Saint James, Perth Lanark Deanery

despite its new look, it conformed to the old siting, together with Saint Andrew’s Church of Scotland flanking the courthouse—the supreme symbol of the Crown, certainly power, where justice was meted out and where the county council met.

By the time this engraving was made, the Church of Ireland was dis-established and the Church of Scotland in Canada had been rolled into the larger union of all Presbyterian churches. Even the traditional visual symbol of being an “established church”—a church tower—which in the British Isles only the three established churches had been allowed to build, was missing from the fabric of Saint

Feeding the multitudes

BY BOB WEAGANT

The Gospel of John reports that Jesus fed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish. We have all been told of that miracle, but is it relevant in our current time?

The congregation of St Clare’s Anglican Church thinks that it may be. Our church in Winchester, Ontario, south of Ottawa, has a three-acre parcel of land next to the building that has been planted in crops each year in support of the Canada Food Grains Bank (CFGB). The bank reports that 828 million people experience hunger on a daily basis.

Our three-acre parcel was planted muddied here, but placing the main entrance at the centre of the west wall was a holdover from the Regency Gothic Revival and was retained from Thomas’s original design, apparently because it already had been built and paid for.

In Fuller & Jones’s pared down design, the front façade was barely twice the height of the doorway arch. The simple pointed archway of the main doors and the great west window above it with its leaded diamond panes were left as the main features of the Drummond Street front.

The large base for the tower was a declaration that, if built, it might become a visual signpost not only for the church but for Perth itself from miles away. The temporary roof on the tower base shown here has a Château or even French Second Empire feel to it; in being mixed with the Gothic Revival details, a mix that proclaims it was authored by two men combining English Gothic and French Second Empire in their design for the Canadian parliament. in corn in the spring by volunteer farmers, seed, fertilizer and other inputs were donated by local industry and the harvest was done at the end of November by another local farmer.

The Diocesan Archives collects parish registers vestry reports, service registers, minutes of groups and committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters, and unusual records.

The yield was recorded as 14 tonnes and by my calculations, which are mere guestimates, that would provide upwards of 628,000 meals.

Fourteen tonnes equals 31,240 pounds of corn. If corn is ground to flour, then each pound will produce approximately four corn tortillas for a total of 125,680 meals. The wonder of the Food Grains bank is that they have industry and government agencies that match the production by four times. So according to my math, that means our 3 acres provided food for 628,400 meals.

We can feed the multitudes! Are you doing your part? You can help by donating to the Canadian Food Grains Bank at www.foodgrainsbank.ca

— Bob Weagant is a member of St Clare’s Church, Winchester, Ontario.