@Charles

Our recollection is that there is a Restorative Fund which Dean Frank Marshall was in the media promoting recently. There is a target of 7 million and up the last week the fund was about $300,000.00. You are correct that this property in the city should not have been allowed to reach such a dilapidated state.

The St Michael’s cathedral belongs to the Anglican church.
Some years ago, it was noted that the Anglican church was broke, hence churches & rectories fell into a dilapidated state, some rectories beyond repair.
The congregation of the St Martin’s Anglican church in St Philip, were forced to use the St Martins Mangrove primary school for, (I believe), almost 2 years because the roof was falling in & posed a danger to all. Father Ulrich Smith, the priest who was assigned then to the church was forced to seek the assistance of the congregation & people living in the surrounding area to replace the roof & make other repairs to the church. They had fund raisers, Father Smith undertook most of the carpentry work himself & members of the congregation assisted when needed. Repairs were also done to the rectory.
The St Philip church was “lucky” in the fact that a cane fire destroyed the dilapidated structure & after many years, the church was repaired. Some years later, the rectory was pushed down & a new building replaced the old one.
Diocesan House had to be pushed down & a car park now stands where that structure was. The residence of the Bishop ran into disrepair & is now home for monkeys. ( I stand to be corrected on this as I understood that it was air marked to be a fire station).
St David’s church & it’s rectory was repaired some years ago. The Gollop & other well know families worshiped there & supported the church in it’s mission.
For the St Michael’s Cathedral to be made a national treasure, some one most likely would have to approach the Bishop of the church & the National trust with a proposal. I am not sure if the Anglican church will agree with the idea, but it is worth a try.
It is so refreshing to see people like Charles Cadogan, express genuine interest in our country & the preservation of our history. I think many other Barbadians & the government should take a keen interest in our history & the preservation of buildings that played a part in it.

Are we saying that because many of our historical churches are owned by the Anglican Church the State should let them go to ruin if the Church is unable to repair them?

Tell me something, how come the people that belong to these churches can’t help fix them. Perhaps it now time these Anglicans jazz up their image and become Teleanglicans. It is big business in the USA and like everything else nutting ent free dees days.

The St James Parish Church is very well maintained and is somewhat of a tourist attraction.
The St George Anglican Church is well maintained.
The St Michael’s Cathedral seems to be running to ruin.
Could there be some thread which could explain the disparity in maintenance between the three? Could the relative wealth of the parishoners as well as their committment to assisting in the upkeep of their Church have anything to do with it?

I can’t agree with the Government undertaking the responsibility to provide funds to fix/restore the Cathedral. There are thousands of Anglican Church goers and the church historically has owned large amounts of land. They should raise most of the restoration funds on their own. Government should not be expending those sums of money to repair any property it does not own.

Doesn’t a portion of the tithes and offerings individual churches collect go towards their maintenance? And within the Anglican Church’s administration I am sure there is also an officer who looks after property maintenance. What is happening in that regard?

When we go to one of these new- aged churches ,when the collection plate comes around,out come the $100 notes and even hefty cheques. Pretty soon we will be seeing collection plates at some of these churches,with facilities to swipe a Visa or Master card. But when we visit the Anglican Church before we enter we forage in the cubby hole or ash tray of our cars , or in the corner of our purses and wallets for the odd cents to give the church.

@Hopi, before I agree with you about ” GOOD RIDDANCE to that and every other damn bastion of the Queen & her subjects, ” tell me what are we going to replace these things with? We have had 44 years to come up with alternatives.

The state of St Michael’s Cathedral merely reflects the need for ongoing maintenance, something that is sadly ignored in far too many instances. Spend too little in the short run on preventative maintenance and the long run costs for repair are astronomical. Now the question…who should pay for its restoration is a valid one.
Yes, it is an Anglican church built for specific religious purposes. However, in this increasingly secular world, it is also a major landmark in the historic streetscape of Bridgetown. It is one of the flagship points in our application for World Heritage listing. Such listing is evaluated not only on the intrinsic architectural/historic value of the property but on the demonstrated ability to maintain and conserve the property. Therefore, while in the usual run of things, one might expect the Anglican communion to foot the costs of repair, in this instance, it would not be an unreasonable proposition for government to contribute from the treasury, given the potential economic benefits of a successful World Heritage application.
Since we, the people of Barbados, enjoy a good standard of living when comparisons are made with the world and not a few high end countries, a standard of living which in large part, at least in the short run, depends on our success in tourism, then we should not object to the use in this way of some of our tax dollars. It can be seen as a sensible investment with a potentially favourable return for the country. In the same vein, individual contributions from Barbadian people of any denomination/faith, whether living here or in the diaspora, as well as contributions from the many wealthy expatriates who make their homes amongst us, should be seen as a worthwhile investment to ensure a successful restoration. Essentially a win-win situation.
Such a restoration should adhere to the tenets of the Venice Charter. These stress authenticity and integrity. A faithfully restored St Michael’s Cathedral can be….no, WILL be a successful demonstration of the power of collaboration from various interests in order to achieve the common shared goal of the public good.

