St. Oswald, Port Kells, renovates church, graveyard

St. Oswald's in Port Kells was honoured that Bishop Michael Ingham made an official visit last month, and came early and joined in 9 o'clock bible study. He participated in a good discussion with the members present.

Following the service there was a dedication of the new Ciborium (a goblet-shaped vessel for holding eucharistic bread), the traveling communion set to sick parishioners, the extensions to St. Oswald's Church and church hall, the graves in the cemetery that had been repaired, and the new memorial garden for the receipt of ashes.

A full congregation was present including relations of various former members who have been buried in the cemetery.

Plans were drawn up in 1992 to extend the church at 9566-190 Street, Surrey,by 18 feet and the hall by 21 feet. Construction started in July 1993 to extend the church and hall.

To maintain the continuity of the original architecture, the front wall of the church was moved westward 18 feet and the exposed gap was then filled in to match very carefully the original building. A new cedar roof was put on the church resulting in the look of a new building - or the same old original church that had somehow grown.

Five new pews were created by Ken Hoffman, one of the parishioners, to match the old pews and a completely new set of twelve hanging brass chandeliers provided a very picturesque effect to the interior of the church. The construction was completed in spring of 2004.

A Cemetery Beautification Program was undertaken in 2003 to repair the damage done to the pioneer graves by underground springs that had run under the cemetery. An article was placed in local newspapers naming 40 graves on which we required further information in order to trace unmarked graves.

Three grand-daughters of one person in an unmarked grave telephoned separately to say that D.E. Welcher was their grandfather who died in 1942. He had been Reeve of the Coquitlam then later retired to a small farm in Port Kells. The City of Coquitlam very kindly joined them in placing a plaque on the grave in his memory.

Another answer to the article was a phone call from May Serena who said that the grave marked with the name "Christian" was her mother's, who died in 1931 when she was eight years old. She had lost track of her mother's burial spot but knew she had died in Surrey and had been looking for her throughout the municipality. The family has now placed a plaque on Lily Christian's grave.

St. Oswald's Anglican Church, in its small way, has endeavoured to honour these and several pioneers to the area.