Saint Anthony, Whitney

Saint Anthony as patron for this church stands out among Anglican patron saints.  If there is a simple explanation, there may be a more complicated one buried in the mists of local history, possibly based on the early worship traditions of the people meeting within the walls of a church located almost on the street in Whitney village.

In 1896, a mission deputation visited Long Lake (Whitney), Madawaska, Round Lake and Killaloe, expecting new mission work to open on the Ottawa, Atlantic & Parry Sound Railway (built by Ottawa lumber baron, J.R. Booth, to ship timber to the northeastern U.S.).  That new work encompassed new work already started at Whitney by George Field, a student of Trinity College.  In 1897, Whitney became part of the Mission of Douglas & Stations Along the O.A. & P.S. Railway. In 1898, the Synod of Ottawa placed a resident missionary at Killaloe, to take services at Tramore, Golden Lake, Whitney, Gillmour and Madawaska.

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In 1899, the Mission of Killaloe was established—a five-point mission served in summer by a theological student. In 1908, it was divided into three separate missions: Killaloe, Madawaska and Whitney. Whitney, briefly was a single point mission, but in 1909 the amalgamated Mission of Killaloe, Madawaska and Whitney was created.

In 1911, the congregation is first called Saint Anthony’s Mission, Whitney—a name taken from the Saint Anthony Lumber Company, a major employer.  It may have been chosen because it did not sound as if it was exclusively Anglican, or Methodist, or Presbyterian, thus favouring none of the worship traditions meeting within its walls.

In 1919, Bishop Roper cancelled winter worship at Whitney, with services held instead only once a month from June to April. In 1923, the Synod Journal refers to Whitney as the “Union Church Building” and not as Saint Anthony’s.  On 25 June 1925, local Methodists and Presbyterians amalgamated to become a congregation of the United Church of Canada.

At this point the chronology becomes confused. On the one hand, the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests issued a title deed jointed to the churches of the United Church, called Saint Andrew’s Church. The province declared that the Union Church in which Anglicans formerly had worshipped could not have Anglicans appointed as trustees for the property as there was no Anglican available to fill that role.

On the other hand, the record shows the Anglican Mission of Madawaska was vacant in the early 1930s, ministered to by Church Army personnel.  By 1955, Saint Anthony’s, Whitney was attached to Combermere parish, but they still worshipped in the Union Church which Anglicans called Saint Anthony’s Church, while United Church people called it Saint Andrew’s. 

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