Parish life continues without a building

Looking at my last post, about Kashechewan, anyone reading it may well wonder if the parish got the trailers. Well, no, but also yes. Meeting with wardens and vestry, the parish declared that they wanted to try and bring in two 14 x 70 foot trailers on the winter road. But the cost of such trailers, to get them to Kash on the winter road, was prohibitive, and especially in such a short time line. (The winter road would only last until sometime in March, and the trailers would have to be specially manufactured. And they would have to be paid for -about $200,000.00, before they would be transported to the community.) In order to set up the trailers and to have them at building code standards, in Kash, might cost as much as a further $200,000.00 Some of that cost might be reduced by volunteer labour, but still a tall task.

The Kashechewan First Nation, however, are giving to the parish, to renovate for a church building, a doublewide trailer unit which is just across the road from the old church. It was originally used as a youth centre. While being used as a storage facility for some building materials, it caught fire. But at the time of the fire there was some firefighter training actually going on at that very moment in Kash. Hence the firefighter trainees had a real life situation to work on. The building was saved - one of the firefighter trainees told me the story, proudly declaring that it was the first building ever saved from fire destruction in Kash.

The exterior of the building is completely untouched by fire damage. The inside is partially burned, with much smoke damage. A construction company working in Kash has now given an estimate for the renovation of the building for use as a church -volunteer labour will be used as much as possible -and some materials can be salvaged from the old church building. I just received the estimate this week. Also there is a solid possibility of a building being purchased and renovated for use as a rectory, that is very close to the trailer unit, and the old church building.

The last services in the old church building were on April 1, which included a confirmation service and a deconsecration of the building. Archbishop Caleb Lawrence led the services. That day was the beginning of Holy Week. Good Friday there was a Morning Prayer service in a building which is used as a classroom by Northern College. The service was led by Lay Reader Sinclair Williams, who actually constructed that particular building himself and owns the building. The building will hold only about 30 people when they are crammed in. But this works for small services. Easter Day services were held in the Highschool Gymn.

My first visit to the community since the closing of the old church was May 17-20. The day of my arrival I was able to celebrate Eucharist for a handful of people in the Northern College classroom. (This day was also Ascension Day.) The service was followed by a short meeting to continue discussions about work done for new church buildings. On Saturday I was able to hold a Select Vestry meeting in the classroom, as well as 2 pre-baptism classes. On Sunday morning the baptism-communion service took place in the highschool gymn. There were eleven baptized - all of them babies. Sunday afternoon I joined in leading a first children's Sunday School class in the basement of one parish family home. Following the Sunday School I had to depart on a flight for Moosonee. Sunday evening there was another service in the Highschool Gymn, led by the Parish Lay Readers and the St. Paul's Gospel Band.

Meanwhile there is a ladies' weekly house fellowship group, which has been going for years. The functioning of this group was unaffected by the closing of the old church building.