Seychelles is a country whose President is also a Priest. The Rev. Wavel Ramkalaran, whose political career emerged from a vocation to prophetic preaching, was elected president of Seychelles on October 25 2020, in the small island nation’s first peaceful transition of power since its independence from Britain in 1976. Ramkalawan, 59, has been leader of the country’s Seychelles National Party since its founding in 1994, and has been the party’s candidate in the last six presidential elections. He was sworn into office the following day at the State House in Victoria, the national capital.
Seychelles’ original president, James Mancham was overthrown in a bloodless coup by prime minister France-Albert Rene just a year after independence.
Rene created a single-party socialist state under the control of his socialist Seychelles People’s Progressive Front.
His regime was marked by widespread torture and espionage and it maintained social control through the National Youth Service, a military-style organization that indoctrinated teenagers in the party’s ideology.
Because of strict government censorship of the Media, clergy in the predominantly Catholic country were the only public figures with relative freedom to speak out against abuses.
Ramkalaran, who was ordained in 1985, had recently returned from studies at Birmingham University in the U.K. and was serving in an Anglican parish near Victoria, the largest city and capital, when he encountered people who had suffered at the hands of the regime.
It was his work as a priest that led Ramkalawan to politics. Through his pastoral work, he came into contact with many people who had been subject to repression and abuses of human and civil liberties by the government.
At that time, the Catholic and Anglican churches were the only institutions that could speak on social issues; they were allowed to address these topics in sermons during weekly services, which were broadcast on alternate Sundays.
Very few Anglican clergy have held elected office, though Anglican bishops have always served in Britain’s House of Lords. Until 2001, Anglican clergy were disqualified from standing for election as members of parliament in the UK and in other elected bodies, like the European Parliament.
The tiny island nation of Vanuatu, another former British colony, is the only significant exception. Its founding prime minister, Walter Lini, was an Anglican priest, as was one of its presidents, John Bani, who served as head of state from 1998 until 2004.
The Rev. John Danforth, former U. S. Senator from Missouri and former U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, is an Episcopal priest and was an associate at St. Alban’s parish in Washington, D.C. while serving in Congress.