Amid the storm of outrage and regret at the sale of the St Barnabas Church to Essequibo businessman Alfro Alphonso, evidence has emerged that a decision to dispose of the building had previously been taken in July 1969.
According to a letter written to the Anglican diocese by Archbishop Alan John Knight, the building had been found to be structurally unsound and the estimated cost of reconstructing it was in the vicinity of $204,000. The archbishop in the letter, published in the September 1969 issue of the Anglican Church in Guyana’s Diocesan Magazine, which this newspaper has seen, lamented that “there could be no reasonable expectation of raising the sum of $200,000” for the preservation of the building. A recommendation was therefore made, after full consultation and consideration, that the church site be offered for sale; that the purchaser be required to demolish the building—after the altar, font and ornaments had been removed—and that a new church be built with the proceeds of the sale at a