The Anglican Church of Canada by Philip Carrington part III

Chapter 3: The Coming of the Loyalists

Coming from the States but desiring to be a Canadian this chapter in Canadian history caught me by surprise when I first read history from a Canadian perspective seven years ago. As an American of course I had always learned history from the perspective that the American revolutionaries were the good guys and that the Loyalists were traitors to the cause. They were the ones who would rather be loyal to a distant and tyrannical king rather than loyal to their local communities. Now this is simplistic of course, but we are talking about high school American history courses. But it is also the case that this is the reading of history one gets if they tour around the revolutionary sites in the States.

I have enjoyed reading Canadian histories written from a Canadian perspective because it really does bring home the truth that history sounds very different depending on who writes it. In this chapter of the ACC it is not the revolutionaries who are at the heart of the story but rather those who did not betray their country and allegiance, but rather those who stayed loyal regardless of the personal cost. And as Carrington tell us the cost was great indeed. These were the loyalists. For Carrington, these families and individuals are “entitled to at least as much sympathy as we bestow on the Acadians of unfortunate memory.” The idea is that for political reasons they were uprooted from their homes and communites losing much in the process and emigrated north to what was still British North America. A great many of these loyalists became refugees in Halifax, and the city had a hard time coping with the masses. It was here that the were given the nickname Blue-Noses which was a parody of their title of honour the True Blues. And it is here in this influx that we get the feeling that the Anglican Church of Canada truly begins.

In Carrington’s telling of the story two names really stand out, John Stuart and Charles Inglis. John Stuart was one of those indefatigable men on the frontier that we often read about. However, in this case he was an Anglican priest. Just reading his story makes me tired. I can’t imagine traveling the distances he did to preach the Gospel and serve his various congregations. He was a large man, six foot four inches and had quite a presence. He traveled north with the Mohawks who remained loyal to the British crown. He worked closely with the chief Joseph Brant who would become known as another great Canadian. Together they build up the mission and built a new church at Ft. Hunter. Together they would translate the prayer book and parts of the Bible into the Mohawk tongue. Stuart was a prisoner for two years then served as a military chaplain, opened a school and looked after several congregations during the war. After the war he was given charge of the parish in Kingston but he really traveled all over upper Canada from settlement to settlement ministering to the people. For awhile he was the only priest in Upper Canada. His range was tremendous and while he never  became a bishop he has been given the title, “the father of Upper Canada.”

The second person of note was Charles Inglis. In the buildup to the war he was a staunch loyalist reading the prayers for the King and the Royal Family right up to the time when there were rebel troops in the city. He had all of his property confiscated and went to England. It was at this time that England was thinking about creating a Bishop for Canada. Part of the problem lay with the fact that the church had been reduced to a subservient branch of the government by this point. The Georges had to approve all of the Bishops and they largely used these appointment to reward people who did favours to the crown or for family.  But after much deliberation they finally consecrated Inglis as the Bishop of Nova Scotia but with jurisdiction going much further west. He was not however to be called a Lord Bishop and was not given a seat on the Legislative Council. One amusing fact when he arrived in Nova Scotia is that he did not think much of his clergy. He wrote, “of eleven clergy four are diligent useful clergymen, three are indifferent neither doing much good nor harm; as for the remaining four, it would be happy for the Church if they were not in her orders.” Right away he started doing visitations, issuing injunctions and directives on various points. He performed the first Confirmations in Canada at St. Paul’s. It is at this point that the ACC really seems to be taking root. There are regular services in all of the areas of Canada and a church structure is being established. Of course all of this in a time that is leading up to yet another war. 

Lac Ste. Anne

I have already gotten a little behind with what I wanted to do. But last Wednesday I came down with a vicious cold and then got a bad throat infection and only now am I really back to normal. Tomorrow I will start posting on the books again, but today I wanted to talk about an experience this afternoon.

I had driven out to Gunn to visit with a friend at the Gunn Centre there. It is located on lake St. Anne or as they call it here Lac Ste. Anne. I knew that there was a Catholic Mission here that has famous pilgrimages so after I was done visiting I drove around the lake looking for it. I almost gave up when I finally found the parish.

