Almost ten years after it was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan on 7 September 2014, a special mass will be held on Sunday 24 August, to celebrate the start of restoration work on the St George’s Anglican Church.
The Rt Rev C Leopold Friday will be the chief celebrant. The ceremonial blessing which is scheduled for 5:00 pm, is expected to be attended by a number of invited persons and a wide cross-section of the Anglican community.
The Venerable Christian Glasgow, Archdeacon of the Anglican Community in Grenada and also the Rector at the St George’s Anglican Church, said that the restoration construction was not contracted to any one contractor, as the project will be supervised by the Building Committee of the Church which is chaired by Phillip David.
“We, as a church agreed that the Building Committee will supervise, and those who are capable of doing the job to restore the church will work with us. The intention is to restore the church to what is used to look like from its architecture to the final furnishing and landscape,” he said.
The rebuilding is expected to last 18 months, and details of the restoration project with regard to the cost and the number of persons to be employed during the restoration will officially be disclosed to all who attend the ceremonial blessing.
Since the passage of the hurricane, the St George’s Anglican Senior School has become the main place of worship on weekends, while the small section of the church which had minimal damage is used during the week for midday mass.
The Anglican Church will be the third church to undertake restoration since the passage of the hurricane which destroyed 90% of housing on the island. The Catholic and Methodist Churches were rebuilt with loans from financial institutions, plus financial contributions. With the commencement of work on the Anglican Church, the next church to be restored/rebuilt, will be the Presbyterian Kirk.
By Linda Straker
