Sacred Sanctuaries

caribbean style:

Sanctuaries For this Christmas season, Caribbean Beat presents a photo-essay on the churches of Antigua.

Sean Drakes meditates on their architecture and atmosphere: ancient and modern, tranquil and lively, ornate and simple 52

Left Interior of St Peter’s Anglican Church, showing the ribcage-style roof, crafted of wood beams fashioned in the shape of the hull of an ark Right Swetes Wesleyan Holiness Church

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“Lord make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

And where there is sadness, joy…”

The words of this hymn are said to be based on a prayer for peace by the 13th-century St Francis of Assissi

Above left At Holy Family Cathedral Catholic Church in St John’s, a stained glass window depicts a saint of African descent Above Hymn practice at St George’s Anglican Church Left Gilbert Memorial Methodist Church Opposite page After a service at the 19th-century Cathedral of St John the Divine, an Anglican baroque building in the heart of Antigua’s capital, St John’s

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Opposite page Interior of Ebenezer Methodist Church Above A place to pray on the grounds of Holy Family Cathedral Above right Arriving for worship at St John’s Anglican Cathedral Below right Exterior of Ebenezer Methodist Church (1839) one Sunday morning

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