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RETIRED rector of the Church of The Ascension, Mona Heights, Canon Peter Mullings died on Tuesday following a brief illness.Mullings was minister for 59 years, serving the Mona Heights congregation for 37 years until his retirement in 2011. He was also rural dean in St Andrew for 29 years.Trained at St Peter's College, the diocesan institution which preceded the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI), he was ordained a deacon in 1963 and a priest in 1964.In 1987 he was installed an honorary canon of the Cathedral of St Jago de la Vega, Spanish Town.Mullings was formerly priest-in-charge for the Old Harbour Cure, St Catherine, from 1963 to 1968. He subsequently assumed duties as rector of the cure from 1968-1971, while serving simultaneously as priest-in-charge of the Bartons Cure. In 1971, he was appointed acting director of youth and held that post until 1974, when he returned to parish ministry.Tributes from clergy and lay members across the diocese remember Father Peter as "an innovative priest, a dynamic youth director and a jovial individual who was a caring person, loved by many".In expressing his condolence, Howard Gregory, archbishop of the West Indies and lord bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, recalls that he met Canon Mullings while he was a teenager and president of the Anglican Young People's Association at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Molynes Road. "At the time, he was a young priest in Old Harbour, and we related to him easily. We could call him and he would travel from Old Harbour to Molynes Road to guide our Bible study session or give a talk," he said.President of the Mothers' Union, a diocesan women's organisation, Judith Spencer Jarrett, said "Uncle Peter" was a phenomenal influence in her life. "He was there every step of the way and, of course, supported me with prayer," she reminisced.Rev David "Tony" Reid, rector of St Thomas Church, in Lacovia, St Elizabeth, for his part, said: "Father Mullings contributed much to my formation as a young man. He helped to teach me how to drive, and gave me my first experience of church management and ecumenical relationships in the Hope Area when he facilitated my election at age 18 to the committee at Church of the Ascension, Mona Heights."Others who have also assumed leadership positions in the Church spoke about the seminal role which the late canon played in the annual diocesan summer camps in Negril and as chaplain of Jamaica College.Canon Mullings is survived by his wife Jean, children, and grandchildren.