A lot of them have been delivered personally by our members. Some have been sent far and wide. Each shawl combines the power of prayer with the healing power of human touch. Some of our faithful knitters are no longer with us. We dearly miss them. The Rev’d Bill Strong blesses each of the shawls at a Sunday morning church service.

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St. Peter’s in Upper Gullies would like to thank Constable Fitzgerald for his informative presentation that will assist in protecting our seniors from fraud and other types of swindling and trickery.

This seminar was arranged by Gary Parsons on behalf of the Men’s Service Club. Gary also provided the photos.

This article includes a few pictures related to the seminar and the fellowship that took place after the seminar.

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During weekly hour-long meetings, participants had time to quiet themselves and to hear the whole story of Christmas. This was followed by 30 minutes of silent time to reflect on the readings and make art in response. Next followed an opportunity to share personal responses and a “Prayer Over the Gifts.”

Each week featured a different part of the Christmas story with a related artistic prompt. Starting with The Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38) and the prompt “Angel,” we proceeded through The Visitation (Luke 1:39–57) – prompt: “Adjoining Hearts”; The Nativity (Luke 2:1–14) – prompt: “Christ Child”; The Adoration of the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12) – prompt: “Your Own Star”; The Holy Innocents (Matthew 2:13–18) – prompt: “Transforming Tears”; and ended with The Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2:22–40) with the prompt “Dove.” Art materials were kept simple: plain paper, adult colouring sheets, markers, crayons, and leads, with watercolour paint palettes and simple wooden ornaments available for those who wanted to use them during the last two sessions.

By combining scripture, prayer, and creativity, Glorious Christmas continued the Christian tradition of using art to express devotion. Art has been described as a “unique language of the soul,” and the programme reminded participants that the process of making art can be an act of worship: honouring and giving thanks to the Divine Creator, who has likewise gifted creativity to us.

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“A death which filled every breast among us with sorrow, came to us almost suddenly on April 12th. Henry Andrews, aged 37 years, in company with other members of the congregation, while blasting some large boulders which appeared to be in the way of work carried on at the grounds of Hopewell Church, became the victim of a dynamite explosion, laid by his own hands.

“Our late brother, having some previous experience with dynamite, together with others of some experience, were in the act of breaking up a large stone which appeared to be of an exceedingly hard nature. Two holes had been drilled into it and two charges set in order. Both charges were to be set on fire at the same time. Two brothers were to ignite them, but Henry had his on fire before his brother, he (the other brother) threw his igniting substance down by the fuse and ran. Henry’s charge exploded satisfactorily and allowing a short time for the second with no result, both brothers ran to see if it was on fire, Henry in the rear.The former, peering through some protecting material, saw no symptoms of fire so he ran around to the other side, where he saw that all was on fire. He at once shouted to that effect, but Henry, who had followed closely in his steps, was on the point of peering in the hole when the explosion occurred. It will always remain a mystery as to how it kindled.”

According to the article, Henry died in hospital in St. John’s seven days after the explosion, and he was buried in Upper Gullies on Good Friday, in a ceremony officiated at by the Rev’d Caldwell.

It was three months after Andrew’s death that the Hopewell congregation laid the foundation stone of its new church building. While the service did not pass without reflection upon the recent tragedy (a prayer was said beseeching God’s “protection from all accidents for those who shall be engaged in the building of this house”), the hope of the congregation and the joy of faith were also present. The people walked from the old church to the site of the new, and after hearing Canon Pilot’s exhortation to perseverance, sang hymn 545 from Hymns Ancient and Modern with this beautiful verse:See, the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love,
Well supply they sons and daughters
And all fear of want remove

At the close of the service, those who wished to do so placed offerings toward the new church upon the newly laid cornerstone.

