Kingston to become a church town for tourists

BY KIMONE THOMPSON Features Editor — Sunday thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

LIKE the major cities of Europe where religious buildings are major tourist attractions, the city of Kingston is soon to become a church town.

This is the vision of Monsignor Kenneth Richards who is working with the Kingston Restoration Company (KRC) to have six religious buildings in the city restored.

The six are Kingston Parish, Coke Methodist, East Queen Street Baptist, Scots Kirk United, Holy Trinity Cathedral and the Jewish synagogue.

"We are now in dialogue with the KRC to establish a church town because when go to Europe, one of the attractions is churches, so we're working now with the KRC to identify major churches in downtown to establish funding for their continued development and for social work programmes in communities to use as an opportunity for tourists to come," Father Richards said.

No definite timelines have been set, Richards said, but the parties are seeking between US$3 and 5 million and have solicited agencies such as the CHASE Fund, Jamaica Social Investment Fund, the World Bank, the International Development Bank, the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the Canadian International Development Agency.

He made the announcement at yesterday's luncheon of movers and shakers in Jamaican society hosted by Observer chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue, Kingston offices. The Holy Trinity Cathedral, where Richards is rector, has already undergone extensive restoration at a cost of US$1.5 million. But US$700,000 more is needed to complete the project which has employed youth from surrounding communities.

"When we started the restoration, the vision was: Restore the cathedral, restore the city," Father Richards said to applause.

"We are in the process of setting up a management structure so that when the funds come we can manage them," said Richards.

Kingston has been earmarked by both the KRC and the UDC for urban renewal but with the exception of telecoms giant Digicel which has announced plans to move its headquarters downtown, and small and medium-sized enterprises such as Blue Soap setting up shop there, little has been done.

But focusing on churches presented a grand opportunity, Richards said, as it was about much more than restoring a church.

"At the height of the restoration, it was difficult getting finances. Some people have asked 'why pour money into restoring a church?' but it's more than just restoring a church, it's providing employment opportunities for the community. We were pumping US$1 million into that community and the amount of calm and peace that went into that community (is incredible)," he said.

That project employed 32 young men and women who were previously unskilled in art restoration but with two weeks training by an international group, they were able to successfully complete the work.

"There is no lack of opportunities and resources for development and job creation," Richards said. "It is a matter of managing them.

"Many people in the inner-city make a lot of money, $20,000, $30,000 a week etc, but they don't know how to manage the resources...God had blessed us with the human and natural resources to make Jamaica more beautiful than it is," Richards argued.

Do you feel buying into Facebook now is a good investment for the long-run?
	Yes
	No

View Results
Results published weekly in Sunday Finance

Username:
Password:

Teen killed for laughing at man who fell from bicycle

Kingston to become a church town for tourists