the church's history.

The congregation are meeting on Saturday morning to unearth the secrets of the church's original site, across the street from its present location on South Shore Road in Smith's.

Church member Colin Campbell, also an architect, said: "St. Mark's is in the process of celebrating its 150th anniversary.

"One thing that transpired in the celebration was the question of where St.

Mark's was originally located.'' Mr. Campbell explained: "There is a pen and ink drawing in the Verdmont museum of the church after it was rebuilt from the hurricane in 1712.'' The church, known in the 17th Century as Harris Bay Church, has been rebuilt three times in its 150-year existence.

Some of the Island's first settlers built the first structure in the 1640s.

But the original building, which was 60 feet by 24 feet, was destroyed by a hurricane 72 years later and was rebuilt by the settlers' descendants. The second structure lasted until 1844 when members of the congregation tried renovating the west end of the church to extend the aisles.

But their efforts caused the entire church to fall down -- and a parishioner gave up some of his own land across the road to relocate St. Mark's.

Now Mr. Campbell, St. Mark's Reverend Bob Thacker and various members of the congregation are hoping to find the foundations of the original church.

Mr. Campbell said: "I wandered out to the graveyard with a copy of the sketch from Verdmont and the two grave memorials that are still there helped to identify the location.

"When we started discussing the dig, a member of the church remembered that some footings to a building were found once when a grave was being dug.

"Once I heard that I was pretty confident we had the right place.'' He then contacted Dr. Edward Harris, an archaeologist from the College of William and Mary in Virginia and the director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum.

Dr. Harris agreed that the church's original location had probably been found.

And he arranged to join the excavation project along with two of his archaeology students.

The group will dig in various strategic spots in a bid to find the four main corners of the old church.

"Eventually we hope to develop some sort of pathway to show people where the original church was,'' Mr. Campbell said.

"We want people to come and find out about archaeology and the history of St.

Mark's Church.'' "And we want to reaquaint the community with the idea that it has been a place of spiritual nourishment since 1640.''.

He invited anyone interested in the project to come out with a round faced shovel and a wisk broom to help some time between 9.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.

Mr. Campbell also said that the dig was one of many projects that the church would be holding over its anniversary year, including a fundraising campaign for improvements.

DIGGING UP HISTORY -- Parish member Colin Campbell and Rev. Robert Thacker looking at the site of St. Mark's archaeological dig.