Chapter Five

CHURCHES

The history of any part of a country becomes at some time or another the religious history of that part of the country. Over the years five congregations of Christian worshippers have been established in the Mount Stewart area: Anglican and Methodist, which have ceased to exist, and the contemporary Roman Catholic, United and Presbyterian fellow-

ships.

St. Alban’s Anglican Church

Between 1840 and 1865, due to the zeal of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, fifteen Anglican or Episcopal churches were built in this Province. Many dates, the earliest being 1858, are given for the construction of St. Alban’s, which was located in the present PeOples’ Cemetery on the site of the Soldiers’ Monument.

Prominent among those who promoted the establishment of the con- gregation were various members of the family of John E. W. Alleyne who immigrated to the Island from the Barbadoes in 1837. The contribution made by Mr. Alleyne’s son, Edward Benjamin, was especially noteworthy. He was for a number of years Lay Reader and Catechist, having been assigned these duties by Bishop Binney.

From the sketchy information that is available, one gathers that the congregation never had a resident rector. Visitations, especially during the early years, were made by the Bishop of Nova Scotia in whose diocese the Island lay. Thus, on June 15, 1860, His Lordship confirmed fourteen candidates at Mount Stewart, on his way to Georgetown. It was reported that “he was listened to with deep attention by numerous and patient hearers.” Among the first church officers, those elected on April 1, 1861, were Laurence C. Worthy and John E. W. Alleyne, wardens; and William Swabey, John Jay, George Worthy, Edward B. Alleyne, George Jay, Edward Jay, John S. Alleyne and Adam Rogerson, vestrymen.

Although the circumstances surrounding its origins were seemingly auspicious, the church did not prosper. By 1906, the Examiner was re- porting that the “old church . . . has been left to the scant mercies of the weather, in lonely neglect and disuse for nearly 20 years.” Even though the windows were out and the plaster fallen down, the frame and timbers were still sound and a remnant of the former congregation, “deep down in their hearts,” still cherished “a deep love for the Old church.” An attempt at revival was made, and the church seems to have been fairly active during 1907. Many of the members had become adherents of the Methodist Church, and that congregation, on at least one occasion, can- celled its regular service so as not to interfere with the one at St. Alban’s. The experiment was, nonetheless, a failure, and the last Anglican service in the village was held around 1910. During the mid-twenties the church building was bought by Mr. Daniel MacAssey who moved it to a site on the corner of Main Street and MacEachern Drive where it was used as a barn. It was torn down shortly after World War II to make way for the construction of the home of Mr. Leith Affleck.

But while the church building is gone, the churchyard remains as one of the most beautiful burial grounds in the Province. It has always been well tended; in fact, as early as 1883, the Examiner commented on

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