Editor:
You’re invited to a birthday party!
On June 22, at 2 p.m., Hope United Church will celebrate 90 years since its inaugural service at the corner of Queen Street and 3rd Avenue. Jill Last and the Hope United Choir have invited some Hope Community Choir voices to join in for ‘A Walk Down Memory Lane’ concert. Birthday cake will be shared across the street in the United Church Hall after the musical performances.
Memories of the inaugural service, on Sunday, Nov. 10, 1935, through recorded in historical documents are gone. One thing we do know is that, for generations, Hope United has been home to lovers of music, and has shared those talents and more, in the wider community.
Madeline Barker, Fraser Canyon Hospital board chair during the 1959 hospital construction, was one of our first organists. Also in 1959, the Junior Choir sang in their white choir robes under the co-direction of Norah Thacker and Jessie Gairns. Back then, there was a Hope Centennial Ladies Choir who sang under the direction of Gairns, with accompanist, Fran Morrison. Together they released a long play album in 1967. Yes, our Fran Morrison, the talented pianist who played for worship, weddings, funerals and concerts for close to 7 decades, was on the album.
In 1971, Hope United Church Women also sponsored a visit from the BC Boys Choir.
Might you recall director of the Hope Community Choir, pipe organist and pianist, Dorothy Eklund, as she blazed through syncopated ragtime? Under Dorothy's watch, each Hope Christmas concert ended with a massed choir singing Hallelujah! Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. When Dorothy and Fran played organ and piano duets on Sunday mornings, even tired listeners sat up and paid attention. Our energetic organist and current lay minister, Jill Last, is a retired music teacher, and also a former director of the community choir. The United Church Choir occasionally changed hats, becoming the Rainbow River Singers, and presented secular works from Gilbert & Sullivan, The Sound of Music, classical and folk favourites, and even Buddy Holly. Many United Church voices have soared, and rumbled, and occasionally squeaked, at choir practice, on Sunday morning and in concert. On June 22, we will add this last concert to that resumé.
As Hope United begins preparations for closing this fall, other bits of history are being recalled. The United Church of Canada came into being in 1925 with the union of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churches, after years of biblical and political debate. As early as 1857, the new name had been suggested for a union between the Free Church and Presbyterian churches in Canada, which had differing positions on the relationship between church, government and nationhood. By 1862, the Presbyterians were still struggling with politics, and an added ‘organ controversy’. The use of organs in worship was rejected as an unacceptable innovation by the synods. Some congregations argued that the church was being left behind the times and alienating young people by ignoring the use of musical instruments. A compromise was reached. Individual congregations who had the leadership, the funds, and who were not concerned about the issue of ‘spiritual worship with a carnal instrument’, began to use organs and melodeons. The generation gap is nothing new, nor the irreplaceable value of younger voices.
After the concert in the church, a display of church mementos will be shared in the hall to spark conversation while you enjoy the birthday cake. Were you married in the church? Did you sing with the church junior choir? How many times did you attend dance lessons in the church hall? Are you still friends with someone you met in Sunday School? Which prayer, which sermon, which anthem stirred your soul? How many Advent Event ornaments do you hang on your Christmas tree? Do you remember the church picnic tug of wars at Kawkawa Lake? At a Valentine Tea, were you served by one of our Red Hats, men from our congregation such as Ken Wotherspoon and Wally Pankew? Did you laugh with Elaine Gardner, Marg Newbigging and Kay Bourquin as the ‘Three Tenors’? Did you see Clancy Wolpert pull a gun on his best man, Bud Ashdown? Water gun! How many times did you make tea and wash dishes with the kitchen crew?
Come and share your memories with us!
— Jenny Wolpert
