Trinity, Blenheim has a new stairlift! It runs from the main floor or entry to the building, and goes up to the Sanctuary floor or down to the hall and washrooms. 
Speaking of those washrooms, they are getting a new look, too, and one will be fully accessible to all abilities. 
​Shown seated on the stairlift is Mary Toutant, and at the controls her husband, Clarence. Note, though, that the stairlift can also be controlled by the rider. 
It is licensed by the TSSA.

On Sunday, June 25, Rondeau Bay Transfiguration, at a service at Christ Church, Dresden, farewelled the Rev'd Dr Justin Comber, and Brittany, Will and Sam. They are off to the bright lights of St George's, Goderich, and Christ Church, Port Albert. We will miss them!

It's Black History Month in Canada, and Discovering Dawn: Episode 1 is the first of a series of short videos looking at the contributions African Canadians have made to the development of Dresden, Ontario. 
Our own Christ Church, Dresden, and its connection to the Underground Railroad. is featured in this one. Take the tour with Jackie Bernard and Marie Carter inside and outside and learn how you are touching history when you enter Christ Church!  ​

May I tell you how we happened to obtain secret footage of the altar guild last fall? 
It went like this: 
Late in the summer, the St. Matthew’s churchwardens noticed something odd. Each night at dusk the outside spotlights were coming on. 
The outside spotlights hadn’t been set to automatically come on at dusk in years. The switch was checked, the electrical panel was checked, and it shouldn’t be happening. But it was.
Were vandals sneaking in to hit the switch each night in a fiendish plot to raise our electricity bills? Were churchmice up to no good? 
One of us has a trailcam, so we decided to use it to see exactly what was happening at the switch. We secured it to a beam high in the chancel. 
And forgot about it. 
You see, in the meantime, we found the answer to the problem lay in the switch itself. Our local technician, Chris, fixed it. Then the church continued to sit empty. We were mostly closed for the pandemic. When open, we were using the parish hall, as it was easier to follow the protocols there. 
The day came, though, when we needed to be in the church. It was All Souls and time to hold a pandemic-postponed cemetery decoration day. We did the usual cleaning and the unusual protocol-setting and laying of wires for mics and equipment for the Zoom component of the service. 
We held the service. It was wonderful. 
Then I, for the trailcam was mine, remembered what was still on a beam high in the chancel…
It’s kind of fun to see a sort of stop-motion of what happens at an altar in the leadup to a service. 
We’ve decided to leak a selection of the photos. 
And now you know our secret: that the altar guild really cleans up. 

The parish learning group is the focus of a three-part video series for the Diocese of Huron. It starts with St. Matthew's and goes parochially viral...
Visit the diocesan media page here to take a look.
Would you like to contribute to future videos? We'd love that! Write to us here to pitch your idea!

The Village Stitchers of Florence are back to quilting! These days there is no bending together over patchwork, but they came up with a clever workaround. Myrna, who is spearheading this project, cuts the squares and gets them to stitchers who sew them together in sections. She puts those sections together, then does the finishing. The result, just this week, was six full-sized beautiful quilts, all of which went to the Westover Treatment Centre in Thamesville.