History

St. Clement’s Anglican Church was established between the years 1836-1850. The church has served the communities of Cocoyea Village, Ste. Madeleine, Palmyra and environs for over one hundred and sixty years and continuing. In the early years of the Parish there were four churches; St. Clement’s, Ste. Madeleine, St. Luke’s, Golconda, St. Peter’s, Gasparillo  and St. Mark’s, Rambert Village later St. Gabriel’s, La Romain.

After Rev. Anderson, who was the Parish priest of St. Barnabas, Pleasantville, left the diocese the parish was jointed with the Parish of St. Clement. However, the then Diocesan Bishop Rt. Rev. Rwale Dougin separated the two parishes to what we have to date. That is St. Barnabas with St. Gabriel and St. Clement with St. Luke, Borde Narve and Diamond Village. Persons who attended serves at Borde Narve and Diamond Village now worship at either St. Clement or St. Luke.

          There were two major structural changes to the original church building. They were the changing of the sanctuary from a wooden structure to concrete wall and flooring and the refurbishment of the vestry with the inclusion of the choir room and toilets on the southern side.

The Parish had two Primary schools under its purview. They were St. Clement’s E.C. and St. John’s E.C. Primary Schools. The St. Clement’s E.C. Primary School was located where the Parish Hall was. However, in the late 1930’s the school was closed upon the opening of the newly built Ste. Madeleine Government Primary School. The building that then housed the St. Clement’s E.C. Primary School was used as the Parish Hall (Later known as the Bindley Taylor’s Hall).

           The late Rev. H. Bindley Taylor started giving evening lessons to secondary school students at the rectory. When the number of students increased, he then moved the lessons to the Parish hall. He later founded the St. Clement’s Secondary, which formed the nucleus for the Bishop’s High School, Princes Town – now known as St. Stephen’s College. Rev. Bindley Taylor was the first principal of St. Stephen’s College.

Then, the late Rev. Ross who served after the late Rev. Bindley Taylor, founded Christ College (a trade/technical vocational school) which was started at the Bindley Taylor’s Hall and later relocated to the old St. Stephen’s College building, High Street, Princes Town.

Circa 1950 the church was rebuilt, but through weather and other nuances the late Rev.CliveGriffith,aka, (Kwame Mohlabani) in the latter part of the 20th.century initiated the building of the present edifice, which was finally executed by Rev.Ashley Mungal in 2012. The church at St Clement was rededicated by the right Reverend Claude Berkeley in 2014. 

This parish operates with the following:

Motto: To Serve Christ and Make Him Known

Symbols: Jug, Basin, Towel and the “Sun”Our symbolic logo of Jug Basin and Towel are symbols of our commitment, servant hood and the understanding of brotherly love towards the church, community and nation.The “Sun” represents the Son who is the very author of our being.Parish Flags: Green, White and Gold.Green symbolizes the vitality, zealousness, growth, the charismatic and evangelistic spirit of ourpeoples.White represents the focus of our mission “to know Christ and make him known” via servant-hood, faithfulness, creativity, brotherly love, commitment and symbolic acts of Christianity.Gold represents the ministries that we were given by God to carry out his mission on earth.