Celebrating Our Past & Trusting in Our Future
January 25th, 2019
Written by the Chair of the committee, Camille Herbin.
Written by the Chair of the committee, Camille Herbin.

When our committee first gathered in January 2017, what seemed like a far-off vision has now culminated in a successful and rewarding year of celebration! From that very first meeting over 2 years, so many have worked so hard to ensure the wonderful year we have just experienced. We entered 2018 well prepared and already having begun our celebrations with the "Historical Home Tour" showcasing our Rectory and other historical homes in the area. We had already established the sale of the commemorative ornaments and "My Cup Runneth Over" coffee. The newly created 200th Anniversary Banner was hung prominently at the front of the church during a combined service on the 1st Sunday in Advent. The entire congregation shared a pot-luck lunch following the service. This was successfully repeated on the 1st Sunday of Advent this year, as a kind of "wrap-up". The banner will now hole pride of place at the back of the church where other historical artefacts reside.
A very meaningful Evensong service was held on a crisp late afternoon in February. Selections of historical music were chosen to reflect our history, and we showed our appreciation to the choir with a pot-luck supper following. In May we invited our community in to enjoy an evening of music with Swig - at a lively Kitchen Party! Our church windows shone with evening sunset and those within experienced the beauty of our historic church building.
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June 17th brought us what we had planned as the highlight of our year as we celebrated our 200th Anniversary Sunday Service. So many hands had worked for this day, beautifying the church and the grounds, selecting the music and special words for the service, and preparing the food and fun to be had in the rectory gardens on the sunny afternoon afterward. Joyful thanksgiving was truly in the air - it indeed turned out to be more than we could have hoped for!
In July and September we held three "Lamplight Historical Cemetery Tours" and again our community was invited to experience our history in an especially significant year - Wolfville's 125th! This highly successful event would not have been possible without the assistance of Valley Ghost Walks and two grants from the Diocese of Nova Scotia and P.E.I. and the Anglican Church of Canada.
Our yearly British Cream Tea in August and the annual Christmas Coffee Party in November were further enhanced in this special year by being themed in Edwardian decor and dress. Always successful, these events were even more so this year in terms of inviting our community to celebrate this milestone with us on a picture-perfect August afternoon in the Rectory gardens and a sunny early winter morning within our lovely church.
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Likely one of the most significant events of the year was showcased at the Coffee Party. Our Outreach Project "200 Quilts for 200 Babies" was displayed that day, filling the church with colour, and generating a sense of love and hope to all those present. We are very proud of this project, and wishing to maybe inspire other to think of what they might do in their own organisations to help those in need.
Speaking of that - we did have an opportunity to make "helping other" more visual for the congregation by setting up a ribbon tree in November at the back of the church on which up to 200 ribbons were to be placed one-by-one as good deeds were done... I'm not sure how many ribbons were actually tied on, but it served well as a weekly reminder of the mandate "faith in action". |
In closing, it has been my pleasure and privilege to chair this committee and to see our plans come to fruition. I've learned so much and have come to such a greater appreciation of this church and its people. There are so many people to thank - you all know who you are - but I especially want to thank Sandra, our rector, who sat through countless meetings, gave lots of advice through phone calls and emails, and kept encouraging us in all of our endeavours. We have celebrated our past in joy and thankfulness, and know with certainty that we can trust in our future in our beloved St. John's!