A Monthly Publication

I’m Christine Thacker recently retired here from the Diocese of Lincoln where I was Assistant Curate at Holy Cross with St. Helen in Lincoln for nine years. Before that I was Rector of Christ Church, Kitimat, in North West British Columbia, Canada, for eight years.  Although I was born in Lincoln I left in my early twenties for Canada. After a brief spell in Montreal and Ottawa I went West and settled in Vancouver for 16 years. During that time I returned to the church of my childhood, the Anglican Church, where I had a conversion experience that eventually led me to The Vancouver School of Theology where I trained for the priesthood. At the same time I met the Bishop of Caledonia and after a conversation I went off on my great adventure up north to Kitimat. Kitimat is a town of 10,000 with three main industries; logging, Alcan Aluminium and Methanex (methol alchohol). Christ Church was the only Anglican church in town but there were seven other denominations. Ecumenically we worked together very well.  The nearest town to Kitimat was Terrace about an hours drive away. A lovely drive in the summer through the pine forests past lakes and mountains; deadly in the winter where seven feet of snow is normal. Many a time I’ve had to dig myself out of a snowdrift. I had lots of adventures. I’ll tell you a couple of them. First was the trip with my Bishop to a conference near Fort St. John, way up north. We were driving in the dark in January and with the temperature 20c degrees below freezing with snow banks either side of the road when suddenly out of nowhere came a huge moose (size of a cart horse). With no time to brake we hit him full on. The windshield shattered. We were covered in glass and moose hair but otherwise unharmed. The moose also appeared to be OK and wandered off; sadly likely to die later. Luckily soon a logging truck came along and we were rescued. I remember that night when I undressed my underwear was full of glass and moose hair and I picked bits of glass out of my scalp for the next two weeks. The car, a brand new Volvo, was a write off. That story ended up in quite a few of the Bishop’s sermons so I heard.

Talking about Moose reminds me of Moose Milk (hot milk laced with brandy). This was dished out by the Legion Ladies after the annual Remembrance Day Service. By Nov.11 we had lots of snow. I was Legion Chaplain and after the service we paraded down to the Legion Hall, frozen stiff, and ready for our Moose Milk.  This building had a balcony and the Mayor and Corporation were out there admiring the lovely Christmas card scene of pine tree branches drooping under their heavy layer of snow when the snow on the hall roof decided to release itself. The Mayoral party almost disappeared under the avalanche of snow. They were good sports and we all had a good laugh and no harm done except to their egos.

I also spent quite a bit of time travelling with my Bishop to the Native villages for such things as totem pole raisings and house blessings when anyone who had a new truck would bring that too to be blessed. Also baptisms and funerals. Native funerals go on for about a week with much feasting and lengthy speeches that go on long into the night and not much of it in English. A fascinating culture and being Matriarchal has no problem with women priests as they have always had female as well as male chiefs.

And then I came back to the UK and the Church of England……..A new adventure?