The Harvie Family

by Robin Harvie

RECOLLECTIONS OF YEARS AT ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CHURCH, COCHRANE, ALBERTA — 1963 TO 2004

In 1963 I endeavored to find an Anglican church closer to our home on Glenbow Ranch, east of Cochrane.

We had attended St. Andrews in Calgary, but Cochrane was becoming our centre as the children would be attending school in Cochrane.

I talked to Edie Robinson, a neighbor and friend, and as she was the organist at All Saints, she was able to tell me about the services and Rev. Tom Wright who came from Canmore.

Pauli was 7, Tim 6, Carol 4, and Katie 1, and they all attended Sunday School when they were old enough.

Early in 1964, through the efforts of Mrs. Margaret Leith, an Altar Guild was established. Prior to that, some of the ladies of the Guild had looked after changing hangings and preparing the Eucharist.

The first thing that the Altar Guild did was to sew and embroider new linens. We met regularly, followed an Altar Guild manual closely, and spent many hours learning how to sew and then prepare the Eucharist properly.

Mrs. Leith's husband, Herman, built a beautiful altar to replace the wooden framework that had served as an altar previously. The frontals had been attached to that by thumb tacks, one on top of the other.

Gradually, we replaced the old hangings with new ones, ordering brocades by the yard from Dominion Regalia in Toronto.

In 1966, following Rev. Wright's retirement, Rev. Douglas Blackwell and his wife Sandra joined us full time, and were the first residents of the rectory which we had just purchased. Sandra had learned to do ecclesiastical embroidery while at St. Stephen's in Calgary.

Under her instruction, we sewed by hand new red dossal curtains, superfrontal, antependia, and veil— all embroidered by hand.

Confirmations — All performed by Bishop Morse Goodman:

Weddings

Baptisms

The ladies at St. Stephen's were kind enough to give us a set or green hangings which they no longer used because of Sandra's connection with them. Later. when we made our own hangings, we used appliques instead of hand embroidering which took a great deal of time. Jean Blackwell and I undertook to cut the green brocade we had ordered into the required pieces for sewing. I remember us measuring and measuring and measuring again, and finally cutting. To our horror, we somehow cut the dossal curtains too short (the brocade is very expensive, and we had little money). After we recovered from our panic, we tried to think of a solution. We decided to make loops at the top for the rod to run through, and we sewed 2 inch wide embroidered ribbon on to each one as well as adding the ribbon across the lower part of the curtain. It turned out very well, solved the problem, and they were much admired. What a relief!

When the Leiths moved to Calgary in 1967, I became the Directress (that's what it was called) of the group.

I remember our ACW work bees, often at Molly Broatch's, where we made crafts for Christmas Bake Sale and Bazaar. For several years, we made 'Starbursts' out of computer cards, spraypainting them in red, gold. or silver, and fastening a bow in the centre. Also, we made hotmats from folded cigarette packages - gold from Rothmans, and red from DuMaurier.

ACW held a Bedding Plant Sale on the grass area south of the church for a few years. Jo Hutchinson contributed many plants she started herself. Kay Welham, Jean Blackwell and I, who each had a station wagon, purchased plants at a greenhouse in Calgary that we sold at our sale. Mrs. Lewis set up her truck and camper in the yard, and served tea and coffee and goodies to the customers. This was before we had water in the church.

In 1992 I retired from Altar Guild. Jean Blackwell had retired as Directress in 1989, and I had taken it on for two years.

In the years since then, I have served on many committees—building, space, finance, selection— and continued as a member of the ACW. I served on Vestry for many years in two separate terms, and from 1982—86 I was Rector's Warden for Bishop Ford.