The Beginning...
In the beginning services were held in a tent, in the old school, a tea room, and at the hotel for summer visitors and residents. The first Anglican church in Sechelt was built in 1936 with the support and assistance of Archbishop Adam de Pencier who had a summer residence here and later retired to Sechelt.
The church was built on land given to the Anglican Church by the Cook family. A cemetery had been started on the land in 1923 and continues in existence today. This Pioneer Cemetery functioned as a community cemetery for many years. The Memorial Garden in the cemetery continues to be available for use by the wider community even though the cemetery is full.
The second church was built in 1986 when the Rev. John Paetkau was rector and consecrated by Archbishop Douglas Hambidge in 1987.
In the attached file are parishioners' recollections and written comments collected for our 75th anniversary in 2012.
Tiffany Windows
The two “Tiffany” stained glass windows at the north end of the Sanctuary were originally part of the first St Hilda’s church (dedicated in 1936), and were a gift from Major Harold Brown, on behalf of the Union Steamship Company, of which he was then general manager and later president. As you see in the photo below, the windows were oriented differently in the old church (“landscape” rather than “portrait”), and they were prominently situated on either side of the altar. When the old church was dismantled in the mid-1980s, they were saved and incorporated into the new building, a lovely reminder of the church’s history.
