To the East

Posted Friday 23 October 2009

Networking

Two Bishops

On Thursday we were back on our travels, this time we were off to the Eastern Townships an area of Quebec that was one of the destination of the loyalist communities that fled from USA following the American Revolution, over the years many of the communities have become French speaking, though the Anglican Church has maintained a strong presence in parts of the community.

The day started with snow falling and settling across Quebec City so with the usual excitement of the first fall of the winter we all set off, me with the first snowball down my neck courtesy of Mara. We travelled through a winter landscape that was very familiar, the hills and farms reminded us of the country around Huntly and Foggie, the names were clearly British, we passed through Thetford and Disraeli, we skirted Inverness and Stratford but when we stopped in Disraeli for lunch, sitting at the counter in a truck stop eating burgers, the language and mannerisms were clearly French.

We stopped off in Lennoxville to visit the Diocesan meeting of the Anglican Church Women before driving through the grounds of Bishops University, the former theological college for Quebec. The ACW committee are very keen to link with the Mothers Union in both Burundi and Scotland and so another task to get on with on our return home.

We arrived in North Hatley and drove to John and Louise’s beautiful lakeside home where we were to stay the night.  We got changed into more suitable Highland attire and after dinner in a local restaurant we arrived at St Barnabas church. The service was a Book of Common Prayer Communion Service, while the choir sang Merbecke, close my eyes and I am back at St Andrew’s Aberdeen in surplice and ruff! I preached on the importance of community before we were treated to another lovely reception. We spent the night in a bedroom with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake, the peace was complete and the sleep refreshing.