REMINISCENCES

When Father Tanton retired in l 9 74 he was interviewedfor Anglican Sunday Family Magazine, a radio program that aired Sunday mornings on the Charlottetown station CFCY. Thefbllowin g autobiographical essay is adaptedfrom that interview.

I suppose my first thoughts would be my experience with Archdeacon White, who was our rector in Summerside for 26 years. He had a clear devotion to our Lord, and a great devotion to the Church. Like Timothy, I grew up under his tutelage. and was inspired by him. I had the privilege of looking after him in the sense of driving him to St. Eleanor's to Church when I was a boy of 12 years of age. I taught in the Sunday school, and was superintendent when I was 17, before I left to go away to Mount Allison Academy. The men I met in the Church, priests like Dr. Cunningham, Canon Vroom, Dr. Hunt. Canon Malone, and Archdeacon Harrison. were great influences on my life, showing me loyalty to our Lord, and their conviction that the Church was fulfilling the mission of Christ Himself.

I was at Mount Allison Academy one year. and then I went to Mount Allison University. I felt a vocation to the ministry. so I wrote to Archbishop Worrell of Nova Scotia , who had episcopal jurisdiction in Prince Edward Island. He said he would see me in Summerside in July. This would be long after college had closed. I couldn't wait that long. So I asked him if he would let me do parish work for the summer. He said. No. that I should be sure of my vocation first. So I wrote back to him and said that I had been brought up under his episcopacy. and with his permission I would write to the Bishop of Fredericton. I got a letter back saying, "I have a parish for you." He sent me to Liseomb, on the eastern shore ofNova Scotia, which at that time was pretty isolated. That's where I started my work as a lay reader. I worked all the time I was in college. I did lay readering work at Conquerall Mills, and in the parishes of Port Medway and Emmanuel Church in north Dartmouth. until 1938, when I was made deacon by Archbishop John Haekenley in Christ Church, Dartmouth. I was priested later at Emmanuel Church.