THE Bermuda Cathedral

As Halloween has passed us by it seems like a nice contrast to blog about a more secular topic.   There is a landmark structure in Hamilton that most people refer to as The Cathedral in Bermuda.  It is actually an Anglican Church named The Cathedral of The Most Holy Trinity.  It, stands, of course, on Church Street.  The City of Hamilton has a mix of modern and old in its downtown core.

Thistle house, an office building, stands "kitty corner" to the cathedral

It should be said that Bermuda has a lot of churches...one list I found I was able to add up 125 churches spread over the island's 20.6 square miles.  That means there are 6 churches for every square mile on the island, or one church for approximately every 500 people.  The cathedral was designed to seat 1200.  So odds are that you can find space on a pew or two around the island come Sunday mornings.  To be fair, a lot of the population attend church regularly -- 79% of the population claimed religious affiliation in the 2009 census, with only 11% claiming none (the remainder were unspecified affiliations).  One thing I noticed when I moved here is that while the population is religious, single parent families are more common and accepted in Bermuda than North America.  This got me sidetracked and so I pulled up some statistics.  The government of Bermuda states that in 2000, there were 6,328 children in Bermuda in single parent families, and in some demographics 5 out of 10 children would statistically be from a single parent family.  The 2011 census in Canada cites a 16% rate of single parent families.  It's an interesting difference, and from what I can tell it is due to a difference in perception and family structure.  Bermudian families as a unit seem to share in the raising of the child, which is a pretty neat thing too.  Now for a random interesting fact on Canada statistics, in 2011 the official data shows that common law couples have surpassed married couples for domestic arrangements.  I did not know that until I decided to hike up to a tower of an old church in Bermuda.  A topic I should return to.

Despite the attractive modern buildings, and the basic supermarket that stands across from it, the cathedral has long drawn my eye for its Gothic style architecture and striking design.  Officially, the church sites the design as Roman Cross and the architectural style as Neo-Gothic.  All I know is that it's striking.  Made from Bermuda limestone, to me it seems a little less weathered than other churches of similar age that I have seen in the US, where the stone seems to darken with time.  Construction on the cathedral, designed by one James Hay, started in 1886 and was completed in 1894.  Interestingly, it is not the original structure.  The previous church began building in 1844, was completed in 1883, and destroyed by arson not long after in 1884.  The idea of a church arsonist really intrigued me, so I went looking for information about that story.  I found that some of the churches on the island have met a similar fate -- in fact the Old Devonshire Church was wiped out by a hurricane in 1715, was rebuilt and survived another 255 years of history before being torched by an arsonist in 1970.  The name of the arsonist and the full story our our subject, the cathedral, is apparently one of the few mysteries of the internet.  My inability to find more information on this event just proves there is still value in books and libraries...which I cannot reach at this moment and so it will remain a mystery of this blog as well.  The only reference states that the arsonist(s) were never caught, but surely forklore holds some clues.  With such a small population, chances are that at least a few people today know who did it, why, and  how they are descended from the culprit, but prefer to keep it out of the public record.  We all have knaves in our family trees...it's just that Bermuda's family tree looks a little bit more like a mangrove than an oak.

Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity -- am quite proud of this photo

A few interesting facts that I learned along the way were that the land was purchased for 25 English pounds.  In 1938 the church went to war with the local termites, and in 1978 they took on both the pigeons and the devil himself -- the pigeons were set to be trapped, and the reverend Donald Omand came to perform an exorcism on the Bermuda Triangle.  I can say for certain the pigeons are still here.

I am always drawn to buildings with turrets and towers, wondering what it looks like behind those walls.  I found out last year that this church has a little gift shop, and for $3 you can buy a ticket to ascend to the tower.  I finally made it last week while I was working evening shift.  The ascent can only be made between 10am and 1pm, so sadly no chance for a sunset shot.  The inside of the church is equally beautiful, but it was the view I was more excited to get a look at.

After buying my ticket, I entered through a tiny door, and backed out again to the let the couple coming down through -- the stairs are only designed for one way traffic.  Fortunately you can hear whether or not anyone is above as voices echo down the tower.  The climb is stated to be 155 little stairs -- I say stated because my count was 2 off...maybe you don't count the final step that places you on the floor in between or at the top, or maybe my counting skills are lacking.  At least one tourist on TripAdvisor agrees with my count.  The last set of stairs are wooden and straight as opposed to spiral, so the climb, so you won't be totally dizzy when you do get to the top.

teeny tiny windy staircase

My curiosity satisfied, I did get some nice views of the harbour and the city.

One of the turrets, decorative only so far as I can discern

Looking west past City Hall and towards what I think is Somerset

Few photos taken, fresh air inhaled, view enjoyed, I descended the stairs back to more earthy pursuits...namely work.