The Right Rev Cyril Paul cel­e­brat­ed his 40th an­niver­sary in Ju­ly, com­mem­o­rat­ing his or­di­na­tion as a min­is­ter of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Al­most three months lat­er the na­tion cel­e­brates his life. Paul died on Sun­day af­ter a long bat­tle with prostate can­cer. He told the T&T Guardian in an in­ter­view in Ju­ly that he had no re­grets about be­ing a cler­gy­man. In Au­gust 2006, he re­tired from his min­is­te­r­i­al du­ties. Dur­ing the Ju­ly in­ter­view at his First Street home in San Juan, Paul was asked what was his great­est de­sire for T&T.

He replied: "It is that we all be­long to one coun­try; that Trinidad and To­ba­go be­longs to all of us; that we must ac­cept Trinidad and To­ba­go is not PP, COP, UNC or PNM coun­try; it is all of us to­geth­er and who­ev­er is in charge we have to work to­geth­er with them for a more pro­duc­tive coun­try." He al­so said he nev­er re­gret­ted an­swer­ing the call to en­ter the min­istry. Paul said every day he felt re­newed and strength­ened to con­tin­ue serv­ing God. "As I get old­er I get weak­er, of course, and I don't have the same strength and the same health...my health is not what it used to be. "So, of course, it would weak­en you and the con­tri­bu­tion you can make. But I nev­er have at any time felt that I have wast­ed my time or I made a wrong de­ci­sion or I could have been in some oth­er pro­fes­sion," Paul said.

He was born in Mara­bel­la in­to a Pres­by­ter­ian fam­i­ly. He at­tend­ed the Mara­bel­la An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School and then the pres­ti­gious Na­pari­ma Col­lege. Paul ex­celled in ath­let­ics and won the Vic­tor Lu­do­rum ti­tle for con­sec­u­tive two years. He played In­ter­col foot­ball for the col­lege. Be­fore start­ing min­istry at the St An­drew's The­o­log­i­cal Col­lege in San Fer­nan­do, Paul taught for a short pe­ri­od.He ob­tained his bach­e­lor's de­gree at the Unit­ed The­o­log­i­cal Col­lege of the West In­dies in Ja­maica and pur­sued his mas­ter's at Prince­ton The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary in New Jer­sey. Paul mar­ried Bar­bara whom he leaves to mourn.

In 1971, he was or­dained at the Susamachar Pres­by­ter­ian Church San Fer­nan­do.

These are some of his high­lights in his min­is­te­r­i­al ca­reer:

• Chair­man of the Chris­t­ian Coun­cil of T&T

• Pres­i­dent of the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion

• Mod­er­a­tor of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church

• Served on the World Coun­cil of Church­es and Plan­ning Com­mit­tee of the Bar­ba­dos As­sem­bly.