St. Mark’s (Anglican) Church, Minnedosa
Some firsts at St. Mark’s Church |
The very first baptism at St. Mark’s, in the original wooden church:
Cathleen Maria Hepburn Dennison, born Oct. 27, 1882 to E.A. Dennison,
a town merchant, and his wife, Mary Latimore. Rev. Mark Jukes baptized
the baby on Feb. 7. 1883.
The first wedding in the first St. Mark’s Church:
On Feb. 13, the first wedding took place when Rev. Jukes joined Albert
Caldwell Sewell and Bessie Wake in marriage.
The first baptism in the new stone church:
Duncan Ernest Richard Burton, son of Arthur and Agnes Burton, on March
5, 1905, by the Rev. E.A. Wharton- Gill.
The first wedding in the new stone church:
The first wedding in the new building was in December when the Rev. Wharton
Gill joined Thomas Cooper and Margaret Burnett in Holy Matrimony.
St. Mark’s first Synod delegates in the Diocese of Brandon
The first Synod delegates to the new Diocese of Brandon occurred in 1924.
The delegates from St. Mark’s, Minnedosa, were General Dyer, Major Harrison
and Mr. W.A. Wright. J. Burgess and W. Mann were the alternate delegates.
All of this information was taken from the original Parish Records and
Vestry Minutes of St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Minnedosa, which are stored
at the Diocesan Office in Brandon.
1904
St. Mark’s Church was first proposed by a group of Minnedosa residents
who met in December of 1881 to plan for the building of an Anglican Church.
Families in the community pledged their financial support, and the Rev.
Mark Jukes was the first incumbent in the parish. That first year,
the parish families managed a total collection of $27.05 to pay Rev. Jukes’
stipend.
Two lots were purchased from Mr. MacDonald for $100, and the building
of the original wooden church was tendered out to Grey and Gardner for
$265.
You can see a photograph of the original wooden church and the vicarage
downstairs.
By 1903, the parish felt the need to build a larger parish church and
plans were started on this building. The wooden church was removed
from this site, and the building was begun.
One of the wonderful features of this church building is that the outer
walls are made from stones collected from the farm fields in the surrounding
countryside. The vicar, as he was called back then, travelled around
to the farms, encouraging the farmers to haul the stones into town.
And so this parish church has arisen from the very land that the pioneer
families settled.
With the work of a stonemason and volunteer labour, the present building
was created in 1904 to become a distinctive landmark in the community.
Three special memorials were brought from the old wooden church to the
new one. They are still in use today. The first is the prayer
desk at the front of the church, which was given to St. Mark’s by the
Rector’s Warden, Mr. G.W.R. Almon, in 1889. The second memorial
item was the alms dish, which is still used every Sunday to accept the
collection. A retired pioneer priest who was living in the community,
the Rev. F.R. Hole, presented it to the church. The third memorial
item was the bell which still hangs in the lych-gate of the church.
It was presented to St. Mark’s Church by the Women’s Auxiliary on the
occasion of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. The bell is rarely used any
more due to the weakening structure of its wooden housing.
1914
In April of 1914, at the Annual General Meeting of the church, a motion
was carried that the parish would not extend the (voting) franchise to
the ladies of the church “as they do not want it.” Since the ladies
were unable to vote on this issue, we really don’t know whether they were
disinclined to vote or if the men decided that their ladies didn’t want
it.
The beginning of World War I led to many changes in people’s lives.
Here in Minnedosa, on Aug, 23, 1914, a special meeting of the vestry was
held after the evening service. The Vicar, Rev. Wells, tendered
his resignation, having received his call to go to the front with his
regiment. The members of vestry declined to accept Rev. Wells’ resignation.
Instead, they granted him a Leave of Absence until the war was over.
Like everyone else, they expected the war to last only a year or so.
In 1915, the vestry sent a letter to Rev. Wells urging him to return to
Minnedosa as soon as possible, because they were not very satisfied with
his temporary replacement. But the war dragged on for another 3
years.
Finally, in 1918, Rev. Wells did return from the war, bringing with him
the Red Cross flag that still hangs at the front of St. Mark’s Church.
Rev. Wells used it as his altar cloth on the battlefields of WW I between
1914 and1918.
Another Minnedosa resident and a leading vestry member of St. Mark’s
Church was Brigadier General Hugh Dyer.
After the war, the stained glass window in the south transept of the
church was given to St. Mark’s by the men who had served under General
Dyer. It was dedicated by Bishop Thomas of Brandon and bears the
inscription:
To the Glory of God and in memory of
Brig. Gen. H.M. Dyer CB CMG DSO
Officer Commanding 5th Canadian Infantry Battalion
& 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade 1914 - 1918
1924
In 1924, the Minnedosa School burned down, so on March 1st,
a special vestry meeting was called to discuss the advisability of granting
the school board use of the church hall as a temporary school.
