A parish as big as a state

Sunday, 12 September 2010 00:00

September 11, 1891. A young Anglican missionary, 14 months out from England, talks to a Regina Standard reporter about the challenges of his parish, a prairie wilderness that extends from Calgary to the American border.

"My parish is 100 miles long and forty miles wide, and at least once a year I am expected to visit every person in it," he says in the interview. "It is a pretty hard life, and sometimes I wish I were in old England again."

Under a broad-brimmed, black felt hat, he spends much of his time in his saddle, visiting his few parishioners. He lives alone in a one-room shack with a leaky roof and dines largely on tinned meat. "Sometimes a hunter or an Indian gives me a bit of game, which is quite a treat."

Few of the settlers in his big parish are Anglicans. "I often travel 10 miles to keep an appointment to preach, and not a soul comes out. Two weeks ago I travelled 18 miles, and only two men came to the meeting house. They said that as no one else had come it wasn't worth while for me to preach, and so they went away." His biggest audience was 100 people for a funeral. He had hoped to supplement his $500 a year salary with wedding fees, but had no yet had a wedding to perform.

Still, he was determined to stick it out, hopeful of better times to come.

"Ranchmen are coming into the country, and its population before many years will be much greater than it is now. I shall not then pine, as I do now, for human society, and as I get better acquainted and little churches are started, my list of friends will increase, and I shall find missionary work more pleasant."