Healing the Wounds of Separatism: St. Matthias' Church, Westmount 8 January 2012 - the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord

F.L.Q.! exclaimed the octogenarian Cressalie Eland. F.L.Q. did this! Active between 1963 and 1970, the Front de liberation du Quebec was a left-wing separatist movement and terrorist force, hoping to foster Quebec as an independent nation. The F.L.Q. was responsible for over 160 violent incidents that resulted in eight deaths, including the bombing of the Montreal Stock Exchange in 1969 and the murder of Labour Minister Pierre Laport in Westmount as part of the October Crisis of 1970.The event to which Eland responded with her accusation of blame for the F.L.Q., however, occurred in 2011. One of the stained-glass windows in the clerestory came crashing down into the nave of St. Matthias' Church, Westmount. It simply fell from its opening in the stone wall, wooden frame and all. But how could the F.L.Q, which ceased operation more than forty years ago, have caused this?The current rector of St. Matthias had served less than a year when the incident with the crashing window occurred. He reports that he initially thought Eland was suffering from dementia, but later he heard her out and learned the full story. The group targeted Anglo institutions and in 1963, F.L.Q. members had indeed detonated a bomb in the post box just outside St. Matthias. The building sits high on a steep hill, and the combination of the setting plus its masonry construction saved it from severe damage - except, it seems, for a small and unnoticed fissure in the protective outer glass over this particular window. Over the years, the crack grew, admitting water with each rain and thawing snow. This, in turn, weakened the supports, resulting in the incident. It took a while, but the F.L.Q. was, in fact, responsible for the damage.As of this writing, the window has been happily repaired. A wellattended burial office had been conducted for Mrs. Eland the previous day, resulting in an unusually sparse gathering for the 10:30 service this day. The rector reports that ten per cent of the population of Canada self-identifies itself as Anglican and he posts over eight hundred names on his membership rolls, but generally expects something below ten per cent of this number on a given Sunday. This particular day, the number is smaller - closer to twenty-five gathered as the prelude begins. The organist plays Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam (BuxWV 180) of Dietrich Buxtehude (c.1638-1707).St. Mathias owes its origin to the efforts of the Young Men's Christian Association, which began house services and a Sunday school in 1873. That house burned down the following year, and the group replaced it with a wooden church. This was expanded several times to accommodate a growing number of parishioners, until in 1910 the architects Ross & MacFarlane drew up plans for a permanent structure.Built in 1912, the current church is constructed of stone in the gothic style. The interior is plastered and painted two-tone beige. This is a Regimental Church and specifically serves the Royal Montreal Regiment, a venerable, mostly English Canadian, historical institution. Thus, regimental banners, with the Union Jack emblazoned on them, hang high above the congregation. The somewhat austere chancel includes several prayer desks and an altar at which the celebrant faces the people, indicating an update in the late twentieth century. A clear glass votive candle at one side indicates reservation of the Sacrament in a discrete tabernacle. At the rear of the church, choir pews form a semicircle in front of the organ, a tracker instrument built by Karl Wilhelm of Montreal.For the opening procession, the congregation sings What king would wade through murky streams, a text by Thomas H. Troeger (b.1945) to music by Carol Doran (b.1936). During the hymn, a mixed choir of about a dozen enters from the tower door, followed by two clergy. The parish's rector wears and alb and white stole, while the celebrant this day, a retired archbishop, wears alb, stole, and chasuble. …

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