It was a stunningly beautiful day. Warm with a brilliant blue sky with thick puffy clouds. At the site there is a large open air shrine for Masses and then a large set of stations of the cross leading down to the water. Then at the waters edge there is a little pavilion and a bench where the water's edge used to be, but it is now about 50 yards out. I was just sitting on the bench praying/ thinking/ just enjoying the day when a white pick up truck drove up with a man who obviously enjoyed talking. It turned out he was the gentleman who helped organize the pilgrimages and was in charge of the security. He was very gracious and told me the story of the lake.

It used to be called Spirit Lake by the Aboriginals who lived there before the Europeans came and was an important place. When the Europeans came the story goes that a priest, a man from the Hudson's Bay company, a metis leader and four others were by the lake edge when St. Anne, the mother of St. Mary appeared to them. Quickly they built a church there and the site became known as a place of healing waters and miracles. People come from all over the world to pray. He told the story of a group of Italians who flew into Edmonton International Airport, drove to Lac Ste. Anne, spent four hours, then went back to the airport and flew back to Italy. He had several other stories. There was the time when nine cardinals (not the birds) came in full robes and went into the water up to their shoulders!

 It is considered sacred ground to the Aboriginal community. The pilgrimage is a celebration of both Catholic faith and Aboriginal faith and culture. Yet he said that whereas the pilgrimages used to be close to 100% Aboriginal, it is no longer. More of a 60/40 mix. It is really drawing more and more people from all cultures from around the world: Asians, Africans, and so on. And like me they are not all Catholic.

While it is not an Anglican place, I was thinking about it in terms of my project. Experiences like this are helping to me see the fascinating juxtaposition that faith in Canada represents. Lac Ste. Anne is a potent mix of place, history and culture. It is an example of where European faith is transformed in a North American context that creates a sacred location that people from all over the world want to experience. It is truly amazing when you think about it. As I read the history of the churches in Canada it is obvious that they are not exactly the same as the ones that left European shores. There is something about the frontier experience that subtly seems to have an effect on the Christian culture. It seems to have a invigorating effect as the faith has to look at itself anew in a different context. I find that I love studying this theme. And I definitely plan to come back to Lac. Ste. Anne when I am in the area.

Cool Canadian Resource

Well its cool if you are a geek. Which I am. It is not a new site, but if you are interested in the facts about Canada this is the place. It is from Statistics Canada. They have a site called The Daily and as titled they publish daily. It is a statistical look at all kinds of issues facing Canadians. For instance today they look at the probable crop production of the farmers on the Prairies:

Prairie farmers reported they expect to produce less wheat and canola in 2010 compared with 2009, while farmers in Ontario and Quebec could produce more soybeans. Summerfallow (land on which no crop will be grown during the year) increased in the Prairies to the highest level since 1999, mostly because of flooding in many regions during the 2010 planting season.

In the West, farmers reported that crop production will decline from 2009 levels, the result of persistent wet conditions in many areas.

This is interesting because in my newspaper this morning they were saying that in Alberta we were looking at higher than average yields. Anyway, worth looking at.

Anglicanism

As I am thinking through this project it is becoming more clear that to answer the question of what it is to be a Canadian Anglican there needs to be some thought given as to what it means to be an Anglican. Of course that is not as easy to answer as you might think. It is sort of like the old puzzle, "what is love?" Everybody knows what it is, but it is notoriously difficult to define.

At the minimalist end one could think of Anglicanism as a shared heritage dating back to either the Elizabethan settlement or even to the first stirrings of Christianity in the British Isles. Most people would say that it is at least a bit more than that. At the maximalist end people argue that Anglicanism is a theological method based on various configurations of Scripture, Tradition and Reason. But this leads to difficult conversations about what exactly what reason is and even tradition is notoriously controversial. So while there may be truth to this it is not exacting.

I would like to explore this concept in this blog by looking out for articles and news items that reflect. To step out a bit I think of Anglicanism in terms such as this: I see it as something of an historical experiment which created (unwillingly) a bit tent Christianity which holds together several different forms of Christian belief and which focuses more on liturgy as its vehicle for articulating belief rather than confessional statements.

