Jason Rioux provides update on progress made on restoration and future plans for St. John's Anglican Church in Chapleau

Jason Rioux, the owner of the St John's Anglican Church building, kindly provided me with a copy of a letter he sent to the congregation and Bishop Tom Corston about the present situation at the church. The letter provides details on steps that have already been taken to restore the church, and measures that are planned.

I extend my thanks to Jason for permitting me to share the letter with readers of the Chapleau Express in Chapleau Moments and here, as he moves forward. Jason is also open to hearing from you.  His email is jason.rioux@gmail.com

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

BY JASON RIOUX

Happy 2018! We wanted to share how things are going and provide an update for our vision on things yet to come. This building was built by you and taken care of by you for the last 100+ years.

Regardless of a change in building ownership, this remains YOUR church and we are deeply committed to keeping you in YOUR church. It’s not St. John’s Anglican Church without you.

Preserving the Building In 2016 and 2017, we undertook major renovations to improve the bones of the building. Without this investment, the building would have fallen into further disrepair.

Major basement renovations were completed to allow for fully accessible commercial food and retail use. This turned out to be an enormous job with many costly hurdles that were overcome. Exterior brick repairs and restoration work began.

We completed repairs to the northeast corner of the building near the chimney and started on the west wall’s spaulding brick. The brick chimney was rebuilt to full height and lined so it can be used again.

The rear cement patio and landscaping was added. We are lucky to have found Marc, our local experienced bricklayer to take on this work, and he had to find 100 year old reclaimed brick from southern Ontario and haul it north to Chapleau to do the job right.

And as it turns out, our bricklayer is now the tenant downstairs with homemade pizza making skills second to none!

As for 2018, we will finish the brick repairs on the west wall, point the brickwork around the building, and start brick repairs to the bell tower. We would like to bring back the original “castle top” -- if we can find a way to fund it.

Financial Sustainability

The church building remains a money losing project, big time. Our objective is to bring the building into financial sustainability for the for the long term. To accomplish this, the reality is we have 3 things to focus on:

1. Finding additional rent from the main floor

• We need this new rent to co-exist with the congregation, and will likely come from a new additional tenant or from running special events.

• We are currently looking for ideas, other non-profits focusing on local history and culture, performing arts, entertainment, special events, etc.

• Unfortunately this will require most of the pews to come out. More about pews discussed below.

2. Reducing our heating costs

• Step 1 – Install a new wood stove in the basement, just finished!

• Step 2 – Get completely off heating oil – We plan to install a new boiler heating system in 2018 that will use renewable wood pellets as the fuel. These are considered carbon neutral (good for the environment) and will be sourced from northern Ontario (good for the local economy).

 • Step 3 – Seal up the building – we need to seal up air cracks and gaps on the main floor. We will get a blower door test conducted to identify the air leaks and then try to seal them up to improve the efficiency of the building and reduce our heating costs for next winter.

3. Helping our current tenants be successful long term

• We are working closely with our current basement tenant, Stonewalls restaurant, to help them grow their business to meet the needs and desires of the Chapleau community. We are in the process of installing a new wood fired pizza oven downstairs for everyone’s eating pleasure in the next month or so, I’m super excited about that.

• We want to help the Anglican Church congregation find ways to innovate and connect with the community. We are open to trying new things, we have the large vacant lot next door that can host special events, we have the ability to be creative together for mutual benefit.

Please keep this in mind as you plan 2018.

We are here to help where we can, just pitch us your ideas on what you want to try.

Environmental Sustainability

We believe that we can make investments in the b that can both accomplish financial and environmental sustainability. For example the heating system improvements have the ability to make the building “carbon neutral”. Currently we are burning over 15,000 litres of heating oil per winter, this has significant CO2 emissions that are bad for our climate.

It just happens that converting to modern wood pellet heating is lower cost than oil, and is carbon neutral, a win-win situation. But it takes effort to make this switch.

We are working with technology suppliers from Europe, and we are working with Ontario pellet fuel suppliers for bulk deliveries to Chapleau. It’s not easy going first, but we think it is worth the effort.

What to do with the Pews? We expect that any new uses upstairs will require more flexibility in the space, different seating arrangements, more open space, ability to set up tables and We would like to hear ideas and preferences from the congregation on how we select which pews we should keep. We think we can probably keep 6 to 10 long pews in the space. Some questions and ideas we would like your feedback on:

1. Do we add name plaques to identify the original family pews that will remain in the church? This way we can keep track of the pews as they are shuffled around over time. Can you propose which pews we should keep as a priority?

2. We will be looking to sell 20 or more pews to help offset our building restoration costs. Should we first offer the pews for sale to the original families they may have sat in them? If so, how do we contact those families if no longer in attendance?

 3. Any ideas for local businesses or places that might need pews like this?

4. Do we know a local carpenter that can shorten pews so that they can fit better into people’s homes? This could help more of the pew find their way into homes in Chapleau.

