BY LORETTA B MANELE
In Sughu community, Wanderer Bay, West Guadalcanal stands St Paul Anglican Church.
The church’s roof is rusting away and there are no window frames, louvres and cracks on the concrete flooring are evident.
Inside the church, looking up, your eyes are met by years’ worth of rust on the inward roof copper with a few holes here and there.
As scary it might look, people of Sughu community go to church every Sunday in this church building; little kids, men, women, young people and young women with their babies in their arms.
The thought and question of “Is it safe?” came to mind when I went to this church on a Sunday.
It is also not spacious enough as some women and their children had to sit on the concrete floor during the church service.
The community’s Catechist, Robert Borana said work on constructing the church building began back in 1970 and in 1975, the church building reached completion.
Hearing this, made more sense as to why they church looked very old and is clearly in dire need of total rehabilitation.
On November 22, 1975, the church was consecrated by then Archbishop, Norman Palmer and on the same day the ordination of the late Fr Lionel Longarata took place.
Since then, no maintenance work took place.
“Only, more than 5 years ago, they changed the walling section of the church”, Borana explains.
Apart from that, no other changes were made.
Borana happily remarks that the community is working on building a new church.
“We plan to build a new church that is bigger and will be able to accommodate us all,” he says with a pitch of hope in his eyes.
Borana stresses that over the years, the community’s population has grown hence their church building can no longer cater to them like how it could back in the old days.
More importantly, he says it’s also about safety.
“Our current church building is very old.
“It might collapse one day and we will have a problem so that is why we need a bigger church,” Borana said, noting that this would mean a new environment as well.
Borana said it’s necessary to pray in a church that is spacious and built in a good environmental setting.
Interestingly, Sughu community already has a structured plan of how they would like the new church building to be constructed.
They also have their own foreman and as mentioned, will chip in themselves for the labour work.
One other major reason the community aspires to have a new church building is because how vital the church is to life.
Although being more than 50 years old, Sughu community’s St Paul Anglican Church like any other church still hosts very important events like baptism, weddings, ordinations, confirmation classes, Sunday school, Mother’s Union and Men’s Fellowship.
Even today, the church still carries on some of these tasks.
When asked about what the community is currently doing in efforts to achieve a new and much bigger church building, Borana said they have done some fundraisings and have prepared timber.
Persistent in this endeavour, and humbly, he says they already have a number of sawn timber piled under a locally built house but will need to get more logs in order to get more timber.
And to get these logs, it means they will have to spend money to buy logs, transport those logs and then spend more money to have the logs sawn for timber.
The price of one log alone depending on the size costs about SBD $1000 to $2000 Borana says and they purchase it from a nearby community, St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic community.
“And we need to have money to do this,” he adds.
With much more work to do, the road ahead in pursuing this dream for the community itself is miles away.
The community has sent out requests in the past for assistance but unfortunately, somehow no financial means ever reached them, says Borana.
He highlighted that as a community they need to work together to achieve this.
Borana also appeals for any financial assistance to help the community build a new church building.
“To help us cover materials and labour costs,” he said.
It’s 50 years now since the St Paul Anglican Church in Sughu community, Wanderer Bay was built.
Surpassing the essence of time, one can’t help but think about whether the community will still have to wait for who know how many more years till they can wake up on a Sunday morning and go to pray in a new, safe and bigger church building.
*Reporting for this story was supported by Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS)
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