St John's Anglican Cathedral

St John's Anglican Cathedral
The Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. John's, Antigua, West Indies

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Sanctuary Roof Complete

The Sanctuary roof is now complete.  We decided to replace it with a concrete roof.  We removed all the old timbers under the roof and replaced them with new lumber.



The old metals sheets were reused but just as part of the formwork for the concrete.  The steel reinforcement ties into the gable wall beam.  The stones in the parapet wall were cracked and loose in places so we cast a short wall behind them to hold them together.


This was a relatively small pour and a little more intricate.  Therefore we could not pump the concrete up there as we did before.  Concrete was mixed in the yard and hauled up the old fashioned way bucket by bucket.

The new sanctuary roof complete with new drain.  This drain runs down the walls in between the stained glass windows into a small channel down the main aisle.  It joins the other drains at the intersection of the main and cross aisles.  This will all be restored with PVC pipes.


Once we complete the drains the Cathedral will now have a completely new roof and drain system.  We thank God for this, we thank all who worked on helping us achieve this and we thank God for them.






Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Another Reason for the Restoration

It has occured to me that a visitor to this blog might never have seen pictures of the Cathedral before the restoration began.  I have made a post of a panoramic shot of the interior (Panoramic View of Cathedral Interior) but I feel now that something more is needed.

Spirits are low right now on this restoration.  In spite of the significant milestone we have recently reached, (Roof Complete) the road ahead is still quite long. 

So I gathered a number of pictures with which I have been blessed and made a video slideshow.  The accompanying music is a much beloved Anglican hymn, "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling."  This beautiful rendition is done by the Wells Cathedral Choir.  I have emailed this video to the vestry and clergy in hopes that it will inspire us all to continue to push on this project. 

The pictures include some old black and white ones of the Cathedral exterior in the 30's and 40's and of the interior in 1914.  I post this video here so that you may behold yet another reason for this restoration.