 In terms of replacement seating that can accommodate multiple uses, we are thankful to receive 100 chairs from the United Church to help get us started! Opening up the space and getting more people into the church will help with our collective community outreach. It's a beautiful building and sharing it with the community is a positive thing that increases the long term viability of the church.

As always, I want to hear your thoughts. You can email me anytime at Jason.rioux@gmail.com

Bishop Tom Corston spent a 'little different Christmas' in 2010 as he travelled to Chapleau and Foleyet for services through freezing rain, fog and 'beautiful bush'

Rt Rev Thomas A. Corston, who most of us from Chapleau commonly refer to simply as "Tom", spent a "little different Christmas" shortly after he became the ninth Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, in 2010.

At Christmas time in 2010,  Tom left Timmins on an historic trip down Highway 101 to preside at services at St. John's In Foleyet, and at St. John's in Chapleau. 

Writing in his blog in January 2011, he shared the story. I stumbled across his blog while doing some research recently, contacted Tom, the son of the Frances (Jardine) and the late Henry Corston, who were our next door neighbours, and asked if I could quote from it. He gave me permission. 

His little different Christmas started out a bit badly when shortly after leaving Timmins, he realized he had forgotten his wallet so had to return to the Synod office for it. 

Having left early, he had time but on the drive to Foleyet, "I encountered some light freezing rain but made the trip in good time.

"The rain created some beautiful Christmas card scenes on the surrounding trees."

The church was filled for the four p.m service. St. John's in Foleyet had been his first parish 35 years ago, in 1975. so "it was great to see some old friends in the congregation, now with grandchildren. We even had an organist so we enjoyed singing the carols and ended the celebration with everyone holding a candle and singing 'Silent Night'"

Leaving Foleyet he wrote, "I was worried for the drive to Chapleau as it was now dark. The highway was good though and I encountered no more freezing rain. Just outside town I encountered fog and as I entered town with the shops now closed and literally no one present on the main street, it was a surreal experience driving in the heavy fog.  Certainly not what one would expect on Christmas Eve in a northern community."

He noted that Chapleau was his home community and the large St. John's Church had struggled in recent years to keep its doors open. As an aside, St. John's was sold in 2016 to Jason Rioux, and plans for its future are now underway. Also for those who may not know, Tom attended Chapleau Public and Chapleau High Schools and was active in St. John's.

"What a wonderful experience it was that the old church was filled by the time the celebration began," he wrote.

"The full church unnerved the Layreader somewhat as she confessed her nervousness. I assured her that I was far more nervous than she because I recognized so many friends of my youth who came out to meet me, with grandchildren in tow.

"Christmas at home was a wonderful celebration, even with the canned music!!"

"I had not been in my home church for Christmas since 1974 and it was good to see family and friends come out to renew old acquaintances."

Tom was ordained Deacon in 1974 at St. John's, and to the priesthood in 1975.

His son Andrew  met him in Chapleau and they spent Christmas Eve at his sister Margaret's home on Borden Lake.

On the drive to Sudbury the next morning Tom related that he enjoyed "travelling through some beautiful bush, coloured with God's frosty paint brush."

As I read Tom's blog, my mind wandered back to 1885, and the first Church of England (Anglican) service held at Christmas time in Chapleau. It was conducted by Rev Gowan Gillmor, best known as 'The Tramp' who travelled the CPR line in Northern Ontario, as the "railway missionary." The service was likely conducted in a boxcar which was the first station.

Ian Macdonald collection

Rev. Gillmor was known to walk the CPR line, and at times pushed a handcar from place to place. 

Rev. Gillmor was also in Chapleau to  assist with the planning of the building of a church, which was officially opened on the site of the old tennis court on July 1,  1886.

The first service in the present St. John's was held on March 29, 1908 when it was dedicated by Bishop George Holmes.

Rev John Sanders

I also recalled reading about the travels by canoe and dog team of Rev. John Sanders (Saunders), who conducted a service at Chapleau on the banks of the river in 1882. I don't know if Rev. Sanders ever visited Chapleau in the Winter, but like Bishop Tom, am sure he enjoyed travelling through the "beautiful bush..." of Northern Ontario. Rev. Sanders may have been the first Indigenous (Ojibway) priest in the Church of England (Anglican) in Canada. 

Tom made it home safely to Sudbury where he was greeted by wife Ruth, son Stephen, mother Frances, and other family members.

He retired as Bishop of Moosonee on December 31, 2013, and is now Assisting Bishop, as well as interim part time Rector of the Church of the Epiphany in Sudbury, where he previously served as Rector.

Thank you Bishop Tom for letting me share parts of your "little different Christmas." It also let me do what I really enjoy -- mixing metaphors with my references to Rev. Gillmor and Rev. Sanders!.. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

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