Duty Calls

Christ Church Cathedral commemorates the 100th Anniversary of Vancouver’s Victory Square Cenotaph

Why did they do it, those men who marched away a century ago, heading straight for Hell on the Western Front? Those men whose distant graves are still remembered at Vancouver’s main cenotaph, unveiled April 27th , and dedicated by the Reverend Cecil Owen, former Christ Church rector, whose son, Harold, died on a Flanders battlefield in 1916.
 
Come — and listen — to three men — Private Norman Hughes, who fought at Vimy Ridge, and Lieutenant Harold Owen, both remembered in stained glass windows, and Lieutenant-Colonel William Hart-McHarg, memorialized on a plaque — as they step down from the walls of Christ Church Cathedral to tell their stories of life, war, and death.  
 
“DUTY CALLS”, by Vancouver writer Anne Fletcher, harkens to a time when Canada was more colony than country, when words such as duty and honour had currency. The hour-long play will be presented as a staged reading by local actors John Innes, Anthony Ingram, Alvin Sanders, Michael Wasko and Nelson Wong, and directed by international theatre artist Jack Paterson. Rupert Lang, the Cathedral’s Director of Music, will lead from piano and organ, as the audience is invited to join in, singing anthems and hymns of the Great War.

Date: Sunday, November 10th, 2024
Time: 4:00 pm
Place: Christ Church Cathedral, 690 Burrard Street
Admission: BY DONATION (suggested $25 – everyone 18 yrs. and under will be welcomed as guests of the Cathedral’s Youth Ministry)

For further information contact:
Donna Wong-Juliani, Artistic Associate: donna@thecathedral.ca / 604.682.3848 ext.126