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Smith Congregational Church strives for new Minister’s Annex
Ministers of Smith Memorial Congregational
Church during a sod turning exercise
The Smith Memorial Congregational Church is constructing a new Minister’s Annex at its Brickdam location. The construction of the building has commenced and is expected to be completed by April 2019. Plans are in place to have a series of fundraising activities towards the realisation of this building, commencing with a dinner followed by a gift day involving the public for the 175th Anniversary of the church in November 2018. The Congregational Church was established in Guyana (then British Guiana) upon the arrival of the Reverend John Wray in February 6, 1808.
Smith Memorial Congregational Church was established on November 23, 1843 in memory of Reverend John Smith who died in the Georgetown prison under suspicious inhumane circumstances on 6th February, 1824.
He was accused of supporting the insurrection of the East Coast Demerara slaves in year 1823. Rev. Wray died of natural causes in the year 1837.
Both Rev. Wray and Rev. Smith were sent to British Guiana by the London Missionary Society. Smith Memorial Church still stands as a beautiful edifice on Brickdam, Georgetown, as a reminder of Smith’s missionary toil among the people. However, what is missing is the annex, which housed the Ministers in the distant past and was also used to facilitate relevant church activities for its members and the community at large. The annex was dismantled due to old age.
In order to rebuild the annex, the turning of the sod by Reverend Noel Holder, Chairman of the Guyana Congregational Union, and Pastor Oslen Small, the incumbent Pastor of the Church, was done during a small but significant ceremony, last May.
The event was well attended by officers, members and friends of the Church. The Church Secretary, Deacon George James, in an address, reminded the gathering of the contributions made to our society by the Church, especially in the area of education, while the Church Treasurer, Deacon Albert Cort, recaptured the Church’s efforts leading up to the turning of the sod.
Both, Reverend Holder and Pastor Small jointly officiated over the brief service of blessing and expressed the need and purpose of the annex in service of the community. The celebration ended by the singing of the “Song of Guyana’s Children” composed by the late Reverend Hawley Bryant, former Minister of the Church whose remains were interred in the Churchyard.
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