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Imposing Mbeere ACK Cathedral enriches beauty of Siakago town

BY WHITNEY NYAWIRA

The newly constructed ACK Diocese of Mbeere, St Peter’s Cathedral has not only solved sitting space challenges but also enriched the beauty of Siakago town.

The imposing 3,000 sitting capacity Cathedral is an architectural marvel while its finishing oozes finesse and splendor.

The building that served as the Cathedral before it had a sitting capacity of only 300 and could hardly accommodate Diocesan services, according to church documents.

The new ultramodern Cathedral took five years to complete at a cost of Sh55 million financed through generous giving by Christians and friends of the church.

Thousands of Christians turned up for the historic opening, dedication and consecration of the Cathedral on Sunday. All the church’s parishes convened at the Cathedral.

The service led by ACK Archbishop Rev Jackson Ole Sapit assisted by Diocese of Mbeere Bishop Rev Moses Masamba and graced by Deputy President William Ruto also marked centenary celebration since the church was started in 1919. Several bishops including Catholic Diocese of Embu’s Bishop Rev Paul Kariuki attended the historic ceremony.

The service started with a procession by over a 100 clergy and lay ministers from Siakago county hall to the Cathedral through the market led by the Embu Salvation Army Band.

Then Bishop Mashamba, the Provost, Cathedral Chapter and Members of Standing Committee of the Synod presented the building to Rev Ole Sapit for opening dedication and consecration.

At the main front door, Ole Sapit cut the entrance ribbon and knocked the door with staff three times and the door was opened from inside by the wardens.

“The Peace of God be in this house,” the Archbishop proclaimed thrice as the crowd straining not to miss the on goings responded “Amen”.

The Diocese of Mbeere was created from the Diocese of Embu on July 1, 1997 and its headquarters was located in ACK St Peters Siakago Church grounds. The first Bishop was Rev Gideon Ireri.

The Diocesan Synod resolved to convert ACK St Peters Siakago Church to a Cathedral, which was then opened and consecrated on April 11, 1999 as ACK St Peters Cathedral until the year 2017 when it was deconsecrated to allow the construction of the new Cathedral.

During the service, Ole Sapit revealed that the Diocesan Synod of 2013 resolved to build a new spacious and modern cathedral that could accommodate 2500 to 3000 persons.

He said the Cathedral project was marked as the five years’ Diocesan flagship project to be undertaken within the years 2015-2019.

“The timely construction and completion of this building was aimed to offer it as the Cathedral and our centenary thanksgiving gift to God in Christ Jesus for Christian faith and Anglican church in Mbeereland (1919-2019),” he said.

DP Ruto congratulated the Mbeere Anglicans for the wonderful job of building a “beautiful and huge Cathedral.

Ruto who contributed Sh2 million to the church noted it was not an easy task doing a project of that magnitude.