The head of the Anglican church in Trinidad and Tobago, Bishop Claude Berkley, is warning the people responsible for stealing the bell from the St John’s Anglican Church in Petit Bourg to return it or face the possibility of spiritual consequence.
“I would want to say that we are not going to judge you, what we would like you to do is to return the bell. We will put it back up, but return the bell. Don’t hold such a thing on your conscience and against you and your whole generation and family because such matters to me tend to weigh heavily against people who do them. That kind of violation does not go unpunished,” Berkley told Guardian Media yesterday.
Berkley cautioned the thieves not to feel that they have gotten away scot-free.
“Find a time to put the bell back in place or give us an anonymous call so that we can pick it up from somewhere. Return the bell because you are really calling on to yourself generations of worshippers for whom that bell carried a certain kind of meaning and symbolism. So that you can do better without attracting that kind of attention to yourself,” he said.
Berkley said the security at churches is heightened now given recent spates of crime, including the theft of electronic equipment as well as religious items such as chalices from the churches.
He said the 163-year-old bell was an important part of the church.
“The congregation feels violated and I myself think there is a sense of feeling violated about it because you are looking at the whole question of is there a safe space anywhere. Is there a place that people will not treat in that kind way and you would hope that churches and religious centres might just be...carry that kind of regard but of course well no such luck in this and other cases,” he said.
Apart from the items inside of churches, manhole covers are being stolen from outside.
On Thursday, Scrap Iron Dealers Association president Allan Ferguson apologised at a media conference after news broke about the ball’s theft. He feared someone stole the bell to sell at a scrap iron yard.
