As part of our Black History Month celebrations, St. Thomas the Apostle Anglican Church in Ottawa welcomed the London Trio Plus Ensemble to perform a concert in our sanctuary. In the afternoon of Feb. 8, we were blessed by the powerful vocals and beautiful harmonies of this group as they shared spirituals and gospel songs.

The original three London sisters who formed the group, The London Trio, added family members and friends to create the “Plus.” It was a truly special afternoon where the audience swayed and clapped in time to the music. We were also invited to stand and join in singing ‘Lift Every Voice’ and ‘Siyahamba (We Are Marching)’.

Other ways of marking Black History Month included guest speakers and a book study on Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley which will continue through Lent. We are grateful to the Black History Month Committee led by Dr. Joy Mighty for planning this, and the many other events we held throughout the month of February. — The Rev. Maria Nightingale

(Thanks to the Rev. Maria Nightingale for sharing these great photos!)

St. John the Evangelist: Drumming, singing, dancing and joy

On Feb. 15, St. John the Evangelist in downtown Ottawa hosted a Black History Celebration. The church was filled with drumming, singing, dancing and joy. Special thanks to Petr Maur for sharing these wonderful photos.

The Rev. Canon Gary van der Meer shared a view of the celebration in the weekly parish newsletter, thanking all the talented guests and people who brought the celebration together:

• Batimbo Percussion Drums! They love to be booked for events!
• Singers and Dancers: Valentine, Giselle, Cynthia, Ciella, Francine
• Our organizers: Deborah Nasasira, Clementine Mahirwe, Nick Busch

St. Mark’s: Food for thought, fun and fellowship

St. Mark’s has rich traditions for observing Black History Month, including inviting inspiring guests to speak at Sunday worship services. This year’s speakers — Sophia Chiboka, Rawlson King and Yolanda Parsons — shared reflections on the theme: “Honouring the Past, Empowering the Present, Inspiring the Future.” Parishioners and guests also celebrate by gathering for a fabulous potluck lunch that features flavours from African and Caribbean cultures. The Rev. Mary-Cate Garden celebrated her first Black History Month as incumbent of St. Mark’s and helped cut the cake (see photo gallery.)

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The Ven. Rhonda Waters reflects on time for Advent.

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Timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of that horrific history, the subject’s relevance was underlined as the U.S. and Russia, which both possess nuclear arsenals, engaged in armed conflict. The exhibit was organized by Ban the Bomb Ottawa (BtBO) and the United Nations in Canada’s National Capital Region Branch [UNA-Canada (NCR Branch)]. BtBO is a group of individuals from faith-based, nongovernmental and local community organizations and groups working for peace and nuclear disarmament. Debbie Grisdale, a parishioner at Church of the Ascension in Ottawa, is a member and played a key role in organizing the exhibit.

Grisdale explained that the posters were donated by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, thanks to the intervention of Setsuko Thurlow, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima as a 13-year-old schoolgirl and later immigrated to Canada where she has worked tirelessly for the abolition of nuclear weapons with several organizations including Voices of Women, the Canadian Council of Churches and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

She thanked the Rev. Canon Gary van der Meer, incumbent at St. John’s for opening the church doors to the exhibit.

Van der Meer said that when she first asked about using the church as a space for the exhibit, he thought, “This aligns with what I hope will happen at St. John’s, which is we will take very seriously that we pray for peace because we are surrounded by non-peace in our news, in our streets…. So I like very much that we have these posters in here, and that they remind us not just of the sacrifice and the loss, but of the calling for peace.”

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Leading up to the anniversary of those events, St. John the Evangelist, Ottawa, will host an exhibition of 35 posters that tell the story of the bombings and depict the death and devastation suffered by the citizens of those cities.

The exhibit, which will be held at the church from May 23 to May 30, is being organized by Ban the Bomb Ottawa (BtBO) and the United Nations in Canada’s National Capital Region Branch [UNA-Canada (NCR Branch)]. BtBO is a group of individuals from faith-based, nongovernmental and local community organizations and groups working for peace and nuclear disarmament.

Debbie Grisdale, a parishioner at Church of the Ascension in Ottawa, is a member and is working on organizing the exhibit. “

“I have been involved for decades in peace and nuclear disarmament efforts – both as staff and as an activist. BtBO, of which I am a member, annually hosts the commemoration of the anniversaries in August. That ceremony, held along the Rideau Canal, includes the Japanese tradition of setting paper lanterns afloat, symbolizing the guiding of souls of those who have left the physical world and now exist spiritually,” she explained.

