[2] He was born at Bath Village, St. John on the island of Barbados and attended the parishes Elementary Mixed School (1953–1958), graduated from the Modern High School and went to Codrington College, a theological college affiliated to the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill.
Leaving school, he married Betty Lucas-Holder, with whom he had son Stuart, and began work as a teacher and a civil servant before entering Codrington College in 1971 to be trained for the priesthood for the Diocese of the Windward Islands.
At this period he travelled to England where he was made Honorary Chaplain at the university Church of Christ the King, Gordon Square, London (1981–1984) and to further study at King's College London, gaining a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Old Testament Studies four years later in 1985.
It was during this last tenure that in 1996 he was made an Honorary Canon of the Diocese of Barbados and three years later, in 1999, he received an award for his work at Codrington College.
Later in 2005, whilst a member of the Advisory group to Anglican Observer at the United Nations (2003–2006), for his contribution to Theology in Barbados, he earned the Errol Barrow Award.