The Anglican Church of Canada by Philip Carrington

Chapter Two: The French Wars

An essential part of the history of Canada is the story of the efforts of both the French and the English to increase their dominance in North America. For decades these two powers were at war continually capturing, losing and re-capturing various pieces of Canadian real-estate. Into all of this the Anglican Church in Canada started in fits and starts. It is notable that during one of the several short times of peace a new religious associated was formed in 1698 called The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. This was an organization that was going to become very important and whose important work was the distribution of religious literature through libraries and book stores. This group in turn formed another society that was to be hugely influential called the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Both of these were under the patronage of the Crown and the Archbishops in England.

It was at this time that the first church buildings were being built in Canada. There is an interesting emphasis on communion vessels given to various churches by Queen Anne. These vessels are interesting because they will come up a few times in the next generation. These royal gifts are now in the care of St. Paul’s church in Halifax, the oldest Anglican church in Canada still running.

In some sense the beginning of a stable Anglican church was the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. This ended the French wars for a full thirty years and gave some stability to the frontier. It was during this time that with the help of the SPG “clergy were appointed, churches were build, and schools started.” The rest of the period is kind of a dreary repetition of war, peace, war breaks out again, peace, more war, a little peace, some more war… It was during this time that the Acadians were expelled and finally the Battle of the Plains in 1759 which effectively ended the French wars on this continent.

As I said earlier there is a real sense here that the Anglican church came in fits and starts depending of British interests and the state of the wars. I would like to end this post with a quote I enjoyed from the book. It is about different groups working together to create the Canadian experiment:

“We pause to make a point which will often appear in our history, the ability of Canadians of different races and religions to work together in unity without surrendering their native loyalties or culture. It is a kind of national partnership which calls for sympathetic imagination, Christian character, and realistic thinking.” P.35

The Real Canada

In my attempt to really learn about the culture and history of Canada I think that I have to finally break down and read....yes.... Anne of Green Gables.

The Anglican Church of Canada by Philip Carrington

Chapter 1: The First Canadians

The history of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) obviously starts quite late in the overall history of Canada. Carrington begins his history observing the fact that obviously the first Canadians, the first nations and Inuit, had been navigating these shores for centuries, as well there are various encounters with Europeans from 1000AD on. However, the ACC starts with the focused explorations of European sailors such as John Cabot and Jacques Cartier.

(As a bit of a side note, it is hard not to react against the arrogance of a man like Cartier who claims entire lands without consultation and who kidnaps men and takes them to France against their will. However, for the purposes of these notes I think that I have to first learn the story as it played out. It is interesting to note that it is at least partly in reaction to such arrogance that the ACC just repudiated the doctrine of discovery that these early explorers operated under. How that effects the way that we tell the story of Canada is yet to be worked out. Needless to say this book was written before such a conversation had taken place.)

What is notable about the early history of the ACC is how closely it is caught up in British imperial interests in North America. All of the early religious services are part of early explorations or early colonies that were settled for economic reasons. As well the conversion of the first nations that the Europeans encountered had much to do with the alliances that were formed. Carrington writes,

The Huron and Algonquin Indians to the north were friendly with the French, and became Roman Catholic; the Mohawk and Iroquois to the south were friendly with the Dutch, and later on with the English, and ultimately became Anglicans. (23)

Carrington observes that there were no signs of any conscious or organized effort on the part of the church of England “to bring the influence of religion to bear on the new world.” Rather, most of the credit for the introduction for the introduction of Anglicanism he gives to laymen who used the prayer book to bolster the religious faith aboard ships or in early colonies. It was not until 1649 that England created the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, and since this was the year after Charles lost his head this was not a Prayer Book organization!

What was interesting to me which I didn’t know was that the 1662 BCP was created with the needs of New England in mind.

John Stuart, August 17 Commemoration

I meant to post this yesterday:

John Stuart died in 1811. He is remembered as an Anglican missionary among the Mohawks and the first resident priest in Upper Canada. He has been born in Pennsylvania and raised a Presbyterian, but became an Anglican and ordained a priest in 1770. He was sent to northern New York by the SPG where he won the trust and affection of the Mohawk people. During the American Revolution he remained loyal to the British crown and in 1781 fled to Canada. He also did much to keep the Mohawks loyal to the British crown. He became the priest in Kingston which meant that for years he was the only priest in Upper Canada. Today he is remembered as the “father of the Episcopal Church in Upper Canada.

