Local News

The two hundredth anniversary celebration of St. John’s Cathedral located on Regent Street in Belize City, came to an end yesterday.  To close off the celebrations a service was held yesterday in which special guest Bishop Laish Boyd from the Bahamas shared a special message with the congregation

LAISH BOYD, Bishop

“In St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians chosen as the epistle for the day, we read the following in chapter 2 versus 13 and following, but now in Christ Jesus you who was once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is all peace who has made the two groups one and destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.  As you celebrate 200 years of the existence of this cathedral and many more years than that of Anglican presence in Belize Paul’s words to the Ephesians is timely for you because more than ever you, the people in the Anglican Church in Belize, you need to be living examples of the body of Christ in action for the people of Belize and for all the world to see.  Paul is addressing in this portion of his letter one human reality.  Remember the letter is just a letter of encouragement.  He is not chastising or correcting the Ephesians for anything but in this portion of the letter he deals with the reality of separation because in our human experience there is all kind of separations.  All kind of things that divide rather than unite us and nothing destroys a community like separation.  Nothing can cause us not to live like God wants us to live like separation and so this word about separation is truly important and it is timely for you the faithful in Belize at this time.  I challenge you therefore to hear the message of the apostle.  I challenge you to look at separation and division in your life.  I challenge you to recognize that it is not of God and that God wants you to be free from it and I challenge you to let go of the side of the pool, to leave the shore line and trust God to carry you through the deep water.  This is the message of the Apostle to ask today.  What a powerful message?  This is the message of St. Paul today, what an unsettling message but the bible did not come to make us comfortable, u t has come to challenge us to be who God wants us to be and so we hear the words, we take them to heart and we ask God to help us with them.”

Anglican Bishop, Phillip Wright says the celebrations exceeded his expectations

PHILLIP WRIGHT, Anglican Bishop

“It was a lovely, months really of celebration and to see the people who came together, the people who gave of their time and talent and treasure to see everyone just come together and work for the success of the event was really really tremendous.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“If you can outline one of the most important parts of the celebration which one will that be?”

PHILLIP WRIGHT, Anglican Bishop

“I think the two services held over the weekend.  The one on Friday which was the actual day of the anniversary and just to be able to gather in that place 200 years after the first cornerstone was made, to me was really a very moving and special moment and then of course on Sunday when we had a sort of closing service where members and friends all over the country and outside the country really came and we had this grand celebration.  I think that really topped it off.  Not to mention of course the concerts that were held the sweet coral that came to be with us, Bishop Boyd that reach yesterday, the banquet on Saturday. So you see that it is hard to finger out one thing, I think that everything really fitted very well and it was just a tremendous time and we thank God of course for the success of all these activities.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“Did you also have members of other Christian denomination joining in the celebration?”

PHILLIP WRIGHT, Anglican Bishop

“Certainly, stemming all the way back to the 1^st of July when we had that march for Jesus and to see all the pastors and others come together and celebrate was wonderful and throughout the various events we had the participation of others from different denominations and so forth so that two was quite special.  I would really want to take this opportunity to thank every single person that did something, something large to something small that helped to make it successful.  I want to thank my planning committee, the wider Anglican community and the Belizean community itself because so many persons came forward and assisted us.  So to all I want to say a big thank you and pray God’s continue blessings on each and every one of them.”

St. John’s Cathedral is the oldest Anglican Church in Central America, and one of the oldest buildings in Belize.