St. Thomas Silver Creek has served the small rural community of Anglicans for almost 150 years. Services are held twice a year, at Christmas and at Easter, as well as on occasions when clergy can be found to conduct a service. The most recent service was held on August 24, 2022, and was well attended as worshippers could finally gather in person.  

Local support for the chapel has helped ensure its continued existence. Mr. Dan Berndt has been tending the charming chapel garden and Mr. Royden Brown is the chapel steward. Royden wished “to thank the Diocese of Ottawa for the support navigating through this process [the erection of the plaques] and look[s] forward to a renewed relationship with the municipality….especially [as this is] the only church within their boundaries”.   

The unveiling was attended by representatives of the municipality, local residents, as well as the Ven. Eric Morin, Archdeacon of West Quebec; M. Michel Prévost, president of the Société d’histoire de l’Outaouais; Mme Marie-France Bertrand, cultural development officer for the MRC of Papineau; Meriel Beament Bradford, diocesan representative on the Outaouais advisory table for the Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec (CPRQ). The mayor, M. Pierre Renaud, the municipal Heritage Committee and its chair, councillor Guylaine Ouellet, helped spearhead the effort to recognise this local historical jewel.

The CPRQ is a Quebec government agency which promotes the preservation and transformation of religious heritage buildings and cemeteries, through funding, information sessions and special events such as les Journées du patrimoine religieux, held each September. Several churches in the Deanery of West Quebec, including Christ Church Aylmer and St Paul’s Shawville, have benefitted from the CPRQ funding programs. 

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It was also the service at which the St. Bart’s 2021 Capital Campaign Co-chairs, Bonnie Robinson and David Esdaile, announced the launch of a three–year campaign to raise funds for the restoration of the Wilhelmina Geddes “Ottawa” Window and for improvements to the church facilities to make St. Bart’s an even more welcoming place for community events and concerts.

The Honorary Colonel of the Governor General’s Foot Guards, Bryan Brulotte, announced a very generous personal gift to the Regiment on the occasion of its 150th anniversary in May 2022, and to St. Bart’s for its capital campaign.  St. Bart’s is known as the “Guard’s Chapel” and their regimental colours have been laid up in the church since 1972.

Dr. McKee gave a short address to the congregation in which he spoke of his gratitude for receiving an invitation to learn about the “Irish” window at St. Bart’s and his subsequent visit to see the window in all its glory.  He called his first impression of the window: “stunning, such a dramatic narrative, impossible to capture its beauty in reproductions.”  

He added that “this extraordinary masterpiece by an Irish woman artist, Wilhelmina Geddes, is a product of a confluence of influences and connections in Ireland at the opening of the twentieth century,” he said. Dr. McKee, an economic historian, went on to describe the period in Ireland’s history between 1916 and 1919 when Geddes was working on her commission for the Duke of Connaught as a memorial for the men on his staff in Canada who fell in the Great War. 

Dr. McKee drew a parallel between the Irish Catholic community in Canada who flocked to the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914 and whose sacrifices contributed to the evolution of a modern Canadian identity and the Irish soldiers who returned from that war to a new Ireland. Alas, their heroism and sacrifices had “no place in the new narrative,” according to Dr. McKee. 

More recently, according to Dr. McKee, Ireland has been recovering the diversity of Irish identity, including those from the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, such as Geddes and others. Indeed, like Canada, he sees Ireland embracing “diversity and inclusiveness….signposts to a better future.” He is seeking to identify the contributions to Canada that Ireland has made in the past as well as highlighting the contributions Canadians have made more recently to Ireland.

Dr. McKee concluded by paying tribute to General de Chastelain who played such an important role in the Northern Ireland peace process. He then pointed us all to the significance of this “Irish“ window at St. Bart’s and the inspiration that Canada’s story provides Ireland to be “finally at peace with itself and its neighbour.”

