The Lansdowne Letters: Take Me to Church

My father resumed his northern Lansdowne Letters to our extended
Nova Scotian and Prince Edward Islander family in early January, 1961.

In his first edition he wrote about his experience attending
an Anglican service at a small log church in Lansdowne House,
not far from the Hudson's Bay Company Store
and next door to the Forestry shack my father was trying to rent,
so my mother and we five children could join him in the North.

Guaranteed this
Anglican Church of Canada
service was unlike any 
that most people coming from
my sheltered, orderly, and traditional
Baptist background
had ever experienced!

The Coat of Arms
of the Anglican Church of Canada
Wikimedia

The Hudson's Bay Company Store

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, 1961

Photo by Donald MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

In this photo you can see the Hudson's Bay Company Store in the center, 

the HBC Manager's House to the right of the tall tower, and in the trees, the HBC warehouse.

The Anglican Church is hidden beyond the trees at the middle right of the photo.

On Friday, January 6, 1961
my father wrote:

Hi There Everyone!
The Lansdowne Letter is officially back in business again.
The part for Uno’s typewriter finally came in; 
and so, I can now resume my editorial pursuits.

Since I have been silent for so long,
I think that I will devote a considerable portion of my time
bringing you up to date on the highlights since the beginning of freeze-up,
as well as keeping you posted regarding the daily events.

I survived Christmas, though at one time,
I didn’t think that I would survive.
I was as sick as a dog over Christmas - couldn’t eat any
of the lovely things that Maureen baked for me.  Perhaps
I enjoyed the things that Sara and Mother had sent up for me to eat.

The Christmas Party at My Father's School

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, December 1960

Photo by Donald MacBeath (before he caught the flu)

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

I think that the most interesting thing to happen to me recently
was my first Indian church service; so,
I’ll devote the remainder of this edition to describing it.

The service was an Anglican service,
which is confusing enough
for a poor Baptist at the best of times.
Last night I wasn’t confused, I was completely lost.
I didn’t have the haziest notion of what
was supposed to be happening.

Actually, I should have been able to follow the service,
because I had sat through lots of Anglican services
when I was going to St. Paul’s Sunday School,
but it was only once or twice during the proceedings
that I saw or heard anything vaguely familiar.

Basically, it was an Anglican church service,
but at various times during the evening it took on the characteristics
of a revival meeting, a political rally, recess time at a reform school,
and a mob scene from a C. B. DeMille production.

The Indians are very sincere in their religion,
but their attitude in church is almost irreverent by white standards.
If they don’t like the seat that they are sitting in,
they move to another one.

Last night most of the congregation became dissatisfied
with their seats at some time during the service,
with the result that there was an almost constant movement in the church.

White people frequently stay away from church
because they have small children (Sara and I),
but not so the Indians.  The whole family goes.
  
I don’t think I have ever seen, or will ever see again, 
so many tikinagans in one place.
The crying of the babies and the rocking of the tikinagans, 
which resembles the sound of a very rickety rocking chair
being rocked on a squeaky floor, 
added to the general confusion of the occasion.

Indian Mother and Child

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Fall 1960

Photo by Donald MacBeath (before he caught the flu)

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

In Indian church services the men all sit up front, 
and the women and children all sit at the back.  
Being a true MacBeath, I was late for church and had to sit at the back.
  
There I was right in the middle of all the women, children, and tikinagans.  
I’ll never be late for church again at Lansdowne House, I can assure you.  
I never went through such agony in my life.  
I think children should be quiet in church, 
but the Indians don’t subscribe to this belief at all.

The minister only manages to get into Lansdowne House 
once or twice a year, most often once, and so 
there are a lot of church matters to be attended to 
when he does make his appearance - marriages for instance.  

The fact that there is no minister available
to perform marriage service doesn’t hold up the Indian.  
If a young family wishes to get married,
they just build a home and start living together.

They will get their union solemnized and legalized
at the first opportunity.  Quite frequently,
when the minister gets around to marrying them,
he also has to baptize their first child.

Indian Family and Pets, 

Fort Hope, Northern Ontario, 1913

The National Archives UK

CO 1069-279-15

Flickr    No Known Copyright Restrictions

I don’t mean to infer that the Indians have a low standard of morals.
On the contrary, they are almost puritanical in their morals.
They are honest and extremely faithful to their wives.
  
You will find far less scandal among the Indians at Lansdowne House
than you’ll find among an equal number of white people.

No, the Indians haven’t loose morals,
they are just exceedingly practical.  
As the Reverend Mr. Long said marriages are God-made
and are essentially agreements between men and women
who want to live together and raise children.
The marriage service is a man-made device,
and while he doesn’t advocate the abolishing of the marriage service,
the minister doesn’t see anything basically wrong
with the Indian custom of living together,
providing they get married at the first chance.

