-less financially ambitious plan mooted

Five years after their church was gutted by a Christmas morning fire, the members of Sacred Heart are still working to generate enough finances to fund the reconstruction of the church which is estimated to cost $260M.

The Sacred Heart Church (National Trust photo)

A building committee as well as a fund-raising committee was established back in 2007 following the decision to rebuild. Catholic Priest Father John Persaud in providing an update on rebuilding efforts told Stabroek News that the building committee was currently revisiting the building plan since current estimates had reached $260M. He said the task now was to come up with a plan for a less expensive structure. The fund-raising activities, he explained, had not been as grand as some may have thought, and so money had not come in as anticipated.

“The amount is very minimal and so we are still continuing with these efforts,” he said.

Committee member Manfred Dos Santos told Stabroek News recently that even though so much time had passed this did not mean that the rebuilding efforts would be affected”. He said the group was hopeful that construction of the church could start next year but was unable to say in which quarter of the year this would become possible.

He too said that a new plan with a different design had been approved. The original design had catered for a circular building but the committee had since decided to go for a v-shaped roof which was expected to cost less.

The church on fire (GINA)

Meanwhile Dos Santos said even though the fund-raising activities were bearing fruit, the fact that so much time had elapsed meant that many of the persons who had pledged financial and other help had either migrated or passed on.

“But we’re still working to generate the funds and the rebuilding is still on,” he .

Sacred Heart members continue to utilize the Ursuline Chapel in Church Street, Georgetown to worship.

In October 2007  Head of the Catholic Diocese of Guyana Bishop Francis Alleyne announced the formation of the fund-raising committee for the building of the new Sacred Heart Church and the development of the site at Main Street, George-town, the Catholic Standard reported.

The site is to house the Parish Church for the Sacred Heart Parish Community together with a multi-purpose diocesan building and a small presbytery/caretaker’s dwelling.

After the fire on December 25, 2004 a site development committee was set up and tasked with coming up with a design for the new building, among other undertakings, at the insistence of some church members and others from the larger Catholic community.

Electrical bulbs in the crib recreated to stage the scene of the birth of Jesus Christ sparked a fire during the restoration of current following a blackout. The flames caught onto combustible material, and within minutes the entire church building and presbytery were gutted during the Christmas morning mass.

It was around 8.50 in the morning, and about 60 worshippers were in the church at the time.

Other buildings levelled by the fire were the Kirpalani bond and a customs brokerage to the north of the building, in addition to the Sacred Heart Primary School.

Twenty vehicles in the neighbouring King Solomon Shipping premises compound to the south of the school were also destroyed, while the building which housed King Solomon Shipping Enterprise Limited itself was scorched, as was that which accommodated Universal Airlines and other businesses to the north.

There were hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, while irreplaceable records from the church and school were also completely destroy-ed in the flames.