(Information taken from All the Saints p 250)

How to Get There

One of the things we are considering is how to get there. I know that it is a bit early in the process but we are already thinking of our itinerary and how we are going to spend our time in our travels. The big problem right now is how to get there. These are the options that we have now:

1) All of us fly to Toronto, rent a car, do the trip then fly back from St. John's.
Advantage: Saves time. Disadvantage: My guess is it will be tremendously expensive though we have to research the details.
2) All of us drive our car to Toronto to start the trip.
Advantage: We will have our own car so we don't have to rent and no plan tickets to purchase. Disadvantage: with two little kids in the car we can only drive six to maybe eight hours a day. And doing this day after day, my guess it will be unpleasant. Also add a lot of time. Also the return trip. This option most probably will not happen.
3) I drive to Toronto by myself and Stephanie and the girls fly to Toronto and they will fly back from St. John's.
Advantages: I can drive more hours per day by myself. In fact I don't think it will be a lot of extra time. Disadvantage: We will have to buy three tickets and Stephanie will have to manage the girls on the plane by herself.
4) Same as option 3 but we also rent a medium size camping trailer.
Advantage: don't have to rent hotel rooms for two months and better than tent camping. Disadvantages: Same as three.

Those are the options that I can think of. But I will have to do some research to see what our costs will be.

First Forays

One of the surprising things that I have discovered in doing some of my initial research to gather a reading list is the lack of readily available materials on the history of the Anglican Church of Canada. There are some books to be sure, but many of them are out of print which I have had to order. It has been a bit of a treasure hunt. Any suggestions for great materials would be much appreciated!

The first two books that I will be blogging through are a general history of the ACC up to the second world war called The Anglican Church in Canada by Philip Carrington and a study commissioned by the ACC in 2002 called Stained Glass, Sweet Grass, Hosannas and Songs by Sally Edmonds Preiner. My plan will be to blog the main points of each chapter and then some of my own comments.

The first book is helpful as a general introduction although it is a bit dated. It came out in the early 60’s and tracks general Canadian history while commenting on what is going on at the time in the ACC. It seems a bit more triumphalistic than one would write today but it is interesting in identifying the major themes that come up again and again in the history of the ACC. Carrington seems to be an interesting fellow. He was a bishop of the Diocese of Quebec as well as the Metropolitan of Canada. He wrote several books other than this one including The Boy Scouts Camp Book in 1918. That seems very well rounded!

The second book is obviously more current and it looks like a study initiated by the ACC to look at the issues facing the church today. Topics covered include declining congregations, youth involvement, multicultural interpretations of Anglicanism, styles of worship (BCP/BAS), local outreach, social justice, residential schools, homosexuality, and even what it means to be an Anglican. The issue that it seems to raise from a cursory glance is the fact that our diversity is quite plain, which raises the question of what it is that keeps us together. Obviously this is one of the questions that I am interested in exploring in quite some depth: what is it about Anglicanism that keeps us together.

Together, the two books seem like a good place to start, one historical and one more current; one looking at historical themes and threads and the other looking at current themes and threads. It will be interesting to see if they mesh or clash! 

Blog Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog. Thanks for dropping in for a look. This blog is being created as part of my Sabbatical project and trip which will take place during the summer of 2012 with a prepatory trip in 2011. My name is Stephen London and I am a priest in the Diocese of Edmonton. In our Diocese we are lucky to have the possibility of a Sabbatical every seven years, and it is just about time for me. Yea! The bishop has approved my proposal and even given tentative approval to some of the funding. Yea again!

The Sabbatical plan is very simple. My wife, kids and I are going to travel across eastern Canada as well as a separate trip through Alberta and Saskatchewan to discover the history and present day expressions of the current Anglican Church of Canada. I am hoping for a real road trip adventure with the idea that we will videotape it all and create a documentary about what Anglicanism looked like 300 years ago and what it looks like today.

