“We have royalty in the house this morning.”

That was the straightforward declaration made by Reverend Howard Dill of Allen Temple AME Church at the start of Sunday’s 11am worship service.

The pastor was alluding particularly to the presence of Vivienne Cholmondoley Anderson, who was on a whirlwind six-day visit from her home in St Louis, Missouri. It was the first visit to the land of her birth since the death five years ago of her husband, the Rt Rev Vinton Randolph Anderson.

She was accompanied by Simone Philips, whom Mrs Anderson explained was the daughter she had chosen in view of the fact that she had given birth to four sons.

Her aunt, Izola Cholmondoley Harvey, was also in her party at Allen Temple. Decades ago Mrs Harvey etched her name in the Island’s history as part of the Progressive Group that initiated the Theatre Boycott which culminated in desegregation in Bermuda.

I took particular note of the grace and humility that encompassed Mrs Anderson as she acquitted herself during this hectic visit. She and her husband were my close neighbours and friends. Over the decades I have written volumes about how they travelled the world together.

The pinnacle of his success came in 1991 when in Adelaide, Australia he was elected to a seven-year term as president of the World Council of Churches. This august body consisted of 560 million members worldwide, representing 322 denominations.

I was asked to introduce the Bishop at Grandparents’ Sunday service at Allen Temple on September 13, 2009.

I began, declaring it was a privilege and honour to present the Man of God we liked to think of as “our very own Bishop”. I summarised how he was an internationally acclaimed theologian, philosopher, a prolific writer, publisher and editor of numerous books and journals; a church builder, one-time president and chancellor of historic Wilberforce University and Payne Theological Seminary.

I described him as a son of the soil, born and bred on the top of Sound View Road, Somerset and nurtured in the Amen Corner of Allen Temple as “a son of Allen”. He was the first Bermudian elected to the distinguished Bench of Bishops of the AME Church as the 92nd Bishop.

That accomplishment led me to declare, in a feature I previously wrote for ‘The Royal Gazette’, that the Bishop had put Bermuda on top of the world — and beside him was none other than his gracious wife.

Having been raised believing that “as a man thinketh, so is he” I was moved to re-read his book ‘My Soul Shouts! The Spiritual Wisdom: the Thinking of Bishop Anderson’.

The first line reads: “I am a Bishop in the church, but to me that is not prestige or power; it is a privilege of service. My distinction is the same as that of every other Christian: first a person, then a servant of Christ.”

It was some 62 years before that he and two other young men (yours truly included) stood before the altar of St Paul AME Church in Hamilton answering the charge and clarion call from Bishop Wright to go to Wilberforce University to study for the ministry. (After some serious soul-searching I realised I would have missed my calling as a journalist if I had followed through with Bishop Wright’s magnanimous offer.)

It was at Allen Temple where his pilgrimage began. It had taken him across the threshold of every continent in the world spreading the gospel and the immutable word of God. He had travelled from China to Chile, to Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, the United States and Canada, spreading the gospel. Most notable was the series of sermons he delivered before a capacity crowd of 150,000 people at the Mar Thomas Convention in India in 1993.

Somerset was where his academic career began, at Sandys Secondary School. He spent five years at the Dockyard apprenticing as a carpenter. Being the first-class carpenter that he was, he could have made a lot of money if he stayed on and worked at his tools in Bermuda.

He went on Wilberforce University, Kansas State University and Yale University, piling on the degrees with honours as well as honorary. He was truly God-gifted!

Rev Anderson had the youth and exuberance to propel him to the pastorates of various churches far from home, in the states of Kansas and Missouri and elsewhere. For a period of 32 years after our illustrious, home-grown son, spiritual leader and advisor became Bishop, he served in five different districts within the AME connection. At the same time, his singularly outstanding ecumenical activities culminated in his election as first vice president of the World Methodist Council for the North American region, and selection as a delegate to the World Methodist Council and Conference.

It comprised those of the Muslim and Jewish faiths and of course the world’s Christians. We noted how he was recipient of numerous civic awards and citations most notable of which included: the Scroll of Merit Award from the National Medical Association of America; Daniel A Payne Award For Ecumenical Leadership by the AME Church and the American Black Achievement Award. He appeared on national television in the United States on ‘Face The Nation’ and ‘Tony Brown’s Journal’ and, was listed in: ‘Who’s Who in America’; ‘Who’s Who Among Black Americans’; ‘Who’s Who in Religion’ and ‘Who’s Who in the Caribbean’. Throughout his dizzying fore-mentioned journey, Bishop Anderson was accompanied by his wife of some 60 years. In his book, ‘My Soul Shouts!’, he merely refers to her as his “soul mate”. In my review of that book I mentioned the whole world knew that the vivacious Mrs Anderson, an intellectual in her own right and mother of their four sons, was in actuality, the apple of his eye.

I told the congregation that it was “a pleasure, privilege and honour” to present the Rt Rev Anderson, a world-renowned theologian, a prolific ecclesiastical scholar, a pre-eminent Bishop, author, and above all a friend.