The 125th Anniversary Celebration of St. Anne’s historic log Church Catherine Whitely, a talented program writer/director, gives this overview of the program she prepared for the celebration. It will be enacted twice that day, followed by a Strawberry Tea in the hall nearby.
=0D=0A=1894 CONSECRATION OF ST ANNE’S CHURCH
=0D=0A=Imagine the scene. A Victoria Daily Colonist newspaper reporter is on his way from Victoria to cover a big story in French Creek. The date is July 26, 1894 – one hundred and twenty-five years ago.
=0D=0A=The reporter is struck by the beauty of the tiny villages of Englishman River and French Creek – whose total population comprises 24 families. He arrives at the site of a little log church, still fragrant from the cedar logs from which it was fashioned. The Anglican Bishop from Victoria, and clergy from the churches in Nanaimo, are on hand to consecrate this new church, the only one existing between Nanaimo and St. Peter’s in Comox. This much is true and can be found within the pages of the historic Victoria Daily Colonist newspaper.
=0D=0A=But perhaps he also found time, after the sacred service of consecration, to talk with the many settlers who had come from far and wide to attend this historic event. Who might he have talked to, and what would he have heard?
=0D=0A=This program imagines such interviews. Our newspaper reporter will chat with Bishop William Perrin, bishop of all Anglican churches on Vancouver Island, who will explain to him how this church came to be. He will question Bessie Lee, wife of Bill Lee, warden of the newly founded parish church, and settler of the land now occupied by the French Creek Marina, about life in this new settlement. He will learn to his surprise that the teen-ager who catches his eye, young Otto Renz, was one of the builders of this church. And finally, he meets Major and Mrs. Hickey who, although newly arrived from Ireland and South Africa, have already become pillars of this little community and this parish.
=0D=0A=This historic program invites you to step back in time, step back 125 years, to imagine a Parksville as it was at its very beginnings.
=0D=0A=After each presentation of the program there will be a Strawberry Tea in the Hall nearby.
=0D=0A=Between presentations at 2:30 pm in the churchyard, there will be a tribute to local Military Veterans whose graves are to be found there. Gravestones have been restored. A short ceremony of recognition of their services will occur and a piper will play
=0D=0A=Tickets are $15 each for the 125th Anniversary Presentation and Strawberry Tea at the office 407 Wembley Rd. or at St. Anne’s Open houses in July on Tues. and Thursday and also at the event, at the door of St. Anne’s Church.
DTSTART:19691231 DTEND:19700101 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR