…Oh the nice cool sea breeze on my face and the feel of the green grass of the nicely kept lawn under my feet while I enjoyed the sight of the big ship out in the distance on the sea. I was standing in the large compound of a church built on a sea shore what a feeling!!! It’s a choice place of future meet-up for building the local guide community.
This past weekend I made some discoveries or should I say some interesting findings and I’ll like to share them with you. I have been coming to Bonny Island since last year and I decided to explore a little more this time. I went out walking and carrying out some little local guide activities to build my community as usual and I found 2 Church buildings and sites that has existed for over a century !!! I’ll only write in this post about one of them because I got the history.
The history behind this church is that in the year1864 a king named William Dappa Pepple who had been in England and liked the Anglican church thought it good to have the same established here in Bonny and it’s environs. Nevertheless the dream.was brought into actualisation by his own son Prince George of Bonny kingdom. History has it that Prince George of Bonny kingdom was born on the 16th of November 1847 on Bonny Island but was baptised at St Paul’s Cathedral London. He grew up in London and was a classmate to King Edward VII in England. They attended the same school in an English town called Eton in England.
The current site of the Anglican Church was the Juju Bush of a god named Perekule Iwoama Sipiri. Prince Goerge assisted Mr J Weber the then agent of the Christian Missionary society, to clear the site and the St. Stephen’s Anglican Cathedral Bonny was built on December 19th 1865 and still standing. I believe it has been renovated a few times but no traces of that but the main part of the history stands tall and nice anyway.
This same Prince George also assisted to bring Christianity religion to other parts of the South South according to history.
Aside this very touching history, the Church is built on a sea shore. A very charming vicinity really. The lawns are well kept, as green as can be and the pews are neatly arranged as well inside the church building. I enjoyed an afternoon stroll in the church premises on Saturday. I saw some big ship probably belonging to the NLNG gas and oil company. Maybe I should add that despite the historical background of this religious institution,there are no accessibility features or anything like that. It has a wide compound for a car park,and very friendly guards watching over the place etc. Furthermore, I took a 360° photo of the church compound,I took a video, a took normal photos, and wrote a [Review ](http://Check out this review of St. Stephen’s Anglican Cathedral, Bonny on Google Maps Google Maps). This place is on my list of tourist places to visit if you ever come to Bonny Island. Hope you like the post.
Cheers