Our idea is that over two trips we will travel through Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland searching out the historically interesting places as well as the currently vibrant churches across parts of Western and Eastern Canada. We are going to write ahead to churches asking if we can videotape parts of their services and life together as well as hoping that there will be people who would be willing to be interviewed on tape about their stories and lives as Anglicans today. The church today obviously lives in a much different place in history than when it was first created and I am interested in exploring where there is continuity and where it has changed. It is my belief that the Holy Spirit is alive and well in the Anglican Church of Canada in many different forms. This is not to deny that there are lots of problems and challenges in the Anglican Church. Far from it! But I would love to see it all and document as much as I can. The other part of this trip is exploring the possibility of creating a collaborative work of art created by Anglicans across the country where we travel that can be displayed. But this has not yet been worked out.

Obviously such a trip does not start two years from now. It starts now. I have a lot of reading and exploring to do before we even get started. That is where this blog come in. It will be my tool to record all of my reading, thoughts and discoveries leading up to my trip and then we will blog the trip as we go. I realize that this might be read only by a few close friends but I am still very excited about this. I do hope there will be more. I am hoping that this blog will be interesting to people who are interested in the history of Canada and the history of the Anglican Church in particular, as well as explorations of current news stories around this topic, explorations of the challenges in the Anglican church as well as bits of Canadiana thrown in. The whole idea is to capture something of the spirit of ACC. Also, if you can suggest any must see parishes that we have to visit or the whole trip would be worthless, I would love the suggestion! Anyway, thanks for stopping by.

Following is an edited version of what I gave the Bishop:

Sabbatical Proposal for Stephen London

Objective:

My sabbatical objective is to make a series of short educational documentaries exploring and celebrating the history and present day spirit of the Anglican Church of Canada as well as exploring the diversity of what Anglicanism looks like in Canada.

Explanation:

I am relatively new to the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), and for a long time I have had a desire to see and learn much more about the church in which I am a priest. I would love to have a chance to not just read about both of them but to really see and explore them. Added to this are my educational passions which are history (Church and Secular) and the theological questions around how Christian faith is enculturated and contextualized in particular places and times. My thought was that I could combine all of this in a cross country tour of eastern Canada documenting our travels, learnings and interviews in a blog as well as the short documentaries.

When:

The main portion of the sabbatical will take place over two months in the summer of 2012. However, the preparation for the sabbatical will take place over the two years leading up to it. Plus we are contemplating doing a practice run in the summer of 2011 through the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Overview:

Our MO will be something as follows. Having researched the area ahead of time we will travel to the historically interesting spots and churches along the way to piece together the history of the various regions. We are hoping to write to significant churches ahead of time to see if they will let us videotape some of their worship and have some people who would be willing to be interviewed for the project. We would like to have some people talk to us on video about the history of their region and how that is a part of the life of the church today. Our real anticipation and passion here is to find that the Spirit of God is alive and thriving in these churches and we would love to see what it looks like and to show it to others. We are hoping that this part will be an encouragement to anyone who sees the documentaries.

The sharing part will be two fold: First, I am thinking that I would like to keep a conversational blog about all of my reading about the history of the church in the lead up to the trip and then while on the trip and day by day account of the trip. The second part is that we are thinking about creating three hour long movies about our trip divided into regions. We would have one on the church in upper and Lower Canada, one on Atlantic Canada and then one of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. (If we have as much fun doing this as I think we will then perhaps there might be future ones on BC and then the North. But this is outside of the scope of the present project.)

Technical Issues:

My goal for the documentary is that it will be a quality amateur production. Obviously the two significant issues here are that we only have limited resources and we are not trained in the art of documentary production. However, I am excited to learn about it over the next two years. I plan on taking a class on making movies. As well, we already have video editing software on our computer that we are already learning on. Also I am hoping that I can get some advice from various people who have more knowledge than I. My idea is to make some practice projects to work out the bugs and then to have a trial run during the summer of 2011 in Saskatchewan and Alberta. This is so that by the time we leave for the official trip I will have had several productions under my belt.

Educational component:

A large chunk of this will have to take place before the trip. My idea is to study quite a bit about the history of Canada and the ACC so that I would be fairly knowledgeable about the subject. I have already accumulated several histories of both. However, my hope is that the reading will be only a part of the educational component. I am really hoping that in traveling and interviewing Anglicans from across Canada will lead to surprising and unpredictable insights. It will be a much better video if it does!