Well, anyway, to get back to my account of the church service.  
All in all, it lasted from 7:30 to 10:45 and consisted of
scripture readings, a sermon, two weddings, three baptisms, Communion,
and a couple of things that have me completely in the dark.

Oh yes, I took Communion last night,
and while it was just as spiritually gratifying
as a Baptist Communion,
I will admit that it was considerably different
from what I had been used to.



Communion Cup
Wikimedia 






At one time during the service,
I was quite skeptical of the whole thing and almost backed out.  
This was when I had to partake of the Communion wine.  
As you probably know,
Anglicans use a goblet in their Communion service,
and everyone drinks out of it.
  
The man that was kneeling beside me at the communion rail
was one of the filthiest looking creatures that I have ever seen.  
He even had some sort of running sore on his face.  
I didn’t fancy drinking out of the same cup that he did, 
but the minister assured me before the service
and reassured me after it, 
that he had never known any kind of disease
to be spread by the communion goblet.  
Well, anyway, I took the wine, and I am still alive,
so I guess my fears were groundless.

The service lasted for over three hours,
but the Indians just stayed for what they were interested in.
Frequently, if they got bored, or something,
they would go outside for a smoke and came back in.  
A couple of times I joined the Indians outside for a smoke.

The marriage services were quite interesting.  
There was considerable confusion lining up the witnesses,
the best man, etc.
Indians don’t believe in planning ahead,
and although they knew that they were going to be married
for at least six months in advance,
they didn’t line up the best man, maid of honour, etc.,
till just before the marriage service was due to begin.
This lead to considerable movement and consultation within the church.  

In the second wedding of the evening,
after all other delays had been endured
and all the functionaries sorted out,
the wedding was delayed for a further twenty minutes
while the mother fed the baby.

I am telling you, it was quite an experience.
I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.

  Back in Business

   Photo by Uno Manilla

   © M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
   All Rights Reserved

I have had quite a few more
interesting experiences,
and I will be relating them 
to you in future letters.
Now that the typewriter is functional again, 
I’ll resume my daily editions.

However, since the mail plane
is due any moment now,
I’ll sign off for this edition.

I am sorry that I was unable
to continue the letter during
the months of November and December,
but it was impossible without a typewriter.

Well, bye for now,
will be seeing you next week in the Letter.
Love,
Don. 

I, too, had the chance to attend an Anglican service
when my mother and we five children joined Dad in the North.
That later service was alien and fascinating for me,
although as ten-year old girl, I was less perplexed than my father
by the dissonance between the Anglican and Baptist services.

There is one startling omission in my father's description
of the service that he attended, something that was unforgettable for me.

Reverend Long conducted the service sentence by slow sentence
with the help of an Indian translator. 
The minister would say one sentence in English,
and the Oji-Cree translator would repeat it in Ojibwa.

Dad always said that the brain could absorb
what the butt could endure.
I'm afraid both of mine gave out before the service was over.

As a female and child, I had to sit among 
the rocking tikinagans with the women and children.
That didn't bother me.

What bothered me was the endless 
sentence by sentence service,
English, Ojibwa, English, Ojibwa,
and the fact that I had to sit there setting an example
of modest, proper church behavior,
while my father slipped outside
to smoke cigarettes with the Indian men!

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


Bay of Fundy out of Westport, Brier Island
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Notes:  

1.  The Anglican Church in Lansdowne House:
      I'm not sure if the church was named St. Benedicts, but the Parish was.  dioceseofkeewatin
      The parish belonged to the Diocese of Keewatin.
      As of July 31, 2014 the Diocese of Keewatin ceased to exist
      after the creation of the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh,
      This is the first self-determining, self-sustaining Indigenous church within
      the Anglican Church of Canada.  anglican.ca

2.  St. Paul's Sunday School:
     I have no idea why my father attended Sunday school at St. Paul's Church,
     an Anglican church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.  Google
     We, as children and Baptists, attended whatever church was available
     in some of the small communities we lived in (And, yes, we behaved!).

St. Paul's Church, Charlottetown

wikimedia

3.  C. B. DeMille:
     He was a famous American filmmaker and considered a founding father
     of the Hollywood film industry.  He produced films known for their epic scale and
     cinematography.  Wikipedia 

4.  Fort Hope Indians:
     Fort Hope is located about 45 miles (73 kilometers) south of Lansdowne House
     on the Albany River.  At one time the Oji-Cree in the two communities both belonged
     to the Fort Hope Band.

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Map of Lansdowne House

Sketched by Donald MacBeath, Fall 1960

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

This map shows the Father's Island and the tip of the "Mainland" peninsula
that contained the community of Lansdowne House.

                                                 #12 HBC Store

                                                 #13 HBC Warehouse

                                                 #14 HBC Manager's Home

                                                 #15  Department of Forestry Shack 

                                                 #16 Church of England (Anglican) Church

Lansdowne House, Ontario

Wikimedia