On Tuesday, November 16th, 1909, the consecration of the Church of St. Peter, Hopewell, took place. The Diocesan describes the day:

“For hours before the ceremony people from Seal Cove,Indian pond,Hopewell and Upper Gullies, Kelligrews, Middle Bight, Foxtrap and Long Pond wended their way to the new church. Visitors and clergy from St. John’s, Conception Bay and Trinity Bay came by train and carriage and when they all assembled the building was thronged to the doors and outside. The sanctuary was beautifully decorated with flowers by the ladies of the congregation”. 

This article is based on information researched, appropriately referenced and presented to the Parish by a committee of the Church for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the church in 1905.

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“Our new church, when completed in a year or so, will stand as a monument of our zeal and perseverance. But we have to keep the plate moving and the needles going.”

While the church women of that time held no church positions on the vestry, and while they were still called by their husbands’ Christian names, they did maintain the power and autonomy over the money they raised for the church. And while they were described in terms that by today’s codes of language would be considered condescending (the Diocesan of 1904 once described Upper Gullies Sewing Circle as “that praiseworthy little band of women”), people of the day honoured the women’s work.

Old church records show that while plans for the new church occupied the most attention, other issues still had to be dealt with. At the turn of the century members of the congregation were expected to bring stakes or rails to maintain the cemetery fence. The constancy of human nature meant that wasn’t always accomplished and at the 1900 annual meeting it was decided that truants in this matter would have to pay a dollar anytime they wanted to open a grave. In 1901 Rev’d Petley had to remind the congregation of its unfulfilled promise to provide hay for his horse: “but no steps were taken to mend the matter.”

But records show that on the whole people did pull together. Men gave freely of their labour to build the new church, fitting the work into the seasonal rhythms of their other employment. For instance, the Rev’d E.K.H. Caldwell asked men of his congregation in 1904 to try and dig the trench for the new church walls “ some time between caplin and hay time.” Men cut much of the wood for the building on Salmonier Line and hauled it by horse to the site in the winter. They pulled logs over the ice on the bay between Holyrood and Lance Cove. One account has it that as the horses came ashore at Doyle’s Road one evening, the ice shifted, leaving the way they had come through Lance Cove Bight, nothing but water. The men lost no time attributing their good fortune to the fact that they had been working for the Church.

(The final article will relate a tragic event that occurred while the church was nearing completion as well as the laying of the cornerstone and consecration of the Church)
This article is based on information researched, appropriately referenced and presented to the Parish by a committee of the Church for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the church in 1905. 

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According to the Newfoundland Churchman, the building which was replaced by the St. Peter’s Church was an old Methodist church. Issues of the Diocesan Magazine available back to 1894, included news from a Hopewell correspondent who shares something of parish life during Rev’d Coley’s time.

Concerts were staged for the building of a school, which was  completed in 1895.

“Directly it was finished,” the account states, “the ‘Band of Hope’ which had not met for three years, was reorganized”. The following year the correspondent wrote that the school board resources, “are so crippled that, by existing arrangement, one teacher has to divide his time between the two schools of Upper Gullies and Seal Cove—three miles apart.” The congregation raised $30.00 toward getting a teacher for each school through a tea and entertainment, for which the Cathedral in St. John’s lent its piano, which it sent on the train. “The neighboring places were well-represented,” wrote the correspondent, “even our village patriarch, Mr. George Kelly (aged 94) walked the distance from Lance Cove ….”.

While the official record of talks regarding a new church building is found in minutes of the annual meeting of 1899, a report on the state of Hopewell Church from 1895 indicates that the old building was starting to cause major concerns. This report too comes from the Hopewell correspondent to the Diocesan Magazine.

“Hopewell Church: Standing on the summit of a rise, very aptly termed ‘Windy Hill,’ it had many years been supported upon wooden shores which had long ago become to infirm to safely bear their burden, so for the last few years some pillars of stone have been warding off collapse. This fall, however, under the superintendence of the church warden, Mr. Alfred Andrews, a well-finished stone was built by some men of the congregation, and thankful, indeed are we that it is done. No longer now, we hope, will the lamps swing in perfect time to the threatening gales, nor will the wintry blasts find it henceforth so easy to come in upon us from beneath. Although it was a very necessary work, the approaching winter will prove to us the benefit of what has at last been accomplished”.

