Ikeda’s pilgrimage began in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto on July 15, with the route to Montreal to head north at Morrisburg, allowing a prayer for peace at the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa before heading eastward to Montreal.

Ikeda is a monk in the Nipponzan Myōhōji, a Japanese Buddhist movement known for its commitment to pacificism and social action, which was founded in 1917 by monk Nichidatsu Fujii. Nipponzan Myōhōji members embark on walks for human rights, nuclear disarmament and peace internationally.

Lewis explained he received an email from one of the supporters of the Walk for Peace in Canada, requesting accommodation for the monk in Morrisburg on July 31.  After explaining to the organizer that it was not possible for Ikeda to spend the night in church, Lewis invited him to overnight at his home in Iroquois, Ont.

Following Ikeda’s arrival in Iroquois, the evening was spent with Lewis, his wife Wendy and some invited guests, before walking to Morrisburg along Lakeshore Drive on Aug. 1.  Along this route, he met and spoke with some people and after arriving in this small South Dundas community was met at St. James by Lewis, toured the church, and they had lunch together.

Ikeda spent the night of Aug. 1 in Winchester and continued on to Vernon, Ontario where he stopped at the Ottawa Amitabha Buddhist Society of Canada’s temple on his way into the city. On Aug. 5, he prayed for peace on Parliament Hill. He also attended a Remembrance Lantern Ceremony on Aug. 6, the date in 1945 when the first atomic weapon was detonated over Hiroshima, Japan.  He then continued his pilgrimage eastward and arrived in Montreal on August 14.  After spending some time in Montreal, he planned to fly to Tokyo to visit family before returning to his monastery in India.

In an interview after Ikeda’s visit, Lewis described him as being very kind, humble and helpful. He observed that there seems to be an aura of peace and joy surrounding the monk.

While on the pilgrimage, Ikeda carries what he owns in a knapsack on his back as well as a drum which he beats with a stick as well as a paper and pen to record his experiences.  While walking the monk drums and chants, and he described it to Lewis as walking in a meditative state.  It is the wish of Ikeda to meet people in their “natural” state, and this is why he does not make arrangements for accommodation or other necessities in advance of his arrival in a specific location, although he does have assistance from friends supporting his walk who find contacts as they did with Lewis.

Arlene Armstrong, a resident of Iroquois and member of the Anglican Parish of North Dundas at St. Clare’s, met Ikeda at the home of Reverend Lewis. She described him as a very humble and peaceful man. “It was an honour to meet Ikeda,” she said. “He is a kind person and an ambassador for peace.”

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Morrisburg was already named for the Honourable James Morris when this site was purchased from James and Louisa Hodges in 1856. The cornerstone for the first Saint James’s Church was laid in July 1856 by the Reverend John Travers Lewis of Hawkesbury. The completed house of worship was opened for Divine Service on 6 January 1859. We have no idea as to what the first church looked like, except that it appears to have had no bell tower.

From 1862 to 1866, Morrisburg was a single-point parish. In 1866, it joined with the Parish of Williamsburg, which included the congregation of the mother church, Holy Trinity, Williamsburg, what was known as the German Mission (briefly in 1874 and 1875) and, improbably, churches at Adolphustown and Fredericksburg (also briefly in 1875 and 1876).  What possible connection, it may be asked, could Adolphustown and Fredericksburg on the Bay of Quinte have with Morrisburg? Two, it turned out. First, at a time when there was a severe shortage of clergy, these four points were readily travelled between on the Saint Lawrence River, despite the distance separating them, especially as steamboat lines and railways offered free passes to clergy. Second, all these churches were part of the then Diocese of Ontario.

The want of a bell tower was felt after the passing of a generation, and the lofty tower we see here was added to the 1856 church in 1878. It is reputed to have been designed by Isaac Johnston, a Black architect who designed a number of churches in the region including the United Church at Williamsburg. Placing Saint James’s tower to one side, with its entrance facing away from the church suggests that Johnston hoped to give Saint James’s an Akron style plan. If so, he was doomed to be disappointed. For the time being, parish resources were devoted to building a stone rectory next door in 1883 in anticipation of Morrisburg again becoming a single-point parish in 1887.

In 1893, the parish decided that a much larger church was needed to provide room for a growing congregation. If they were not prepared to demolish the handsome tower built only fourteen years earlier, at the same time they did not see the Akron-style plan of church favoured by Isaac Johnston as being appropriate for Anglican worship. The result was to leave Johnston’s 1878 bell tower standing, to demolish the 1856 church, and to have the Excelsior Lodge of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons lay the cornerstone for a much more ambitious house of worship in a more correct style suitable to the Anglican liturgy.

Correct? On the outside, maybe. The new Saint James’s Church, Morrisburg was consecrated by Bishop Lewis on 18 April 1894. The new church took its cue from the windows of the upper tower, placing narrow paired windows along the length of the nave, which together with the rose window in the west wall once they were filled with stained glass, plunged the large interior into late Victorian gloom. Some purists were relieved that this hid the pendants hanging from the ceiling.  The remarkable stencilling on the walls was restored in 1983.

The Diocesan Archives collects parish registers, vestry reports, service registers, minutes of groups and committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters and unusual documents.   

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