laudable Practice

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, laudable Practice turns to an Autumn day in 1820, as - according to an 1851 account of the journey - the Rev'd John West, appointed by the Church Missionary Society, set out for the territory then known as Rupert's Land (now southern Manitoba and parts of eastern Saskatchewan): It was in the autumn of the year 1820 that a little boat of birch-rind might have been seen to leave York Fort, on the western side of Hudson's Bay and after coasting for a while along the shore, enter one of the rivers that flow from the interior. There was nothing in this circumstance to attract the attention of a casual observer - similar boats were continually arriving at, and departing from, the fort during the few bright months of summer and early autumn; this canoe was, as usual, manned by natives, and, as was frequently the case, an European gentleman was sitting at the stern. But if any of God's own people had seen that boat depart, they would have w...

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, laudable Practice shares extracts from A Journal of Visitation in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and along the Eastern Shore of New Brunswick (1843) by Bishop John Inglis (son of Charles). The Journal  provides a quite wonderful insight into how Anglicanism's Reformed Catholic order took root and was nurtured in the Maritimes by the missionary activity of bishops, clergy, and laity. On this Thanksgiving Day, it exemplifies why - not least in light of the profound challenges faced by the Anglican Church of Canada - there is reason to be profoundly thankful for (rather than dismiss, obscure, or forget) the heritage of Canadian Anglicanism. Sunday, May 21. Storm and rain, through which we drove (over a wretched road, with many long and steep hills, and several broken bridges), to the church at Douglas (15 miles). To our surprise the building was well filled by about two hundred persons. The church (St. Peter's) and its burial ground were consecrate...

Over recent years, laudable Practice has marked Canadian Thanksgiving Day by giving thanks for particular aspects of the character of Anglicanism in the True North .  This year, I turn to a sermon preached in 1785 , to a settlement of United Empire Loyalists in Sorel, Quebec, by a cleric - John Doty - who had been an active Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. Doty, born in New York, had received orders in the Church of England in 1770, before serving as rector to two churches in the province of New York.  During the American War he was chaplain to a regular British unit and then to the King's Royal Regiment of New York , a Loyalist unit, many of whose officers and men, with their families, found refuge in Quebec at the conclusion of the war. And it was in Sorel, Quebec, that Doty was to be found at the war's end, conducting divine service for the first time in that settlement on - rather ironically - 4th July 1784. According to a history of Christ Church, Sorel - the c...

On this Canadian Thanksgiving Day, laudable Practice gives thanks for three places which embody the particular gifts and vocation of Canadian Anglicanism. Firstly, St. Paul's, Halifax , Nova Scotia.  It is the oldest Anglican place of worship in Canada, established in 1749.  It became the cathedral for Charles Inglis (whose father was a rector in the Church of Ireland) when he was consecrated Bishop of Nova Scotia in 1787, the first Anglican Cathedral outside the British Isles.  St. Paul's, in other words, is a sign of the enduring presence of Anglicanism in Canada over centuries, of how Anglicanism has become a feature of the landscape, communities, and culture of Canada. The fact that St. Paul's is also the burial place for Inglis  symbolises the historic national and communal vocation of Canadian Anglicanism.  The great Canadian Anglican philosopher George Grant's emphasis on how the Loyalist tradition - of which Inglis was a leading representative - shaped ...