Anecdotes
Does anyone have any interesting stories that you'd be willing to share here? Let me know and I'll be happy to post them. I'll start with a couple!
I've never actually counted how many people were able to be seated in the church - does anyone have that number? And it's been many years since the church was close to full for a Sunday service. Does anyone remember a time when it was full? I do, although not on a regular basis, as this was an anniversary service. I cannot remember the year however I was the altar boy at the time. I don't remember how old I was at the time either so I'm guessing it would have been around 1960 plus or minus a bit.
Just as the service was about to begin my job was to come out from the little room at the right and light the candles on the altar. Then I'd return to that room and exit by the back door, walk around the church, come in the front door and find a seat for the service. Of course this meant that I was generally the last person seated. (At that time, the altar boy didn't walk down from the front of the church when he was finished.) Just before the end of the service, I'd reverse the routine and go out the front door around and in the back again and just as the choir proceeded to march out to the Sunday School room, I would come out and extinguish the candles.
Back then, anniversary services were a big event. There would be a guest minister from another church and usually a guest choir as well. People from the other churches in the community would attend each other's anniversary services as well as some visitors from the home churches of the guest minister and choir.
I remember this one particular anniversary service was especially well attended. I think that the guest minister was from the Lutheran parish in New Germany (I've long forgotten his name) and by the time I got around the church and in the front door the church was packed full. I eventually managed to squeeze in a seat with someone and I'm sure it was the last seat available in the pews anywhere. I don't remember it ever being that full again after that.
I've been told that there once were times when the large folding doors between the church and the Sunday School room would be opened back to make room for overflow but I don't remember seeing that happen.
Rod Corkum
How many of you remember the Sunday School Christmas concerts? Do you remember the tradition that the concert was always on the evening of December 25? The end of Christmas Day was always going to the concert. St. Mark's was the only church in the community that didn't have their concert before Christmas. That eventually changed in the last years before the Sunday School closed and other dates were chosen before Christmas as people became more busy at that time of year. This would be a well attended event because people from other churches in the community would attend each other's concerts, and friends and relatives came to see the children. Some of the smallest children didn't remember their lines or wouldn't say them when they got on stage but that didn't really matter ... they were cute anyway!
Another tradition of the concert that never changed to my memory was that the opening hymn was always "O Come All Ye Faithful" sung as the children marched from the Sunday School around the back of the church and up the left aisle to the stage (followed by the choir.) And the closing hymn at the end was always "Silent Night." Following the concert, the children would get their candy treats from the Sunday School. When I was little, I remember these were chocolates (Moirs I believe) in little cardboard boxes with handles but later became bags of mixed chocolates and other candy. Some parents and relatives also would save some Christmas gifts which were brought to church and put under the tree and distributed to the children after the concert.
When I got older in my teen years I was in charge of the Sunday School for a few years and one of my jobs would be to put up the stage. Someone (before my time) had built a stage which when assembled, would extend the front platform out to the front pew. With a little help, we would drag up the old boards from the basement and put the boards and frames together (trying to remember the correct order so they all fit properly) covering it with an old carpet. Then putting it all away again before the next service. We had an old purple curtain strung on a cord between two hooks on the walls by the lectern and pulpit. And we even had stage lighting - someone had built a string of light sockets on some boards which were laid along the front pew.
Another job as Sunday School leader at Christmas was to MC the Christmas concert. That was not one of my favourite tasks. Oh, I'm fine in front of a crowd as long as I can read from notes but don't ask me to make it up as I go! Which is why I had everything I wanted to say written out in detail and rarely strayed from it.
During those days, the person in charge of the Sunday School also arranged for the tree in the church. I never did learn how the Sunday School came to be responsible for getting a tree for the church! I think the tree was rather large in those days as it was a long reach from the top of the old step ladder to put the ornaments near the top. (The lighted cross at the top had to be put on before the tree was put up ... couldn't reach it otherwise.) The tree was in the front right corner of the church (the baptismal font was moved out of the way for it) and if you rolled back the carpet in that corner you would see quite a few holes in the sub-floor. We didn't have a tree stand big enough so the tree rested on the floor held in place with three short narrow boards nailed to the tree trunk and the floor like a tripod (hence the nail holes in the sub-floor!) I think the tree got shorter in later years (nice big trees were getting harder to find in the woods) as eventually an ordinary tree stand was used.
When I was little I remember there were a lot of children in Sunday School and when we all filed on the stage for the opening song, it was a sizable group. In the days when I was leader, the numbers had been declining and I'm amazed thinking back to those times that we were still able to put on a concert with the smaller numbers of children. Eventually of course it was no longer possible and the concerts were discontinued. And probably not too many years later the Sunday School finally closed. I had moved away by that time.
Rod Corkum