My vocation started at Good Shepherd St Oswald Church, Caroni]], in Tunapuna as a server, and my mentor was Bishop Benjamin Vaughan, Dean of the Cathedral.
After leaving school I taught two years at Richmond Street Boys’ Primary and then went to Codrington, where on completion of the Diploma in Theological Studies I was ordained Deacon at St Michael's Cathedral in Barbados, returned to Trinidad, and after 1961 priestly ordination was assigned as Assistant Priest at St. Stephen's in Princes Town".
[3] In Princes Town, Clarke met and married nurse Estella Millington, a union that has produced three children, Christopher Martin, Marisa and Marcus.
In 1963, Clarke went to All Saints in Port of Spain as assistant curate, during which time he decided to further his studies and obtained a Licentiate of Theology at the University of Western Ontario.
The Commission's report stated: "We find that Canon Clarke at all material times functioned as a messenger relaying messages among Imam Abu Bakr, Bilaal Abdullah and Col. Theodore.
We are convinced that, if he had not returned with the amnesty document, Bilaal Abdullah would have made good his threat to have the NAR Parliamentarians executed.