June 19th, 2016
Today, we were honored to welcome many to the celebration of St. Ann’s Catholic Church 60th Anniversary!
We were able to welcome many visitors among us. We welcomed the Sisters from Kamloops, Seminarian Rosario and his family from Lac La Hache and visitors from Kamloops and Williams Lake. We were blessed to have them here celebrating with us.
Before Mass began, we gave a brief history of our Parish.
Can you imagine mass being celebrated only three times a year and fitting in baptisms, marriages and religious instruction only when the priest was able to make it here? Well, until the 1940’s, St. Ann’s was a missionary church served by Oblates and Redemptorist priests. They traveled here by rail or by horse to serve the growing Catholic community in Quesnel.
Built from donations and volunteered manpower, we had a small beautiful church at the corner of Front Street and St Laurent Avenue with stained glass windows and 14 pews, 7 on each side of the aisle. It served as our church for over 60 years and went through several renovations and additions.
In 1955, our parish was canonically established with Father Michael Murtagh as the resident pastor. Within a few years, numbers made it necessary to celebrate Sunday Masses in the nearby Rex Theatre, made available thanks to Paul Gauthier. Soon after that plans were made to build a new church. Property was acquired on Sutherland Avenue and parishioners pledged labour, materials and money. The sod was turned on June 15, 1959 and the cornerstone was laid in October. The new church was blessed on May 31, 1961 by Bishop Harrington and the first Mass was celebrated.
On August 15, 1968, our still-standing two-story hall was built. In 1985, the lower hall was converted to three classrooms in anticipation of the opening of St. Ann’s School in 1986. In 1994, the school celebrated with a full enrollment from Kindergarten to Grade 7.
Today, we also revealed our new Parish logo:
Looking East, towards the sunrise.
A conceptual play on words – “The Risen Son”.
The Cariboo mountains on the horizon.
The confluence of the Fraser and Quesnel Rivers, with the Quesnel River slightly dominant.
The iconic grouping of “Cross, Bible, Chalice, Wheat” is positioned to identify our geographic and municipal Parish location.
Our parish of St. Ann’s is truly blessed by God. Today we celebrated 60 years! May God bless every day that follows.
Head over to our gallery to see photos from our celebration.