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Shortly after 1:00 pm this afternoon, the Travelling Bishop Stringer Exhibition was unveiled at the Old Log Church Museum in downtown Whitehorse. The museum's home was the parish church when it was constructed in 1900, making it one of the oldest buildings in the city. The Old Log Church became the cathedral of the Diocese of Yukon in 1953 when the see was moved from Dawson City to Whitehorse. The present Christ Church Cathedral was built in 1960. The old and new cathedrals are located close by each other, separated by a small park.
The Old Log Church, including the adjacent former Rectory, has been declared a territorial historic site.
The exhibition unveiled today, created by the museum staff, is comprised of several standing units with archival photos and information from primary sources on the history of the Anglican Church in Yukon, focusing particularly on the life and ministry of Bishop Isaac Stringer and his wife Sadie. The exhibit is scheduled to be displayed in various museums and other venues across Canada between 2007-2010. Canadians, watch for it in your area.
The Old Log Church is a very small building and the exhibit took up most of the interior space. One of the people who put it together told me that two or three pieces were not assembled and displayed because there simply wasn’t room. This photo shows the interior of the church before the crowds arrived. On the right is a white cloth representing a tent like those the first Yukon Anglicans worshipped under. On the left is a miniature log building standing for the log churches that dotted the Diocese of Yukon in the early years. Archival photographs with descriptive text are seen in the windows. Behind the tent and log cabin is another stand with photographs and historical information. The photo facing the camera is of Bishop Isaac and Sadie Stringer, about whom more below.
(Click on photos for larger views.)
Below is a small portion of the historical information included in the exhibit.
The first missionary to Yukon was Rev William Kirkby, who visited the area between 1861-62.
William Carpenter Bompas (1834-1906), “The Apostle of the North”, served as first Bishop of Yukon from 1874 until 1905. In the late 1880s, miners started arriving in the Yukon River basin and American whalers moved in along the Arctic coast. Bp Bompas worked to safeguard the rights of aboriginal peoples. The reports he sent to southern Canada convinced the Canadian government to send officials and police to the north. Thus were the Northwest Mounted Police already on the scene well before the start of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898.
Isaac O. Stringer, "The Bishop Who Ate His Boots”, was a farm boy from Kincardine, Ontario, and graduate of University of Toronto and Wycliffe College. He was ordained in 1892 and journeyed to Fort MacPherson in the Northwest Territories to serve among the Loucheaux Indians, Eskimos, and American whalers. On a trip back to Ontario in 1896, he married Sarah Ann Alexander; together, they returned to the Arctic two months later. Bishop Isaac and Sadie ministered at Herschel Island off the north coast of Yukon until the bishop suffered snow blindness that forced them to leave in 1901. His health improved after they moved to Whitehorse where he served as Rector. In 1905, he was elected second Bishop of Yukon to succeed the aging Bishop Bompas. At that time, the Stringer family moved to the diocesan see of Dawson City. During the next 25 years, he travelled far and wide across his vast diocese. In 1931, he was consecrated Archbishop of Rupert’s Land and the Stringers moved to Winnipeg, where he died three years later.
At right is a photo of Bishop Isaac and Sadie Stringer and their first two children. (They ultimately had five.)
Isaac Stringer became known as “the bishop who ate his boots” after he and a fellow missionary were lost in a blizzard for thirty days in 1909. After days without food, they made a stew from his moccasin boots. Here is an entry from the bishop’s diary for that day.
Thursday, October 21st Breakfast off sealskin boot, soles and tops boiled and toasted. Soles better than uppers. Soup of small scraps of bacon and spoonful of flour (the scrapings of the flour bag), the last we had . . .
The next day, they reached the settlement of Peel River. The story of this journey became famous throughout Canada and Great Britain.
This photo from the exhibit shows a representation of the interior of the Anglican church in Old Crow. Accompanying descriptive text reads:
Humble log churches were often graced with exquisite beadwork. Altar cloth of beaded caribou hide in St Luke's Church, Old Crow, ca. 1946
As I mentioned here last week, The Most Rev Andrew Hutchison, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, was present for this afternoon’s event. I was mistaken, however, in suggesting that he was to have a leading role in the unveiling. The public presentation of the exhibition had been planned for some time, and its occurrence during the primate’s visit was fortuitous. The Most Rev Terry Buckle, Archbishop of Yukon, did the honours.
A detailed online exhibit based on historical information provided by the Old Log Church Museum is posted at Canada’s Virtual Museum. More historical information can be found at Project Canterbury, including biographies of Bishop Bompas and Bishop Stringer, and a memoir of Bp Bompas by Rev H.A. Cody, Rector of Christ Church.
