community

English speakers who grew up here and who have reached the age where their hair is naturally gray are likely to have grown up reading the social pages that Anona Kirkland wrote for the old Star & Herald. Back then there were certain social divisions among the social mileaux that she covered, but neither among the Americans nor the West Indians was there that sense that "society" means a thin crust of rich families. Anona's beat was not about the pretensions of the rich who wanted to buy fame, but rather the clubs, religious congregations and service organizations of a linguistic minority that may have been prosperous by comparison to most other people on the isthmus, but was almost entirely composed of skilled and educated individuals who made their livings by working for someone else.

On August 13 the diverse community that Anona covered gathered at the Cathedral of St. Luke in Ancon to celebrate the 100th birthday of the dean of Panamanian English-language journalism.

The crowd that gathered at St. Luke's thus in many ways reflected the diverse English-speaking community that has been rooted here fopr the past 150 years. The sermon, for example, was given by Bishop Julio Murray, who leads the Anglican faith on the isthmus. "Anona knows me as a small boy running around her office at the Star & Herald," Murray recalled, noting how he used to go there with his grandfather when the latter had community events to publicize in the paper.

Speaking on "the values of the Kingdom of God," Murray opined that "there is one thing that Christians are not: Christians are not lucky. Christians are blessed." The bishop drew a distinction between happiness and joy: "Happiness comes from external experience, but joy comes from within." It seems that both of these things were abundant at St. Luke's that morning.

Sitting in the pews with Anona were five generations of her descendents. The youngest generation --- the toddlers --- didn't necessarily sit through the 100-minute service. In addition to Murray's sermon and Bible lessons by Cristina Kirkland, Carolina Kirkland de Varela, Jessie Firth Sandler and Wilfred McFarquhar, communion was celebrated by Bishop Murray and St. Luke's dean, the Very Reverend Maizee Lennan. The service, like the longer established part of the English-speaking community here, was bilingual.

There were also very good musical performances by Reinaldo Taylor, Nora and Guillermo Johnson, Alfonso Lewis, Mary George and Alida Lynton. The musical offerings, in the baroque, classical and sacred genres, were befitting of a woman like Anona, who studied music at Harvard and belongs to the American Guild of Organists.

Here Anona posed with her fellow Soroptimists. Also paying their respects were the District Grand Lodge at the Panama Canal under the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and its affiliated women's organization, the Orchid Chapter of the Eastern Star; the Inter-American Women's Club; the National League of American Pen Women; the American Society of Panama; and the British Aid Society. There was a message from US Ambassador Linda Watt --- herself an Episcopalian --- and Anona's son William C. Kirkland read a White House proclamation. Although La Estrella, of which the Star & Herald was a subsidiary publication, was not present at the celebration, Panamanian English-language journalism was represented by this reporter and Canal Record columnist Art Mokray.


Also in this section:
Journalist Anona Kirkland turns 100
Anona Kirkland Writing Contest awards
Warsaw Ghetto uprising monument crumbling
Voting absentee in the US elections

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