Cracked Walls, No Land to Rebuild: A 109-Year-Old Cayman Church Overseen From Jamaica Sits Empty

• Gun Bay United Church in East End, Grand Cayman, dates from 1907 and is believed to be the islands’ oldest surviving church building
• It closed in January 2015 after engineers found it unsafe
• The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands oversees the property
• Elders say finding land to build a new church in Gun Bay is the problem

A century-old church in Grand Cayman has stood empty since engineers declared it unsafe, and its small congregation says it cannot find land to build a replacement, the Cayman Compass reported in September 2016. Gun Bay United Church, formerly Presbyterian, in East End, was built in 1907 after an earlier church was destroyed by a storm in 1903. It is believed to be the oldest surviving church structure in the Cayman Islands.

The church closed in January 2015 after two engineering studies, completed in July 2014, found the building unsafe for use. Beams had separated and walls had cracked, and consultants blamed stress or seismic activity. Announcing the closure then, Bryan Bothwell of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands said “the safety of congregant and any other members of the public must be the paramount consideration”. Frank Conolly, an 87-year-old former elder, said: “It has made me sick and it’s taken a part of me to see the church door closed.”

By September 2016 the building had been closed for nearly two years. It still had to be air-conditioned to protect a $10,000 organ and a $7,000 piano inside. About 20 congregants were worshipping at the William Allen McLaughlin Civic Centre under Pastor Alice Blair.

Options included asking the National Trust to preserve the old church, or building a new one. Land was the obstacle. “We are in the process of looking for property to build a church, but we don’t know what will happen because finding property in Gun Bay is the problem,” said church elder Vernie Watler-Harris. The report said available land in the area was scarce and expensive.

The story links directly to Jamaica, because the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is responsible for the building. It also shows the problem many ageing congregations face. A heritage building that cannot be used still costs money to insure, cool and secure, while the land needed to rebuild costs more than a small congregation can raise. Churches in Jamaica with old buildings and falling membership face the same choices: repair, hand the building to a heritage body, sell, or move. The sooner a structural survey and a property plan are done, the more of those choices remain.

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