Marche Riley, is the Archivist of the Dioceses of New Westminster and the Provincial Synod of BC and Yukon and presented a talk on the history of the Diocese from its roots in the earliest parishes.
Our speaker, Marche Riley, is the Archivist of the Dioceses of New Westminster and the Provincial Synod of BC and Yukon and presented a talk on the history of the Diocese from its roots in the earliest parishes, namely St John the Divine (now in Maple Ridge), Holy Trinity Cathedral (New Westminster), St James (Vancouver) and Christ Church Cathedral (Vancouver). It was as a result of the gold rush that a large monetary endowment was given to the Archbishop of Canterbury for the establishment of two archdeaconries, Vancouver for the Island and Columbia for the mainland. The first Bishop was George Hills, who rapidly realized that the episcopal area was simply too large. The first choice for the Bishop of New Westminster was John Postlethwaite, but he never appeared for his consecration, presumably because nobody could pronounce his name; he was replaced by Windemeyer Sillitoe, at least half of whose name could be remembered by the congregation. Bishop Sillitoe was instrumental in building up the Diocese from 1864 to 1879, when it was formally instituted. From the 1890’s to the early 20th Century the Anglican Church grew steadily, as with most things, largely because of the advent of the railway.
The centre of activity was essentially Holy Trinity Cathedral. It was on September 2nd 1859 that Reverend John Sheepshanks (no, really, that was his name!) conducted the first service, but in the absence of a Church was disappointed to obtain a congregation of only 7 or 8 men (why ‘or’? One can only assume that he wasn’t too hot at counting either). Because of this lack of local enthusiasm, Sheepshanks wrote to Governor Douglas, an action that apparently caused some local tension because the good reverend thought that the church deserved a better piece of land than Douglas was prepared to cede. The Cathedral was consecrated in 1860, but in 1865 there occurred a big fire which essentially gutted the building: no cause and no miscreant was ever discovered (I wonder if they sufficiently cross examined the 7 or 8 men!). Sheepshanks, who was by then in England to seek a beer recipe was then unfortunately obliged to remain there to in order to raise funds for reconstruction. The Cathedral was reconstructed in 1899, but our speaker did not indicate whether this valuable work was carried out by Sheepshanks or Bishop Dart, who for no apparent reason suddenly appeared on the scene.
Interestingly, Royal visitors to these churches have been frequent and august, including Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, the Queen, Princess Margaret and other assorted worthies. We also heard all about St Michael’s Church, St Paul’s, St John’s Holy Trinity, St Saviour Church, St Peter’s Church and the Church of Christ the King. All fascinating stuff.
Michael Frost