apprenticeship at the Royal Naval Dockyard. Here many St. Kittians, including his grandfather and two uncles before him, also worked.

"You had to be there for 7 a.m., and just before that a bell would start ringing. When it stopped, if you weren't there you were late and you were checked one sixteenth,'' the ex-machinist remembers. "If I had a puncture, I would walk and run from Somerset to get there on time.''

In 1941 he married and left Somerset to reside in Shelly Bay, where he still lives. At the same time he secured a transfer from Dockyard to the geographically more convenient US air base at Kindley Field. It wasn't long before his Dockyard training led to the invention of a jig to repair slip rings on engines _ a device which not only saved time but also the costly and constant replacement of brushes.

"They gave me a few dollars for it,'' Bishop Dickenson smiles.

By 1963 he was an inspector in the machine shop with a number of apprentices working under him, and over time received several awards and a certificate for outstanding performance as a machinist.

Yet the man they called "Dickie'' felt a higher calling. Religion had always played an integral role in the St. Kittian's life. Raised a Methodist, he continued to worship at the Somerset Methodist church here, and sang in the choir. At age 16 he began to hear interesting things about the Pentecostal movement, and his curiosity led him to attend a meeting.

"I thought I would see some things I'd heard they were doing, but I didn't, so with my parents' permission I went back a second time, and was converted in that meeting,'' Bishop Dickenson says.

It wasn't long before he became a Sunday school teacher, the first step on a path which included working with young people, becoming an evangelist, being made an elder, and eventually made assistant to two different bishops who were based in the US.

In 1963 Mr. Dickenson, as he then was, submitted his resignation at the Base, and began his ministry at Warwick Holiness Church, Khyber Pass.

The mother church is known as the United Holy Church of America Inc., and the Bermuda district is known as the United Holy Church of Bermuda.

In 1971 the former machinist was not only the first bishop consecrated outside the US, but also the first local bishop of the Bermuda District. In 1980 he became the church's first president-elect in the annual convocation. "I served at Warwick Holiness for 41 years and we had two services on Sundays,'' he remembers. "When I was called to that parish we had 11 members, and we got together and bought the plot of land where the church is now. It was a rugged hill, and the two-storey church was built from stone that came from the site. The oldest member started the church in her living room behind what is now the church. We call her `Mother' Gertrude Samuels.''

Today, Bishop Dickenson proudly notes that the congregation at Warwick Holiness exceeds 100, and there are other branches of the church at Boaz Island; in Somerset; on North Shore, Pembroke; in Hamilton Parish and St. George's.

Although he retired three years ago at age 87, he still preaches occasionally, and begins and ends his days with prayer. His civic contributions have included serving as president of the Bermuda Pentecostal Fellowship and vice-president of the Bermuda Ministerial Association. One particular issue which challenged the latter organisation was whether or not a brewery should be allowed to open in the Dockyard.

We were really against it because we didn't feel it was an appropriate thing to do so they did away with the idea,'' he says. He was also a member of the Broadcasting Commissioners, another post not without controversy.

It was very challenging but worthwhile because we were protecting the younger members of the community,'' he says of some of the difficult decisions he helped to make.

The bishop is sad to note that today standards of behaviour are not what they were, and feels society is all the poorer for it.

"A lot of the children have gone so far beyond. We talked about the Isles of Rest, but now it has become the Isles of Unrest. We are better off today than we have ever been, yet for all that we have more crimes,'' he says.

"What would help our society today is to get back to some of the old ways.

Sunday, for example, used to be a day when you went to church. Now it is an open holiday. You have cricket, tennis and other sports. Lots of times I am really vexed in my spirit when I try to go to church and the Police tell me "You can't go this way' because of a sporting event.''

A keen tennis player and cricketer in his day, Bishop Dickenson remains an avid fan, and supports the West Indies team.

Widely travelled, he has visited places as far apart as the Caribbean and the Far East, and plans to visit St. Kitts this summer. In China, he was amazed to discover Barritt's ginger beer in a restaurant, and walked on the Great Wall.

Music is another of Bishop Dickenson's passions. From an early age he played the violin, including in his church, until arthritis claimed his fingers, and he has now passed on his much-cherished instrument to granddaugher Latitia Kelly. A tenor, he has also loved singing from childhood, and with his wife, Miriam Ada, on piano enjoys singing hymns and gospel songs. He is also a keen gardener who uses the fruits of his labours in his cooking.

"My soup is so good it makes your hair curl,'' he says.

An avid reader throughout his life, Bishop Dickenson lists Sir Walter Scott among his favourite writers. The father of two daughters, Marjorie Kelly and Maybelle Denwiddie, and six grandchildren, he remains an eternal student who likes nothing better than broadening his knowledge. "If there is something to be known, I like to know it,'' he says. "The Lord has blessed me with a good memory, and I have retained a lot of the things I have studied. I never stop learning, and reading is my hobby.''