Karl Watson; I agree entirely with your post above. Very good points! But to add a few points; The worshippers at the Cathedral must contribute much more than Anglican parishoners normally do. As one poster said above, we tend to look in our wallets for coins or 1 dollar bills to put in the collection plate. This was the case decades ago when our parents couldn’t afford to contribute more and has remained as a typical practice of many of the current parishioners of the anglican church.

Re. the point about heritage sites. I agree that we need to show that we are providing good preventative maintenance of the selected sites in support of our application. But, have you ever been to Rome, Italy? Many of the beautiful sites in rome including the Forum and Colliseum and many beautiful statues, have not been seriously maintained for perhaps centuries and certainly for decades. Historic Rome, at least up to 2 years ago and before that for at least about 16 years, was a scruffy, third-world looking city and yet it is high on the list of heritage sites. But of course this a case of “sauce for the goose” or “do as I say but not as I do”.

I think that Government should significantly assist in the restoration of the Cathedral in support of the Heritage site application but that the Anglican Church should do more to ensure proper maintenance of that Church and others.

Oh but I wouldn’t just stop there, I’d teach bajans the hardcore sciences. The sciences on which Black Africa was built and tourism would definitely NOT be the major source of income for that island. Teach them to build, to solve problems, to take advantage of nature and work with it. Stop looking to outsiders!

@ Hopi “We should replace them with structures that are representative of our GREAT BLACK HERITAGE. ”

You does talk some shite sometimes ! And give us some examples please!

@Hopi et al: “But fight on I will!

Do.

Another point:

Has anyone every noticed that as you leave Highway 7 going into Maxwell Gap(west end) towards the Bougainvillea Beach Resort, that at the end of the road prior to the left turn, where cars park there is a very old cemetery with grave dates back to the early 1600’s. This has to be one of the oldest cemeteries in Barbados, however it’s not maintained and is in fact promoted as a car park by the local authorities. This is a disgrace, if in fact it is a historic resting place of original settler Barbadians. Based on the few structures remaining it is obvious these burials were for individuals of means and likely predate the slave err. I would appreciate any information that could be provided.

@ Mash Up & Buy Back

Check out the following for exact location…..

Coordinates:

13.066336N
-59.561499W

If you paste the following “13.066336,-59.561499” into Google maps
http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&tab=wl the location will come up at the Green Arrow.

Most Barbadians are of African descent but this is not the same as saying Barbadians are Africans. There are 300+ years of culture and thousands of miles of sea separating the two.

Live in a country where there are African and also Caribbean communities and you will soon see that while both have much in common, there are definite cultural, language and often religious differences. (Not that there is one ‘African’ culture or one ‘Caribbean’ culture.)

While it is great to learn about Black history and to be proud of Barbadian, Caribbean and African heritage, don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

Historical sites like this should not be allowed to go to wrack and ruin. It is part of the history of the island and the history of ALL the people.

If a big plantation house (containing accounting books listing slaves in the same way as cattle or furniture) is kept from ruin, then don’t you all think that it is important that an old church where Black people have been been proud members for generations SHOULD be maintained?

Italy has allowed some sites to fall into disrepair partly because there are so many sites across the country. They have for example, spent millions on the Leaning Tower of Pisa but have been heavily criticised for the lack of maintenance at Pompeii.

Barbados does not have hundreds of historical sites, so why allow those that are there to fall into disrepair? Some of these old buildings are absolutely beautiful when well maintained.

Comments regarding tourists are correct too – people want to see historical sites and want to see buildings that look different to those at home.

@Wily Coyote

You are definitely not from here, very few of us use GPS on the island. What good is a GPS if there is no signage? Furthermore younger Bajans do not know the names of streets. This is a very sad situation for Barbadians.