At the conclusion of the service, there was a chance for parishioners to meet their guests and to thank them for their participation in the annual service of remembrance.  Little did the parish know that about a week later Dr. McKee would ask to return to discuss the window with Canon Clunie.  At that meeting the Ambassador presented St. Bart’s with a handsome cheque for $40,000 from the Government of Ireland as a contribution to the campaign for the restoration of the Geddes “Ottawa” window!   

In late February 2022, more good news followed, as the Honorable Mona Fortier, MP for Ottawa-Vanier, called with an exciting announcement. Veterans Affairs Canada had approved St. Bart’s application to the Commemorative Partnership Program for a contribution of up to $25,000 to support the costs of restoring the window.  Veterans Affairs also congratulated the parish on its efforts to safeguard a Canadian war memorial from the First World War.

With this support from the governments of Canada and Ireland, together with the generous contribution from Bryan Brulotte, the St. Bart’s Capital Campaign is well and truly launched.  Work on the window is planned for the summer of 2022.  Support from friends of St. Bart’s is still welcome and will help ensure the successful completion of the project.

To make your contribution, please drop your cheque at the parish office, 125 MacKay St., make an etransfer to  stbarts.campaign@gmail.com or donate through Canadahelps.org 

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The Anglican Church of St. Bartholomew at 125 MacKay St. was founded in 1867 and has a long established relationship with Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor General of Canada. The front pew is reserved for the Governor General and family and the colours of the Governor General’s Foot Guards are laid up there in what has come to be known as “The Guard’s Chapel.” The coats of arms of the Governors General are fixed high along both sides of the church. The large stained glass East Window in St Bartholomew’s was commissioned in 1917 by the Duke of Connaught, Canada’s 10th Governor-General, to commemorate the members of his personal staff who died on the battlefields of Belgium and France in the First World War.  Several were in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI).

Titled “The Welcoming of a Slain Warrior by Soldier Saints, Champions and Angels,” the window was designed and made by the Irish stained glass artist, Wilhelmina Geddes (1887-1955), a member of Dublin’s collective stained glass studio, An Tur Gloine.  Geddes worked within the conventions of the Irish Arts and Crafts movement, where every work of art is the creation of a single artist. Geddes’s only commission in North America, the window is now recognised internationally as an exceptional work of memorial art. Themes are drawn from the Arthurian legends, depictions of grieving women, the battle in heaven, and images include the crucifixion and the resurrection. It is known in art circles as the Geddes “Ottawa” Window. “Nowhere in modern glass is there a more striking example of a courageous adventure in the medium.” (C. J. Connich, International Studio, 1924)

This impressive memorial work helped establish Geddes’s considerable reputation as an artist in stained glass. It is the only work of hers to be found outside Britain and continental Europe. After showings in Dublin and London, the window was unveiled at St. Bart’s by Edward, Prince of Wales, at a dedication service on Nov. 9, 1919 while he was in Ottawa to lay the stone of the rebuilt Parliament Buildings. It is now more than 100 years old and has been a popular draw with many visitors during the annual Doors Open Ottawa.

 The Parish of St. Bart’s is fortunate to have this window and is committed to ensure its restoration and continued preservation. Along with other stained glass in the church, this window requires major restoration by expert restorers to ensure it is there for future generations.  Accordingly, the Parish has launched a major capital campaign to raise $250,000 for the expert restoration of the window and additional funds for improvements to the link and parish hall, including upgrades for air quality.

 The portion of the campaign in support of the Geddes “Ottawa” Window has received the gracious support of the Rt. Hon. David Johnston, a former parishioner at St. Bart’s. In addition to launching this capital campaign, the parish is researching and preparing a bilingual documentary to make the history and artistic importance of this stained glass memorial better known in Canada and internationally. 

The restoration work is planned for the summer of 2022. See the memorial window on the visual tour on the website www.stbartsottawa.ca Anyone wishing more information or to support this campaign please contact the church office at 613 745 7834 or stbarts@bellnet.ca or visit the church website.

Photo captions:

 (photo Brian Glenn).

The black and white image is of Wilhelmina Margaret Geddes preparing the Te Deum window for Ypres Cathedral. (photo credit Belfast Telegraph)

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