“Our hope with this exhibition is that, in addition to commemorating this important anniversary, visiting school groups and the public will learn about the devastating humanitarian and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons and will become aware of civil society’s efforts for a nuclear weapon-free world. It seems like this is more urgent than ever. We are grateful to St John’s for their willingness to host the exhibition,” she added.

The Rev. Canon Gary van der Meer, St. John the Evangelist’s incumbent, said, ‘When we learned about the Hiroshima exhibit, we felt it aligned with St John’s ministry and deep roots in Jesus’ words “Blessed are the peacemakers.” The exhibit will be mounted in the Warriors Chapel, recently enclosed as a separate space from the chancel and nave as part of this past year’s renovations. In the chapel, the Hiroshima posters will be juxtaposed with the chapel’s prominent monuments and names of the fallen from the two World Wars for a shared story about the cost of war and continued work for peace. We look forward to welcoming visitors for an immersive experience in remembering and peacemaking.”

The posters were donated by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, thanks to the intervention of Setsuko Thurlow, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima as a 13-year-old schoolgirl and later immigrated to Canada where she has worked tirelessly for the abolition of nuclear weapons with several organizations including Voices of Women, the Canadian Council of Churches and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

In cooperation with Carleton University’s Centre for Public History Several additional posters have been developed to depict Canada’s relationship with nuclear weapons past and present, the current status of nuclear arsenals world-wide, local activism for nuclear disarmament and the history of workers involved and exposed to radioactive material during the production of nuclear weapons.

Ottawa City Council has also approved a plan for the exhibit go up in City Hall in August, and organizers are also discussing possibilities for it to be displayed at St. Basil’s Roman Catholic Church in September and Carleton University this fall.

For information about the exhibition, please email: 80thcommemoration@gmail.com

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“A medicine walk is slow and reflective, an act of respectful noticing, with teachings about plants, animals, and how everything fits together,” the Rev. Canon Gary van der Meer, Incumbent at St. John’s explained, sharing photos on the parish Facebook page.

He thanked Grandmother Louella for a beautiful and memorable experience and shared these photos from the walk in the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People with Perspective.

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What captures our attention is the stone church in the foreground. This building was put up by Christ’s Church in 1860 as the parish schoolhouse and to serve as a chapel of ease for Anglicans in Lower Town who might otherwise be put off travelling some distance to attend the parish church at the western end of Sparks Street. It is difficult not to see this building as a transparent attempt by Christ’s Church to keep the city as one large Anglican parish, and to prevent any number of city churches emerging as separate parishes. What a hope.

The Chapel of Ease as it widely came to be known also was referred to as the Bishop’s Chapel when Bishop John Travers Lewis and his family came to Ottawa to reside, as Ottawa he found, for a time, to be more congenial than his see city of Kingston. Given the acute clergy shortage at the time, Lewis acted as Incumbent in this house of worship, which increasingly came to regard itself as a parish church quite separate from the Christ’s Church congregation.

From the perspective of Christ’s Church, it was frustrating to have the Bishop acting as rector of the parish’s chapel of ease, but it was even more embarrassing to read in the public prints that the architecture of the Chapel of Ease was considered by arbiters of taste as more advanced than that of the older parish church on Sparks Street.

Not advanced enough for Bishop Lewis, apparently. He had dreams of tearing down this house of worship and building a national cathedral on this site, just down the street, so to speak, from the spires of Parliament Hill. As the people attending worship here struggled into existence as the Parish of Saint John the Evangelist, there was the embarrassing scenario of Christ’s Church, Saint John the Evangelist, the new Saint Alban’s Church in Sandy Hill and Bishop Lewis all squabbling to claim a share of the value of this property.

That was all ahead in the future. In the 1860s, the Chapel of Ease was regarded as the foremost example of ecclesiastical architecture in Ottawa. As the major concentration of Ottawa inhabitants resided in the Lower Town, it is hardly surprising that ere another twenty years passed, an even more ambitious Gothic Revival wing was built extending from the south wall of this house of worship.

Surviving photographs show that interior arrangements were unusual. In contrast to what one might expect in an advanced example of Gothic Revival design, old photographs show that the altar was not located in the east end, but rather in a small transept on the north wall opposite the one we see here midway along the south wall. Unlike Roman Catholics in the pews of Notre Dame and people at Saint Alban’s and Saint Bartholomew’s who faced east during worship, Anglicans in the chapel of ease faced north, whereas members of Christ’s Church uptown faced south. We note a modest entrance into the church upstairs near the north end of the west wall, but very likely there were other entrances as well.

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