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When you are at the Cathedral do you ever admire the many beautiful vestments, wall hangings, etc, and wonder who made them?

I don’t know all the answers but here are a few people we should be grateful to for items that beautify our worship space.

In the 60’s and 70’s Adrian Ross was responsible for making vestments, altar frontals and banners, and more. There was a Monday morning sewing group under the leadership of Sylvia Ommaney and I am sure they helped him out.

From 1981 to 1985, Mary Jane Muir was the Liturgical Arts coordinator. She was involved with intergenerational events, church school, and costumes for pageants. She made several banners including one for the World Council of Churches meeting here in Vancouver. She also designed some amazing artwork still used for bulletin covers today.

The lovely copper cross in the Park Room was coordinated by Jane Huston. Each square was prepared by a child from church school and their names are on the back of the squares.

At one time, our kneelers were covered in bland, burgundy faux leather. Penny Charlesworth and Bonnie Fulton spearheaded a project whereby parish members were invited to needlepoint different religious symbols, which were used to cover the kneelers. Bonnie and Penny took on the mammoth task of applying the new coverings to the kneelers!!! Today you can see their work on kneelers found in the Narthex. Please ask for one if you would like to kneel for prayer and return it after the service.

With the arrival of Thomas Roach, a talented liturgical fabric artist, in the ‘80s, there were many opportunities to be involved in projects. Thomas himself made four sets of beautiful vestments: white (High Holy days), green (Pentecost and Low Sundays), blue (Advent), and purple (Lent).” They each consist of a chasuble for the priest, dalmatics for the subdeacon and deacon, and stoles for both priests and deacons. He also designed banners, some to be hung outside the church, as well as altar frontals, and other liturgical pieces. He used some of the same fabrics for the changing fabric squares, embossed in gold with prayers in parishioners’ own handwriting, which are changed according to the colour of the season. He also included recycled rosettes and crosses from old vestments to these. Margaret Vickers put together many of the squares and sewing bees in the parish hall gave people an opportunity to decorate the squares as the spirit moved them. Behind each square is a prayer. You can see these in the Healing Chapel all year round.

Thomas later became interested in Indigo dying and with the help of Sheila Wex and a team of volunteers, they designed and quilted a variety of beautiful scenes as hangings. These are displayed in the Parish Hall.

We are looking forward to seeing what new liturgical arts will be coming in the future. We give thanks for the imagination and talent that beautify our lovely cathedral.

Apologies to anyone I have missed.