SMITH Memorial Congregational Church, Brickdam, will be celebrating its 172nd anniversary with an anniversary service on November 15, 2015 at 09:00hrs for public worship.

The church building stands resplendent on the lush green lawns of the parish on the southeastern shoulder of Brickdam. It was erected to the memory of Reverend John Smith, a London Missionary Society Minister, who was sentenced to die by hanging for the role he allegedly played in the historic East Coast Demerara slave insurrection of 1823.

He died as a prisoner on death row on February 6, 1824, and subsequently came to be referred to as the “Demerara Martyr”, as a result of the circumstances surrounding his death.

Smith arrived in Demerara in February 1817, to succeed the Reverend John Wray at Bethel Chapel, Le Resouvenir, also on the East Coast Demerara.

Smith, like his predecessor Wray, gave religious instructions to the slaves. He taught them to read the Bible and Catechism. He along with Reverend Wray and the early missionaries laid the foundation for organized schooling and elementary primary education for the congregations.

On November 24, 1843, exactly 20 years after the date on which Reverend Smith was sentenced to death, Smith Memorial Congregational Church was opened as a tribute to the work and suffering he had to endure on behalf of his deacons, members and other followers.