Rev Biggs and Messieurs Hunsley, Wright, Mellor, Spratt, Burgess, Wilson
and Harrison agreed to the following conditions:
- That the hours of use be limited from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on each school
day except when required for church services on Fridays.
- That the premises be redecorated and left in good order to the satisfaction
of the church wardens.
- That the school board make caretaking arrangements
- That the board will make a grant to the parish of $25.00 per month
for the use of the church hall
- That the school board would purchase all fuel for the use of the school
and the parish, and the parish will pay for such fuel as they may use.
- That the school board will pay for any taxes that might arise from
this agreement.
And that is how it came to be that, for a while in 1924, St. Mark’s
was the Anglican church and the Minnedosa School.
1928 was a special year for St. Mark’s Church. The mortgage was
finally paid off after 23 years. The Right Rev. Thomas, Bishop of
Brandon, Rev. Gill and Rev. Wells burned the mortgage at a special meeting
on Saturday, May 26th, 1928. The following morning, the
bishop consecrated the church in the presence of a large congregation.
1934
In the 1930’s, St. Mark’s Church was in partnership with Bethany
and Clanwilliam for worship services.
I’ll read from the vestry minutes:
“As soon as the cars can run on the roads, the Rev. Canon Smith will
provide a service every second Sunday at Bethany and Clanwilliam.
St. John’s and St. Mary’s will have alternate afternoon services at
each parish and one morning service each alternate month, and other
occasional services as required. For these services, Bethany will
donate $300 per year and Clanwilliam will give between $150 and $200
per year.”
Also in 1934, a letter was sent from vestry to the former rector of St.
Mark’s, the Rev. G.A. Wells, to congratulate him on his appointment to
the Bishopric of Cariboo.
In October that year, a layman’s banquet was held in Rapid City.
J. Harrison and Robin Harrison obtained cars and arranged for the parishioners
to attend. Everybody met at the Post Office and away they went.
1944
1944 was a busy year for the parish. There was maintenance work
to be done on the rectory and on the church itself. Everyone pitched
in.
At the rectory, the Women’s Auxiliary redecorated the bathroom.
The Daughters of St. Mark decorated the living room. St. Mark’s
Club shingled the rectory roof. Mr. Purdy was contracted to recrib
the well at a cost of $25.
In the church, new lights were put in the sanctuary. Downstairs,
St. Mark’s Club members redecorated the hall and new curtains were hung.
To heat the church in winter, Mr. Iverson delivered 12 cords of wood
to the church, charging $7.50 a cord for two year old wood and $7.00 for
one year old wood. Valley Lumber provided 4 tons of Drumheller coal.
1954
In 1954, we paid the parish priest $1800 per year. The Diocesan
standard was $2200 per year, but St. Mark’s couldn’t quite afford that
much. Just as in 1944, there was a lot of maintenance work to do,
and money was needed to finance it all.
The church needed a new furnace and the coal bin had to be rebuilt.
The parish hall needed to be rewired.
And since Minnedosa had run the water and sewer lines along the street
in 1953, there was a need to connect the church, and they managed to get
that done the following year in 1955.
1954 was also the 50th anniversary of this building and it
was celebrated with the publication of a small book telling some of the
church’s history and a commemorative service on Sunday, October 31st.
1964
In 1964, the annual salary of the parish priest was $3840.
In the 1960’s, once again, church maintenance took big bites out
of the budget. The outside wall on the east side needed to be resurfaced
(“pointing”) at a cost of $1,850. And the new carpet purchased from
Eatons for the sanctuary, chancel and center aisle cost $1263. Those
two items alone almost equalled the amount that they paid the priest for
one full year.
In 1964, the church received the new altar windows from Toronto, a donation
of Mrs. R.T.C. Sharpe. The inscription reads:
To the Glory of God and in loving memory of
Robert Thom Sharpe
Donated by his wife Josie M. Sharpe 1964
And in 1964, the Diocesan Church deleted the word “man” from the canons
that listed the qualifications for a lay representative in the Anglican
communion. The revised canons stated that “any parishioner of the
full age of 21 years who is a member of the congregation and who has been
a communicant for the preceding 12 months” could qualify, and thus changed
the status of the women in the church.
1974
In 1974 the church authorized women to be lay readers. So after
60 years, from 1914 when the women were deemed “unwilling” to be active
members in the business of the church, in 1974, Anglican women were able
to participate fully in the life of the parish and in lay ministry.
In that same year, the Minnedosa Hospital asked if it could trade safes
with St. Mark’s Church, as theirs was too small. However, since
St. Mark’s safe held all of the records for Minnedosa, Bethany and Clanwilliam,
it was not prudent to exchange with the hospital.
And the last entry in our Book of Remembrance was added in the 1970’s
– one of the young Canadian men who went across the border to join the
American forces in the Viet Nam war. He died in Da Nang at the age
of 21. |