HomeMy WebLinkAboutX2023-006-015yy- Hallowed Shrines
Salem Church, pictured on the cover, is one of hundreds of rural
churches built in Canada in the last century. Situated on a side -
road in'Castern Ontario's Bay of.Quinte Conference, it has not
had regular services for 90 years.
Built of wood in 1849, Salem was originally a chapel of the Wesleyans,
the largest Methodist group in Canada. The'work was done by members
of the congregation. The accounts were kept in pounds, shillings and
pence.,: the currency of the time. It was representative of Canada's rural
churches when Canada became a nation in 1867. The fabric was bricked
over in 1880. Ten years later the church was closed, and its members
transferred to another church. Since then it has been lovingly tended
and cared for. A commemorative service is held in it every year.
The cemetery with its distinctive gravestones tells of those who found-
ed the church. Most of them came from Ireland, driven out by the
Potato Famine of 1845-47. As refugees from privation and hunger, they
found CAada a land of new opportunity and hope, as have thousands
from many different codr teies in our own time.
Rural churches like this would likely have anyone of a dozen favourite
Biblical names — Shiloh, Ebenezer, Pisgah, Sharon, Bethesda, Bethany
and Olivet. Perhaps most of them have now been closed and torn down.
In many cases their sites have been forgotten.
Upon a township map I saw Mount Carmel's sacred name,
Salem,., Bethel, Zion, too, each -!one -of Seriptaral fame,
„ They mark the little churches"sites where through the passing
years
The faith that grew in Palestinetwas giv'n to Western ears.
These shrines of the past are unfamiliar to many people to -day. Small
and commonplace as they were, they mayje a mighty contribution to
the moral and spiritual development of Canada,. It is well that some of
them, like Salem, should�be preserved., to remind us of our past and the
way by which we have come..
Photo Credit. Kenneth'A. Moyer .