Disgruntled Parishioners of St Clement's Church Protest Against Reverend Graveney Bannister: Grievances and Calls for Change

Disgruntled parishioners of St Clement’s Anglican Church in St Lucy have stepped up their protest in their quest to oust Reverend Graveney Bannister.

A small group of parishioners staged a protest at the church’s entrance on Sunday while mass continued inside.

The disgruntled parishioners say they’ve had enough of the way in which Bannister has been managing the affairs of the church. Their grievances concern the decline in church life, the absence of ministries such as providing hampers to the needy and a previously active youth band.

Louise Armstrong, a long-standing member of St Clement’s, shared the saga of a three-year conflict with Bannister.

“They always say the last straw is what breaks the camel’s back,” Armstrong said from the protest line. Morgan Greaves, 73, who grew up in the Anglican faith at St Clement’s, says he’s severing ties with the Free Hill church.

“I’m a member of the church council and I will not be associated with him any longer. I’m a long-standing member of St Clement’s Church, I’m supposed to be the Priest Warden … this means that my church life at St Clement’s has come to an end,” Greaves said. Archdeacon, The Very Reverend Eric Lynch, confirmed that two complaints have been sent to the Rural Dean for St Peter, Reverend Beverley Sealy-Knight, the overseer for St Clement’s. The Anglican Church follows a process for handling complaints, involving examination by the Rural Dean and potential legal review by the Registrar. Archdeacon Lynch previously told Barbados TODAY that the church’s preference is for resolving grievances internally, though he acknowledged that matters sometimes become public in a small society. (RT)