St. Mary the Virgin Parish (Sapperton, New Westminster, B.C.)

Identity area

Type of entity

Corporate body

Authorized form of name

St. Mary the Virgin Parish (Sapperton, New Westminster, B.C.)

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Other form(s) of name

  • St. Mary's, Sapperton

Identifiers for corporate bodies

Description area

Dates of existence

1863-

History

This parish developed in the early 1860's around the community of Royal Engineers and Sappers, the "Sapper's Town", who had come to the colony of British Columbia in 1859. Services were held in a portion of the barracks until 1863. Prior to the disbanding of the Royal Engineers and Sappers in the summer of 1863, the church was designed by Lieutenant J.C. White and built under contract by D. Richards, a former Sapper. The consecration of the church, named St. Mary the Virgin, was performed by Bishop Hills in 1865. When government officials moved to Victoria, the parish lost a large part of the congregation. In 1879 the Diocese of New Westminster was formed. Its first Bishop, A. W. Sillitoe, arrived at Sapperton in June 1880. He and his wife occupied the rectory which he renovated and renamed St. Mary's Mount. With this event St. Mary's took on a new lease of life. The parish began a mission in the Burquitlam area in the early 1910's which developed into St. Stephen's, Burnaby. During the period of World War One, 83 men from St. Mary's Parish enrolled for service, of whom 13 paid the supreme sacrifice. As a memorial to their sacrifice, money were raised and a pipe organ was dedicated at a memorable service in 1922. The congregation increased after 1921. It was found necessary to preserve the old buildings from decay and also to provide more room for the parishioners. A complete restoration and enlargement of the church was made between 1921 and 1922. In 1927 decision was made to build a new vicarage. Early in 1928 the building was finished and occupied, thus completing the church buildings required to carry on the church's work. On December 1932 a disastrous fire gutted the whole interior of the church. The restoration work started immediately; the work was finished in 1933 when a special Restoration Service was held . Parish life continued through the hard years of the depression. After the Second World War the number of the parishioners grew steadily. In 1953 St. Mary's separated from St. Stephen's, Burnaby, and became an independent parish. Improvements were made to the church building, as well as the formation of new parish groups. In 1955 the decision was made to build a new Parish Hall. This event became another milestone in the life of St. Mary's which became the first Anglican church in the west to organize its own money raising campaign from the ground up. After the new Parish Hall had been completed in 1959, it was discovered that the foundations of the old church were in imminent danger of collapsing. Renovation work was started in June 1959 and the congregation was back in the restored church by September the same year. Work on the church was done carefully with an eye to preserving it as a historic landmark. It is the oldest church building in New Westminster. In the early days it was called the "church in the woods", nowadays it sits at the busy city's crossroads. Despite the many mishaps St. Mary's building went through, the character of the historic church of the first pioneers has been preserved. The special pew of His Excellency Lieutenant - Governor Seymour, who was in residence at Sapperton and was one of the earliest worshipers at St. Mary's, is preserved to this day. It occupies the same position in the nave as it did more than one century ago, and it is marked with a memorial tablet.

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Authority record identifier

A-356

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