July 16th: A Parish Picnic

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.

Two parish picnics, a decade and a half apart: in 1978, the whole church came out, while 1992 saw a more select crowd of local notables from the Sunday School.

Our archives record mostly notable things: significant donations, important services, matters of canon law procedure, and so on. And those things are central to telling St. Matthias’ story, but they aren’t the whole picture. We are a community that laughs together, cries together, works together, plays together, and, perhaps most importantly, eats together. Of all our 150 years, we have evidence of just two parish picnics in our archives – so, as we picnic together this Sunday, we’ll have to make sure to document the joy that is such an important part of who we are!

These 1978 Picnic photos in our archives correspond to no documents and have no names written on the back – but can you spot any familiar faces lounging in the grass of King George Park?

No picnic is complete without a little competition! Which of these three-legged-race (and some kind of kickball race) teams would you rather compete against?

It is a truth universally acknowledged: if there is a priest at a parish gathering, he will be obliged to cut the cake. Rev. Jack Doidge clearly discharged this duty with relish!

As parish life is not without struggle, so the symbolic Tug-of-War must be enacted to remind everyone that, at the end of the proverbial picnic, we’re all in this together.