B.D.F. launches new St. George’s Chapel at Price Barracks

The B.D.F. today officially launched the opening of the new location for its Saint George’s Church located at the Price Barracks compound in Ladyville. The newly retrofitted chapel is to provide the soldiers with a location where they can pray and worship. While the force already provides for the physical needs of the soldiers with its internal medical center, there are also spiritual needs for which the renovated building will be used exclusively.

Brigadier General David Jones, Commander, Belize Defense Force

David Jones

“We’ve dedicated and consecrated this church here today. It is something that I haven’t witnessed in my over twenty-three years in the B.D.F.  It was very much needed; it was something that I pushed to happen because just like a person needs to go to a hospital when they need medical needs, it is the same way they need to come to a church when they have spiritual needs. Everyone has problems; the B.D.F. is not exonerated from that; every soldier has problems as well. And this will be a place for them to come and pray and worship and find some spiritual healing while they are here in the B.D.F. So I’ve decided to push to have a church and today it has become a reality and I’m glad to see that.”

Reporter

“Where did the resources come to retrofit this church?”

Brigadier General David Jones

“The resources came from our recurrent budget. The budget that we have been given from the government, we have taken the finances from it because we have a portion of our budget that is dedicated to maintenance of buildings. We’ve used a portion of that budget to have this church that we have here today.”

Ret. Col. George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security

George Lovell

“We have the St. George’s Church that was erected just to our left, to your right and the infestation from the termites has caused us to relocate to this new structure which was dedicated here today. It’s no specific denomination because as you can well appreciate, all of our soldiers are not of the same denominations. And we want for them to have a place that they can go to, to be with their god. So there is no one denomination.”