By William Pais

Karkala, Jun 26: Fr Edwin D'Souza and his parishioners at St Joseph’s Church, Belman are an elated lot. The church, in which their ancestors prayed, has been aesthetically restored to its original glory.

The brain behind this noble thought is that of the young vicar of the church, Fr Edwin D’Souza and the parishioners who supported him. An artistic piece of architecture built in 1933, this imposing church building was elevated on a small hillock. The flight of steps in the front leads to the church building. The facade built in art deco style, is a landmark for the passersby. 

Fr Edwin says there were many inputs on how to go about the restoration of the church. He says that some of them lead the opinion that the pillars in the area are to be removed so that the area can be expanded for a better view of the altar to the congregation. The Catholic population that had to be accommodated for services was a challenging factor. The need to go ahead with more modern and open flashy interiors with state-of-the-art gadgets was considered as an ideal option. 

Fr Edwin D'Souza

Art by Wilson Kayyar

The urge to have a modern building was not only confined to private residences but also to the places of prayer. The decision to keep the old church in which the preceding generation faithfully prayed was a challenge. Fr Edwin, who has a background in social work on community development, was inclined towards preservation of old church. He took upon the task of renovation and the workers, artisans, artists scrapped through walls, facade, sacristy, pillars, belfry and all that is part of anatomy of the church. This revealed layers of artistic accomplishments that lay beneath for decades and paved way for the church building to return to its original glory.

The colours, blue, pink, yellow, and ochre were exposed as a testimony to the ‘creative’ inputs of different times. The altar, central point of focus, had departed long back from its originally envisaged plan. There were no documents, plans or maps of original altar. The only fall back was old wedding albums used as a reference to create an impression of the original altar. 

The ensemble of arched pillars was restored and old door frames were replaced with the ones that matched the old ones. The cracked areas in the facade and belfry were suitably rectified. The sanctuary espoused more radiance, the dark and dingy colours were replaced with more lighter and sober colours. It gave the church more expansive look, and from the backdrop of oblivion emerged a grand artistic edifice of St Joseph Church, Belman.

Alvyn Agueira, vice president of the parish council proudly proclaimed, “This church is the greatest gift of our ancestors, symbol of their unwavering faith and sweat of the brow, built with great hardships. It is our duty to keep it and pass it on to our next generation.” Agueira is a civil engineer with Minor Irrigation Department in Udupi. Agueira gave structural consultation on the repair and renovation work. “Structurally speaking, anything built in circular form is stronger than the building built in straight lines as the load is evenly distributed. I have no doubt that Belman church will stand firm for another 100 years,” he said.

The church was modeled on Gloria Church in Byculla, Mumbai, by the then vicar Denis R Lewis. Reminiscing the time Agueira said, “Aerially it looked like a cross, Fr Denis Lewis despite his old age, was a determined man to see the church built and when it was done, he had lot of loans to pay. He went to the extent of selling his private property to pay for the loans.” He further said, “How can we let go of the hard earned and beautiful edifice, built with such hardships, therefore we decided to beautify it and the net result of entire exercise is beautiful church resurrected to serve for ages to come.”

It took Rs 1.5 crore, a strong conviction in keeping this heritage structure. It took the deployment of artisans who understood the importance of heritage conservation. The artistic and creative inputs from artist, Wilson Souza converged to create a desirable structure. The government of Karnataka under its scheme of financial assistance for renovating old churches gave a grant of Rs 40 lac. The rest of the amount was raised from the resources given by parishioners and other donors. One family eagerly gave a teak tree, which they kept for the use in the construction of their daughter’s house. The tree was used for the main door of the church. The old furniture was re-used in making cupboards and other furniture.

Old statues, ceremonial paraphernalia used in services have been carefully preserved. Fr Edwin said, “There is absolutely no need to demolish old churches, all we need to be doing is to restore them and put them to use. They are strong enough and are capable of serving the community for years to come. Such was the farsightedness of our past generation.” He then showed porticos, verandahs, and side wings where people can be accommodated if the need comes. He put TV screens so that everyone could take an active part in the service. He stated that if ever the church is flowing with faithful, there will always be an option to increase the number of masses or services.

Further, he said, “Old church building is a testimony of history and sacrifice of our past faithful and it needs to be preserved to be used by the next generation.” Fr Edwin proposed that formation of a committee which will look after the maintenance of church building and undertake periodic repairs if there are any. He also said that there should be compulsory audit of church building maintenance once every five years.

After taking around in every corner of the church, Fr Edwin took the writer to the cemetery to show how the burial place is organized. The statue of Risen Lord that is a perpetual inspiration to the faithful is installed at the cemetery with angels and flowering plants are planted with neat compound wall around. The cemetery completely looked like place of Eternal Rest. There is an atmosphere of ease in the church surroundings and the presbytery. Fair of peacocks feed on mangoes fallen on the ground, and monkeys from the nearby forest climb onto the facade signifying they are also stakeholders in the church building that has stood for the past 86 years.

Belman is indeed a shining example of how an old church building can to be restored and passed on to the next generations. Those who have plans to demolish old churches need to pay visit to Belman and if they are not convinced about what has been done, they need to abandon the thought of demolishing church. For all the brave and innovative initiative of Belman parishioners they need to be congratulated with a prayer - May their tribes increase.

 Author William Pais