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St. George's Anglican Church Middlesex Centre, Ontario |
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 12656 13 Mile Rd, West of the Denfield Sideroad
Middlesex Centre, Ontario 519-666-3009 Sunday Service: 11:00 am Rector: Rev'd Daniel Bowyer Appointed February 15, 2009, previously the Assistant Curate at St Jude's, Brantford, Ontario. He was inducted rector by Archdeacon Tim Connor, on behalf of Bishop Bennett, on Sunday, April 26th in St. George's. Canon Bill Cliff preached. St. George's parish dates back to 1841 when the first frame church was built on Lot 30, Concession 13, west of the Denfield Sideroad, north of London Ontario, but its beginnings go back even further. George Calvert Robson had established a farm in this area during the 1820's, and when, in 1838, his father John died as a result of a fall from a horse, George buried him there, establishing a family burial ground. It developed into the community cemetery as well. Before this cemetery was created, bodies were buried in an unmarked location in the field across the road from the church, now a very healthy corn field. The earliest services were held in barns in the 1820's, with the Rev. Charles James Stewart (second Bishop of Quebec 1825-1837) taking one of the services. In the 1830's, the Rev. Benjamin Cronyn,later the first Bishop of Huron, but then rector of St Paul's, London and St. John the Divine, Arva took services. By 1841, the need for a church building was evident, and the first building was erected. Parishioners Jeremiah Robson and Harvey Hall cut the tamarack and cedar trees used in the building of the church. The Rev. Charles Crosbie Brough, the first rector of St. George's, was in charge of the whole region as far north as Lake Huron. From its inaugural service, the last Sunday of 1841, until 1869, the men sat on one side of the building and the women on the other. Brough is also responsible for bringing back from England a pewter communion set around 1854. This set is still used on special occasions. The Rev. John Vicars was the first rector of St. George's after Huron became a Diocese in 1857. The Rev. Vicars performed 107 baptisms in one year. The Rev. Edward Sullivan, (second Bishop of Algoma 1882-1896), began his ministerial work here in 1859 staying for 3 years.  John Akister, the colourful church sexton, remained in that post for over 30 years.
He was paid the generous salary of $16.00 per year to ring the bell, light the fires, clean the church and dig the graves.
A perk of the job was that as long as he had a cow, he could have all the hay from the churchyard!
He also lived in the old log rectory when the rector no longer occupied it.
He marked the lessons to be read, met the rector at the door on Sunday morning, and would take his horse to the shed. Apparently he became very autocratic as time went on, and was relieved of his duties; but he was given a plot in the cemetery as a reward for his years of service.
1865 saw the move to build the present church, with the old one being sold to George Robson for use as a sheep barn. The new building opened in 1869, on August 18. It was around this time that there was a move to have the parish become self-supporting. Up to that point, the Church Missionary Society in England was paying the rector's stipend. St. George's used to have an orchestra play for Sunday services. It included violins, trombone, cello and organ. The first organ installed in the church was won by the choir as first prize in a competition at the Ailsa Craig Fair. This parish celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary in 1991, when 5 new memorial stained glass windows were installed. Canon Littleford previously donated two of the beautiful windows: the Nativity in memory of his wife, and St. George in memory of his brother. The East Window is from 1869 when the brick building was constructed. The parish also enjoyed a visit from the then Primate, the Most Rev. Michael Peers. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, St. George's was part of a two-point parish, with Trinity Church, Birr. In 1906 it became part of a three-point parish when Grace Church, Ilderton, joined, and is now part of a two-point parish with the closure of Trinity Church, Birr. The parish has twinned with an Anglican parish, St.Chad's, in the Diocese of Umthata. Umthata is in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. More on St. George's Anglican Church, Middlesex Centre, Ontario April 2009
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London, Ontario Anglican Church |
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Huron Anglican Parishes |
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