The St. Stephen's Anglican Church is the First Anglican Church in West Africa, establish in 1861 and house the First Copy of the HOLY BIBLE that was brought ashore by the Colonial Missionary.

The oldest standing Colonial Church in Rivers State, St. Stephens Anglican Cathedral, on Bonny Island, is to be preserved as a Heritage Site, Governor Chibuike Amaechi has said.

The Church, which was built in 1861 by the Colonial Missionaries, who landed in Bonny Island also houses the first copy of the Holy Bible that was brought ashore by the missionaries, and handed over to the then King of Bonny as a gift.

To preserve the integrity of the site, Governor Amaechi had therefore appealed to the Anglican Communion to stop further construction work on some new structures they are erecting within the premises of the ancient Church.
Governor Amaechi, who visited King Edward Willima Dappa Pepple, at the Palace of the Amanyanbo of Bonny during his town hall meeting, told the Bonny people to preserve some of its historical sites that would remind younger generations of their early contact with the Europeans.

“Do not deface the old Church building because it reminded us of the historical relic of the past”, he said.According to him, “any part of the world where this kind of Island and heritage site exist, they preserve them for posterity, as well as exploit it to attract tourists”, and advised the people to allow historical structures like the St. Stephen’s Anglican Cathedral that was built in 1861 to remain.

He urged the Anglican Church to allow the old Church structure to stay rather than modernize it and promised state government’s assistance to enable them preserve the building as it then was.

“Do not build what you are building at St. Stephen’s Anglican Cathedral, it is a heritage site, you cannot touch it if here was overseas, because you can to jail for it, and if we are looking for anything that can be identified as Bonny in the 18th century, it is this structure, after the Bonny traditional institution”, he stated.

Governor Amaechi reminded them that Bonny was a slave centre in history times, and decried a situation where such important relics of history that would have made the area more significant than Port Harcourt have been lost to modernization, including the slave route facilities and camp, which can no longer be traced or seen in the area.

The State Chief Executive recalled the importance of Cape Coast in Ghana with a similar slave route history that attracts a large volume of visitors wanting to know the extent of slave trade activities, noting that “having been preserved, people pay lots of money to go and see for themselves”.

“The same thing would have happened in Bonny if we left our sites, but this one, I will not allow anybody to destroy it”, he assured.
The governor said the state government has the right to declare the area a Heritage Site by law and take it over, but appealed to Amanyanabo of Bonny to urge the Church authorities to see reason not to altar or deface that piece of history.

Responding, the Amanyanabo of Grand Bonny, Kind Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple, thanked the governor for his visit to Bonny and lauded him for the development going on in different parts of the stat.
The Amanyanabo noted that the first copy of the Holy Bible that was given to his late ancestors by the Whites was still intact in the community.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/rivers-preserves-bonny-church/79844/