All Saints'

for all ages, for all times, for everyone. See yourself here.

  • All Saints'
  • Upcoming Services
  • First Visit?
  • On Sundays
  • Life at All Saints’
    • Life Events
    • Children & Youth
    • Community
    • Learning
    • Music
    • Our Ministry Team and Staff
    • Our Building’s History
  • News & Events
    • Latest News
    • Calendar
    • Prayer Life
    • Saints Alive! ~ Parish Newsletter
    • 2016 – Our 150th year in review
  • Donate
  • Contact

March 30, 2016

Historical Notes & Queries – Why Say Vestry?

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 19th 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

 

 

Filed Under: 150th Written by Arleane Ralph

Featured Events and Services

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

Second Sunday after Epiphany

Second Sunday after Epiphany

Sunday January 17th - 10:00am

All Saints', Whitby300 Dundas St. WestWhitby, ONL1N 2M5 Map

Service Exclusively via Zoom - Second Sunday after Epiphany.

Follow along with the service at allsaintswhitby.org/service-and-sermon-for-january-17/

1 interested  ·  4 going
View on Facebook

View the full Calendar

Visit Us

All Saints' Anglican Church
300 Dundas Street West
Whitby, Ontario
L1N 2M5
Canada

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Regular Sunday Services

Sunday service is presently at 10am. Please join our parish email distribution list or visit our Advent & Christmas Services to learn about options for worship at All Saints’, whether in person or by Zoom.

Donate Online

Office Hours:

Tuesday to Friday:
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Tel: (905) 668-5101
allsaintswhitby@nullbellnet.ca

All Saints’ is an LGBTQ+ friendly parish.

 

Copyright © 2021 · Website lovingly built by Carlén Communications

Copyright © 2021 · All Saints, Whitby on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in