150th anniversaries coming in 2009 for two parishes

The diocese's two oldest parishes will be celebrating their 150th anniversaries this year - Holy Trinity Cathedral in New Westminster, and St. John the Divine, Maple Ridge.

Both were parishes established before the Diocese of New Westminster, which came along 20 years later when the original Diocese of British Columbia was split. The Diocese of BC now encompasses only Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

St. John's, Maple Ridge

St. John's has had a colourful history, having been erected in three different places-once in Derby (near Fort Langley), and in two locations in Maple Ridge.

It is the oldest wooden church surviving in British Columbia. It did not have an auspicious beginning. About a year after it was built, Queen Victoria decided New Westminster would be the capital of the new Colony of British Columbia. St. John's became redundant, and its pioneer rector, the Rev. William Burton Crickmer left to serve at Yale, up the Fraser River.

But it had been built of strong California redwood (British Columbia had no large sawmills at the time of construction), and the building survived. In 1882, when a church was needed in Maple Ridge, it was disassembled and floated across the Fraser River.

One hundred years later it was moved again within Maple Ridge to rest at its current location on a concrete foundation at River Road and Laity.

The Rev. Charles Balfour and the church wardens have announced that on Saturday, May 2, there will be an open house with tea and etceteras provided from 10 am to 4 pm. On Sunday, May 3, a special service will celebrate the first church service of St. John's in Derby by the Rev. Crickmer in 1859.

Holy Trinity Cathedral

In New Westminster, Holy Trinity Cathedral's 150th anniversary coincides with the city's, and joint events are planned, including a possible visit by a member of the royal family, perhaps in June. New Westminster is nicknamed the "Royal City" because Queen Victoria named it.

Archdeacon John Bailey, rector, said that the main celebrations, yet to be definitely scheduled, will take place in September. It was on September 2, 1859, that the Rev. John Sheepshanks held the parish's first service in the New Westminster Custom House. The first Holy Trinity was dedicated in 1860, only to burn down five years later.

Holy Trinity became the Cathedral of the Diocese of New Westminster in 1892. This building was also ravaged by fire in 1898 which wiped out the greater part of New Westminster. The building is a reconstruction of the second church, the walls and foundations of which were found to be sufficiently strong to be reused.

This Cathedral was the Cathedral Church of the Diocese until 1929 when Archbishop de Pencier designated Christ Church in Vancouver as his cathedral. The parish of Holy Trinity was bitterly disappointed, but did receive the right to the title of cathedral in perpetuity.