May 21st: Anniversaries Part Three
St. Matthias’ was officially founded as a mission of St. George’s, Place du Canada, in 1873, which means our community is 150 this year! For the next 12 months, we’ll be diving into the archives to shine the spotlight on particularly interesting parts of our history.
Last week, St. Matthias’ celebrated our patronal festival and 150 years of worshipping together! In many ways, our 150th service and parish party were quite different than past anniversary services – both liturgically and in terms of participation – but Matthians who attended anniversaries past would still have had quite a lot they could recognise.
Because we have multiple anniversaries to celebrate – the parish, the new building, and, mostly recently, the organ – we have had many chances to try out celebratory liturgies! But up until the 75th anniversary of the building in 1987, St. Matthias’ was using the same liturgy as for every Sunday’s services from the Book of Common Prayer. Even in 1987, the “family” service from the new Book of Alternative Services did not make use of the celebratory components that the BAS has. In 2010, on the 100th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone, Rev. Ken Near planned a candlelit evening service with a procession (more on that in a future post!), but this 150th anniversary is the first time that Matthians have gotten quite so creative.
In 2023, we are blessed to have resources from around the Anglican Communion at our disposal, both available online and authorised for use in our Diocese, and we are also blessed with a bishop who encourages liturgical experimentation! But 2023 also has another difference from past anniversaries: at this time, St. Matthias’ only offers one service every week. Rather than spreading celebration out over the whole of Sunday, then, we had to concentrate it into one two-hour space. And concentrate we did! Between blessing the building, celebrating a confirmation, and sharing the Eucharist, Rev. Patrick Wheeler and his crack team of liturgy afficionados and layout experts managed to fit quite a lot between 10:30 and 12:30!
Much of the liturgy would have been unrecognisable to Matthians of 1873, or 1912, or even 1987, but there were certainly elements that would have made them feel at home. The Bishop of Montreal’s attendance has been a constant at anniversaries past, and indeed at the opening service of the new building. The presence of multiple clergy in the Diocese, many of whom have served as student assistants, honorary assistants, interim priests, or incumbents at St. Matthias’, would have been a welcome and familiar sight. The glorious music included hymns that were sung on past anniversaries (you really can’t beat “The Church’s One Foundation” for relevance!), and the procession of choir and clergy, wearing vestments that have been part of St. Matthias’ visual identity for so long, would have been recognised by just about any Matthian.
There were differences in participation, too – most notably in that in 2023 we have a technological setup that allows people to participate from their living rooms, their hospital beds, and whole provinces and even continents away. This was the first anniversary at which all members of the parish, regardless of their physical location or state of health, could celebrate together. While we owe this particular innovation to our experience with the COVID-19 pandemic and the expertise of our engineers-in-residence, past Matthians would only be surprised by the form of the technology, not its presence.
Indeed, St. Matthias’ has a long history of using technology to make services more accessible, a history that deserves a deep dive of its own! Suffice it to say here that even Matthians from 1873, after perhaps a bit of shock at all the wires we’re got running everywhere, would immediately understand what it is our remote participation setup is trying to do.
Of course, past parish parties have also looked quite different; 2023 marks the first time that a party was catered for us by an outside organisation. Historically, the Association of Women has been at the heart of all planning, and past Matthians might wonder at how it has evolved over the years, with the Fellowship committee being its present form. But, given a minute to explain, they would likely be delighted at our reasoning.
St. Matthias’ past anniversaries have included building churches for other communities, among other outreach projects, and the Association of Women’s longest-standing gift to the community is the Meals on Wheels program that they began in 1965. Our 150th luncheon was catered by an organisation called Innovation Assistance, whose ministry in Westmount and the downtown core we have been supporting for several years now. Innovation Assistance is a solidarity market that offers low-cost fresh, local produce, food literacy education, and so much more. Catering is one of the ways that they fundraise for their mission, and as part of our party, we were able to send them over $5000. The cost of a market, in produce and staffing, is about $2000. Helping feed young families, low-income seniors, and students on a budget is something the St. Matthias’ of 2023 is proud to continue doing.
We have changed so much, in 150 years. But we are still, above all, a congregation that works hard to bring people together, to feed their physical hunger just as much as their spiritual hunger, to celebrate the rituals of our faith in music and prayer, and to go out into the world, as Matthias did, answering God’s call to serve.