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“This church acknowledges being on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, the Iroquoian-speaking Wendat, and the 1923 Williams Treaties First Nations.”

As First Peoples have done since time immemorial, we strive to be responsible stewards of the land and to respect the cultures, ceremonies, and traditions of all who call it home. As we open our hearts and minds to the past, we commit ourselves to working in a spirit of truth and reconciliation to make a better future for all.

At the opening of our Sunday worship on June 18 2017, Cecile Wagar, Senator of the Oshawa and Durham Region Metis Council, led the congregation in a ceremony to dedicate a stone and plaque that acknowledges the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, the Iroquoian-speaking Wendat, and the 1923 Williams Treaties First Nations as the traditional owners of the land on which the church now stands and has done for more than 150 years. The Indigenous lands marker is a symbol of All Saints’ ongoing commitment to pursuing truth, justice, reconciliation and healing for the children of God.

The All Our Relations Metis Drum Circle provided drumming and spiritual music of First Nations and Metis heritage, and the congregation processed to the front lawn and formed a circle around the stone marker for a smudging and blessing ceremony. The smudging feather and bowl were returned to the chancel steps for the service, filling the sanctuary with the scent of cedar, sage and tobacco as the Incumbent at the time, the Rev. Canon Stephen Vail delivered a moving homily on the Gospel call to pursue justice and the wholeness of the human family, so that we all might live in right relationships with each other and with the Creator.

Creator God,

from you every family in heaven and earth takes its name.
You have rooted and grounded us
in your covenant love,
and empowered us by your Spirit
to speak the truth in love,
and to walk in your way towards justice and wholeness.
Mercifully grant that your people,
journeying together in partnership,
may be strengthened and guided
to help one another to grow into the full stature of Christ,
who is our light and our life. Amen

With the warm glow of another successful annual Vestry meeting behind us here at All Saints’, there is no better topic to explore than what we actually mean by the term “Vestry.” Why exactly do we call our annual meetings a “Vestry?”

The term ‘vestry’ actually relates to the room where clergy put on their vestments prior to a church service. (Latin-speaking readers will, of course, recognize the root, vestire, meaning ‘to clothe.’) Also stored in the church vestry room would be valuable church linens, church communion items such as a chalice or paten, and other important items to be used during the church service. All Saints’ no longer has a formal “vestry room” but we do have smaller dry and wet sacristies (room names that certainly could be fodder for another article at another time!)

In the 19^th century, when the church gained greater powers in local affairs, many decisions that needed to be made by the community at large (hiring a watchman, hiring constables or providing for the poor, etc.) were made by a group of appointed citizens led by the parish priest. Church vestries were known to be investing in fire pumps, weights for markets, whipping posts, stocks, and local burial grounds.

Vestry Minutes Past — *Vestry Books & Minutes Past*

Where would local citizens meet? In many church buildings, the largest room not set aside for worship was likely the vestry. Over time, these meetings in the Vestry became less and less about the needs of the local municipality, though they continued to deal with the non-spiritual needs of the church community. Following the removal of all civil powers in 1894, the Vestry meeting slowly became the meeting as we know it today. It is the meeting where Anglicans consider the parochial needs of their parish. They discuss the cost of running and maintaining their building, they vote on issues of concern to their own parishes, and they elect wardens to represent their needs.

Though we’d be too large a group now to all meet in a parish vestry room, we continue to proudly use the term “Vestry” to describe the membership that conducts these meetings and to remind us of our pivotal role in community governance over the years.

~Bertie Weatherbottom, Notes & Queries Reporter for the 150th

Blessing of Indigenous Lands Marker

Historical Notes & Queries – Why Say Vestry?

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