By the time Rev’d Henry Petley succeeded Colley in 1897, the time was right for new developments. By then the mission in Topsail had split, and Hopewell was part of the new Mission of Foxtrap and Hopewell. The age and condition of the old church at Hopewell was not the only problem. In 1900 Hopwell’s correspondent told The Diocesan Magazine that the old church simply wasn’t big enough.

“It must be apparent to all, the account says, that the time has come when Hopwell should have a larger and more suitable building for God’s worship.” There followed this plea for everyone to pull their weight: “This cannot be attained otherwise than by an earnest effort and a determined pull on the part of the congregation. The urgency of the need will not permit our idly folding the hands and doing nothing, nor is it generous to look on cooly while others are grappling with the difficulty and labouring in such a laudable undertaking and for our benefit”.

The next article will outline the effort made by the church community to rise to the occasion to ensure the church was completed.

This article is based on information researched, appropriately referenced and presented to the Parish by a committee of the Church for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the church in 1905. 

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In the early 19th century, Church of England congregations in the outports were served by visiting clergy from St. John’s who regarded them as missions. Records indicate that Thomas Martin Wood was made a deacon by Bishop Inglis in September of 1832, and was subsequently appointed to the charge of St. John’s outports. These “outports” included Topsail and other communities on the south side of Conception Bay. At that time Hopewell was included in the mission of Topsail.

Hopewell continued to be served by visiting clergy until 1846, when the Rev’d Benjamin Fleet began to live and work in Foxtrap. Fleet was one of the first missionaries sent to Newfoundland by the school society of Samuel Codner, an English fish merchant who had taken it upon himself to help educate the island’s poor children. Fleet arrived in Newfoundland in 1824 to organize a new system of education along the lines of English schooling at the time, and he taught in St. John’s and in Trinity. He also served as lay reader and catechist, and in 1842 was ordained priest by Bishop Spencer. He became the resident priest in Foxtrap after serving four years in Burin.

During these early years, the clergy had no parsonage, but boarded with local families. For part of his tenure in Foxtrap, Rev’d Fleet boarded with a Butler family on Lodge Road, opposite All Saints’ Church, near the site where a rectory was planned to be built. In fact, the rectory that was eventually built there burned down in 1909, destroying the contents of the home along with a number of church records. The Upper Gullies Foxtrap Mission would eventually hold teas and house-to-house collections to assist in the rebuilding of the parsonage at the same time that funds were being raised to complete the building of St. Peter’s Church.  

It was during Benjamin Fleet’s tenure that Foxtrap built their first chapel. Fleet is said to have instructed the men to sit on one side of the Nave and the women to sit on the other. According to records, Fleet was considered a very dedicated priest as well as a fascinating character. Evidently, he habitually wore long old boots. On one occasion he brought them to a cobbler in St. John’s to be tapped. The boots’ age and condition inspired the cobbler to attach a note bearing this message:

“To the Reverend Benjamin Fleet,

Here’s a pair of brogues to be put on your feet.

The cobbler being clumsy and the boots being very odd

If you don’t wear them out they’ll be good for a trod”.

Rev’d Fleet served the Topsail area until his death in 1876. He was buried in the cemetery of the church at Hopewell. His tombstone can be found near a spruce tree at the west gate of St. Peter’s Church. The surviving records of births, confirmations, marriages and deaths for the church at Hopewell, which date back to 1876, bear the signature of this first resident priest. He was succeeded by another English missionary, the Rev’d Edward Colley.  

This article is based on information researched, appropriately referenced and presented to the parish by a committee of the church for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the church in 1905.

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