By Garth Dymond
The first St. Peter’s opened in 1926 and was dedicated October 24, 1926 by Bishop Pinkham. His picture is in the Chapel. It was a Diocese “assisted” parish which means that it received financial assistance from the Diocese. The church was built to serve a rural area known as Glenmore, which at that time was many miles from downtown Calgary and not even close to being in the Calgary city limits. It was physically situated at Elbow Drive and 66th Avenue (now Glenmore Trail).
The church yard had a shelter for the horses for protection from the weather. People came to church in horse and buggy, on horseback and some had a car. The building would handle probably about 30-35 parishioners and had a basement. It had a belfry, and the rope to pull the bell on Sunday was located inside the church and rung enthusiastically, prior to Sunday services.
The organ was a foot-pedal design to fill the bellows with air and create the sound. The lighting consisted of coal oil lanterns mounted on the side of the room and one row rested on boards suspended from the ceiling down the centre of the aisle. St. Peter’s was not in the city, so there was no electricity, no plumbing, no gas or electricity for heating. There was a big pot-belly stove at the back of the church which burned wood and coal for heating in the fall, winter and early spring. The 'bathroom' consisted of two outhouses, each of which had a ‘two holer’ and separate catalogs.
There were three stained glass windows in the Sanctuary. They now sit on the east wall of the chapel in the St. Peter's church we all know and love.
The Sunday school consisted of two granaries joined together with a pot belly stoves for heating. Children sat on benches around the stoves. The music for the Sunday school consisted of an accordion and our teachers were Dorothy and Marilyn Humphries. Dorothy played the accordion. Our favorite hymn was This Little Light of Mine, which we animated.
Some of the early clergy were Canon W.I.D. (Ivan) Smith, (from Ontario) Canon Van Der Leest, (from the Netherlands) Canon Robert (Bob) Crowder from England. Bob often talked about his ministry in rural Saskatchewan. He ministered to several parishes. Some could not afford to pay him money, so they gave him chickens, hams, potatoes, and other vegetables as compensation. Most of the time he and his wife Muriel, were invited to a home for Sunday dinner. Bob and Muriel came to the Calgary Diocese from ministering in the Saskatchewan Diocese.
The first missionary was Archdeacon Timms, he was a missionary in southern Alberta and brought Anglicanism to the Blackfoot people and translated the Blackfoot language into English and English into the Blackfoot language.
The basement had a kitchen with long tables and benches. Funds raising for the parish consisted of Whist Drives, turkey dinners, box lunch raffles and other similar activities.
The first recorded congregation consisted of 115 parishioners and the collection was $38.00. Not a meteoric beginning, perhaps, but God was clearly up to something…