Church of the Epiphany, Barry’s Bay — Deanery of the Northwest

Here is Church of the Epiphany, Barry’s Bay, photographed by Brian Glenn on 23 June 2010.  It appears rather unusual for an Anglican house of worship.  The reason it looks the way it does is explained by Leonard Johnson: “Volunteer labour, and a fair portion of it given by adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, built all four Anglican churches in the Parish of Combermere, surely one of the most rugged and extensive [landscapes] in the Diocese.”

The history of the Church of the Epiphany goes back some generations to 1898 when the potential for growth at Barry’s Bay on the Opeongo Road was first noted in the Diocese of Ottawa Synod Journal. It seemed to be an idea whose time had come, for the following year, Barry’s Bay was made an outstation in the Mission of Combermere. In 1901, Barry’s Bay was transferred to the Mission of Killaloe.

It is one thing to call a church into existence, but, to paraphrase Shakespeare, when you call it, will it come? In other words, will it be sustained? From 1907 to 1911, Barry’s Bay was not listed in the Synod Journal, but in that latter year an Anglican congregation began to be listed at Barry’s Bay, as part of the Parish of Combermere.

Part of the early difficulties of Anglicanism at Barry’s Bay was having no house of worship. In this regard there is an inconsistent narrative. On the one hand, the 1949 Synod Journal notes that Anglican services were held in the United Church in the village. On the other hand, another source indicates that prior to 1955, the United Church pulled out of the vicinity when most of the Madawaska valley was flooded in 1942.

What seems to have happened is that local Anglicans purchased the United Church property in 1955, and the main building we see here was constructed, complete with a very steeply pitched roof.  Its placement above a parish hall in the basement meant that parishioners had to climb at least twelve steps if they wished to attend church.

The challenges of life and ministry in the Barry’s Bay area were well summarized by the Rev. Stephen Kenward in the mid-1950s: “The district is one of hills, lakes, rivers and woods, country never intended for farming and, where it is done, farmers depend more on the woods than on farm produce. The tourist industry is the main support of the people of this whole area.”

“I have six congregations, plus Algonquin Park in the tourist season. Centreview and Bell’s Rapids services are held in their school houses,” Kenward stated. “(In addition to St. Paul’s at Combermere, the other churches are: Union Church, Barry’s Bay; Holy Trinity, Madawaska, and Saint Anthony’s in Whitney.”

The first services within the walls of the new Church of the Epiphany, Barry’s Bay, were held on Christmas Eve, 1957. Three years later, the Church of the Epiphany was dedicated by Bishop Ernest S. Reed of Ottawa on 6 July 1960. The sparse record fails to record when the new entryway covered with a veneer of stone and fronted by a striking yellow ochre door was built.

A house to serve as a new rectory was purchased in Barry’s Bay for the Parish of Combermere in 1998, and the old rectory was thereafter demolished.

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