St Matthias Church to celebrate 170th anniversary

A focus on expanding its reach into the community is at the forefront as the St. Matthias Anglican Church steps into 2020.

Celebrating its 170th anniversary on August 2, the institution has laid out a calendar of events to run throughout this year as they make their slogan ‘Connecting Church and Community’ a reality.

During a media briefing held recently at the church to reveal plans for the celebrations, Rector of the church, Reverend Hugh Sandiford, said the milestone is a perfect opportunity to reconnect with the community.

“There is a lot of insinuation that the church is not doing much, but we saw this as a wonderful opportunity as we reflected upon where we are as a nation and what we could do here at St. Matthias to play our part [in] building the nation. Coincidentally, it coincided with ‘We Gathering 2020’ and also in our diocese we are celebrating ‘Mission 2020’ so we found it fit to develop a calendar of events for the year which is community-based, as we reach out to seek to impact the lives around the church,” he said.

Noting that the church has been affiliated with the Barbados Defence Force for a long time, and has also held hands with the businesses in their catchment area – which includes Dayrell’s Road, Pleasant Hall, Hart’s Gap, Hastings and Worthing among others – Reverend Sandiford revealed that they are kept busy with a very active social action ministry. With cash and kind raised and donated all year round, the church gives annual scholarships to members of the community; assists with pensions,finances and hampers to those in need; runs a reading programme for young children;and Alcoholics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous programmes.

Using the calendar of events to attract a variety of audiences, eight committees came together to put it all together and things got started with a bus excursion to Codrington College on Errol Barrow Day.

Next on the cards is the Harvest and Floral Tribute which is set to run from February 21 to 24 and will culminate with a free concert and lighting display to be held at the church which will feature Pan Project, Amanda Fields and Dancin’ Africa.

Other highlights on the list of events include a Summerfest set to run for two weeks in July; the anniversary lecture on September 10 to be delivered by Dr. Karl Watson; and the Gala and Awards Ceremony in November, which will honour members of the church and public who have made significant contributions to the church.

Also on the calendar is a lime set for the church’s parking lot on July 4 and committee member Troy Arthur said that this event is expected to be one of the biggest and best of the lot.

“Another thing on the calendar is the community lime and this is to foster an even greater relationship between the community and the church. So it will be an evening where you just come out and bring your chair, play some dominoes, sing Karaoke and have some good food, because St. Matthias is known for its food and line-dancing. We have some excellent cooks so pack your stomach and come,” he jested, before going on to say, “It will be an opportunity to bring the community together along with the church because the two have to work hand-in-hand with everything that is happening in society,” Arthur said.

Reverend Sandiford added that his church is one that listens to its community and that he knows there is a need to change with the times.

“One of the things we are doing here at St. Matthias as we celebrate our 170th anniversary, we are looking at what we as a church need to do to be more relevant as we move forward. And some of the feedback we are getting from the community is that our music needs to liven up a little bit. So we are hearing you and we are making that special effort to bring you on board and to meet your spiritual needs as we move forward. We know that music plays a very vital part in worship,” he said.
(MP)