In April the Prime Minister announced that he and the council of churches had decided to partner on the construction of a Chapel on the grounds of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City. That was at the height of the Opposition's campaign against Petrocaribe spending, and the critics suggested that he was wooing the church to support petro programs by giving them access to funds for a house of devotion.
Well today, 4 months later, the church and the Administration at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital held a ground breaking ceremony for the construction of this new church. It's part of KHMH's commemoration of its 20th anniversary, and 7News stopped by to find out more:
Dr. Adrian Coye - CEO, KHMH
"This gift as you said, there is a background to the story of this gift of our chapel at Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. It is a gift for the people of Belize, for it to be utilized because health is what we are all about in this hospital. Health is not just physical wellbeing or just to be sick. Health has many other dimension to it. Social wellness, mental wellness and of course the spiritual wellness. So in a way we are covering all the bases here now at our national institution."
Rev. Phillip Wright - Bishop, Anglican Churches of Belize
"Benefits of this simple gesture this morning in terms of the future benefits is going to be measurable I can assure you and as we see this building come up and become useful for generations to come, many of our fellow Belizeans I can assure you will be greatly gratified by that."
Rev. Roosevelt Papouloute - Leader, Belize Council of Churches
"Many of us in the family of the church have done funeral services right at the morgue in very difficult conditions. This place is a place where depending on the circumstance if family members do not have the time and the means to take their family, their loved one to a church for a funeral service, this place will be available for that. I have experience times where we have ministered to a number of people who come because their family, their loved one is about to depart of this world and we need a place where we can bereave them and counsel them and pray with them. We don't have any such place in the hospital. We cannot to them in the corridors. We have done them but they are not...it's not a suitable place. At this place it will be different good for that. I personally have met 15-20 family members when their loved ones are about to die. I think this place is going to be very much in order as we embark in the building of this."
The new chapel is expected to be open and operational by December.
Email
Print