As the Parish of St. Anne’s and St. Edmund’s prepares to mark the 123rd anniversary of the little log church of St. Anne’s, it will be celebrating by reenacting the very first weddings found in its marriage register.
To find out, residents of and visitors to Parksville Qualicum Beach are invited to the annual St. Anne’s Heritage Day on Saturday, July 22, from 1-4 p.m. as stories of these pioneer brides and grooms will be enacted in period costume.
Following the presentation, a stroll through the cemetery to visit the graves of those long ago pioneers will lead to a strawberry tea served in the church hall nearby.
The marriages of Robert Craig and Elizabeth Tippett, Thomas Kinkade and Sarah Coqulamat, and Rev. Charles E. Cooper and Octavia Allen will be featured. These stories have been researched and assembled by Catherine Whiteley, an avid family and local historian, from a wide range of historical documents, contemporary newspaper articles, and archival and library resources.
Those sources are used to provide a personal glimpse of the pioneers who built our town.
Rev. Andrew Twiddy and wife Sandy, John and Julia MacDonald, and Julian and Sue Packer will provide the voices for the presentation.
There will be two performances; the first seating will be at 1 p.m. and the second seating at 2:15 p.m., each followed by the tea.
Tickets, which include admission to both the program of historic stories and the strawberry tea, are $12, available at the St. Edmund’s Church office, located on the same churchyard as St. Anne’s, Thursday, July 20, from 9 a.m. to noon. They may also be purchased on July 22 starting at 12:30 p.m. at the door of St. Anne’s Church. Tickets may also be reserved by calling 250-248-0310.
— Submitted by Beulah Paugh