The Holy Trinity Anglican Church stands as a sentinel along the banks of the mighty Churchill River. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

standing tall

Historic northern church prepared for upcoming wildfire season

May 8, 2019 | 5:02 PM

Peaceful, powerful and proud are some of the words Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson used to describe the feelings evoked by the Holy Trinity Anglican Church near Stanley Mission.

“When I go in there, I’m just in awe,” she said of the 159-year-old church. “It seems really peaceful in there. It just has a powerful feeling to it when you’re inside. It’s one of those things you can’t put a value on. It’s so valuable.”

When Rev. Robert Hunt departed England in 1849 to establish an Anglican mission in Northern Saskatchewan, he left prepared to build a large church and brought with him hinges, latches, locks, window frames, stained glass and other materials that remain there to this day. Cook-Searson stated the site of the church was chosen through talks with First Nations who knew the river system, adding it was a spot local people believed would be the best for the structure. The Holy Trinity Anglican Church is the oldest standing building in Saskatchewan and became a National Historic Site of Canada in 1970.

According to information from the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport, the church was built between 1854 and 1860, and has been in use ever since. Most of the materials used were local as boards were whipsawn by hand from local hardwood logs by carpenters. It is a Gothic Revival-style church featuring post and beam construction with mud and stone in the walls, and a local fieldstone foundation. The church also includes an elaborate 23-meter spire and its 37 Gothic-style windows contain more than 1,000 pieces of stained glass.

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A front view of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church. It is separated from Stanley Mission by the Churchill River. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

“It’s something we take great pride in,” Cook-Searson said. “It’s our community members of Stanley Mission who maintain the church and they work in conjunction with Saskatchewan Parks. Many people come from all over to visit the church.”

But, with wildfire season beginning in Saskatchewan and the wide-scale destruction Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris three weeks ago, there are some concerns about the protection of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in case of a forest fire. Residents only need to look as far back as 2015 when wildfires had more than 8,000 northerners flee their homes, sparking the largest evacuation in Saskatchewan’s history.

While the Holy Trinity Anglican Church doesn’t hold the treasurers Notre-Dame did, it still holds a lot of value to locals and many others. Gord Hardlotte, the director of operations in Stanley Mission, said residents share some of the biggest moments of their lives there. The church is still heavily used for weddings, funerals and other large events.

The interior of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

Many items such as the stained glass were transported from England about 160 years ago. It took four years for the windows to arrive. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

Close to 1,000 pieces of stained glass are used in the 37 stained glass windows. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

“It’s been a very important part of our lives,” Hardlotte said. “I can’t remember the year, but we did have a fire on that side on the mainland and it was only a few kilometers away from the church. The fire crews did set up sprinkler systems on the church and there was a crew on that side, that’s how close it [came].”

Hardlotte also noted workers are employed during the summer months to keep the grass cut and the nearby shrubs low. In recent years, there’s also been some FireSmart funding spent in the area to cut some of the bush behind the church. With the assistance of the federal and provincial governments in the upkeep of the building, he believes the church will remain standing for many years to come.

“It should be protected,” Hardlotte said. “It’s a big tourist attraction. A lot of people come during the summer months to come and take a look at it.”

The Gothic Revival-style church features post and beam construction. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

The church is particularly important to local Woodland Cree residents. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

In an email to larongeNOW by the Government of Saskatchewan, it stated the land is owned by several partners including the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, the Hudson Bay Company and Saskatchewan Provincial Parks. It also noted there is a non-formal agreement with Stanley Mission where the grounds are taken care of by the community to prevent the spread of fire. If there was a risk of forest fires in the area, action would be taken in developing a forest fire management plan.

“As far as measures that were taken on the structure itself, in the past few years, the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport replaced the roof on the structure and used high-grade shingles with fire retardant,” the email stated. “They also noted that there was an existing lightening rod and grounding system that was not working efficiently, and they took the proper steps to ensure that it was, so that if lightning were to hit the structure, the grounding system would protect the building.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno