Late former Prime Minister Professor Owen Arthur is to receive a state funeral next Friday that will begin and end in his hometown parish of St Peter, which he served as MP for 33 years, said the funeral’s coordinator, his parliamentary successor, Colin Jordan.
The service is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the St Peter’s Parish Church with the burial at the Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens.
Minister of Labour Jordan said the service will take on as many features of a state funeral as possible while trying to honour Arthur’s wishes.
“Quite a bit of the funeral and the details follow his expressed wishes,” stressed Jordan.
Providing an update on Friday, he said several condolence books will be available for signing from Monday, August 10 in four locations: Government Headquarters, Bay Street (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.); Parliament buildings in Bridgetown (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.); University of the West Indies, Cave Hill administration building (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.); and at the Speightstown Library (1p.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday).
A virtual condolence book is also available at owenarthurtributes.bb for friends and well wishers around the world.
The body of the former prime minister will lay in state at the Parliament Buildings on Wednesday and Thursday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The condolence books will also be available for signing.
The casket will be closed according to the late statesman’s wishes, said Jordan.
On the day of the funeral service the cortege will leave the Lyndhurst Funeral Home on Passage Road and go through Bridgetown with a brief stop at the Parliament Buildings.
“The cortege will then proceed to Speightstown, passing Kensington Oval. We all know that former Prime Minister Arthur was an avid cricket fan and very instrumental in the redevelopment of the Kensington Oval,” said Jordan, adding that further details on the route would be provided early next week.
Stating that the locations for the service and interment were Arthur’s wishes, Jordan said that he did not wish to have the regular spectacle associated with a state funeral.
“So we do as much as is required under the protocols for a state funeral but we keep the service as simple as possible,” Jordan told reporters.
“He had a saying ‘two hymns and a psalm’ that he often used. We are not going to stick slavishly to that. There are going to be a couple more hymns than he requested,” he said.
The funeral will also include the participation of the military, he said.
“The funeral for the late Prime Minister will take on that character as is customary for a state funeral and as befitting a funeral offered to a former premier or longest serving prime minister in Barbados,” said Jordan.
Arthur, who served as Prime Minister between 1994 and 2008, died on Monday, July 27 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He was hospitalised for a week with heart complications.
There is no confirmation to date of which dignitaries would be flying in to attend the funeral, Jordan told reporters.
Students from the All Saints Primary School, Elliott Belgrave Primary, Coleridge and Parry Secondary, Harrison College, Barbados Community College, University of the West Indies and the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology, are to line the street in Speightstown.
Parish Ambassadors for St Peter will also be along the route of the cortege.
Jordan acknowledged the current climate with the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for protocols including physical distancing to be followed would limit attendance.
“That is not what he or any of us would have wanted, but that is what the current situation presents to us,” Jordan. “And in his words, he would say ‘face it and deal with it’. So we have to observe those protocols.”
He said in order to accommodate as many people as possible there will be tents on the grounds of the church as well as satellite locations including the Family Church in Battaleys and the Speightstown Esplanade.
There will also be arranged seating at Mount Pleasant. And an additional location could be provided, said Jordan.
The service will also be streamed live in addition to national television and radio broadcasts.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
