Edmonton police investigate suspicious fire at church in Highlands

By Phil HeidenreichOnline journalist  Global News

“[I] heard some thumping and poked my head out of my preschool door which was in the basement of the church,” Harmsma said. “[I] saw someone leaving the church — someone unfamiliar — and I went to pursue him but I was nervous so I locked the door actually to shut myself in.

“While I was on the phone with police talking about how I had seen someone potentially breaking into the church… I noticed orange in the window of the church and there was a fire.”

According to Harmsma, 16 preschool students were set to arrive shortly after the fire broke out. She said the preschool, which has operated out of the church for about 30 years, appeared to have sustained significant water damage. “Water destroys so I anticipate it will be a long cleanup,” she said.

Harmsma added she has had lots of offers for help since people learned what happened and that she hopes to have a new temporary location for the preschool arranged in time for Monday.

David Brooks walked by the church on Friday to see the damage for himself. He said he’s been attending for over 70 years.

“This is a blow to the community, definitely,” he said.

“It’s receded in attendees in the last few years but it’s still, I think, a big part of the community. There are other events that happen here too.”

A fire department spokesperson said it had yet to determine an estimate for the damage to the church.

© 2018 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The signs were all there... John Tidridge

"It was the thought of only having to work an hour a week that attracted me to the Ministry"... a good start to a conversation with John Burrill (Burl as in Ives). Pastor John knew he was on safe ground with the person providing the other half of the conversation; the mutual respect has been in effect for many years. And it was as fellow believers we finally nailed down an official 'interview'. It is usually the interviewer's job to set the tone, not the person being interviewed... however.

John, married 27 years to Ann Marie, father of 4 sons, David, Joshua, Zachary. A Christian has been the minister at Highlands United Church for 22 years. He likes to think of this church as a hospital for sinners.

Although a preacher's kid, the ministry was not on his mind when he enrolled at Calgary's university: it was going to be 'law' regardless of the affirmation and direction he admitted he had been receiving for many years pointing to the ministry. With a B.A. in Political Science he enrolled in a one year 'Enquirers' course, at St. Andrews, determined to show God he would be a better lawyer than preacher... strange that he later graduated with a M.Div. God moves in mysterious ways!

Born in Middleton, Nova Scotia, John arrived in Edmonton via Kimberly, British Columbia and Calgary, Alberta.

The Highlands appears to be a good safe place to live, but it is also an area troubled by what John calls, the 'Dees'... depression, death, despair, drugs, divorce, and dollars (too many or too few). There are many hurting people who need a void filled in their lives. Jesus is the answer, John confidently asserts.

Pastor Birrell tries to follow the advice of his father who told him he should 'strive to win the approval of God'... this has allowed him to weather the tough times in ministry, and not to get too excited about the good times! He enjoys the 'politics of churching', which of course do not exist! It is obvious that John cares for 'his' people and would extend that caring to all others. A firmness of belief shines though the joviality, the needs of person-kind are recognized and Pastor John is well suited for the ministry. He would have made a sharp lawyer too...

This is an article that first appeared in the Highlands-Bellevue Magazine, May 2011 edition

The following articles were taken from the:
Highlands Historical Foundation Newsletter Volume 8 NO 2 FALL 1997

The Highlands neighborhood was beginning to sprout on tracts of wild land in 1911 when some of the first residents who had moved from downtown concluded that there was a pressing need for a Union Sunday School.

With the help of Rev. A.W. Coone, a local minister, the first classes were begun in the just completed Highlands School, a two storey wood frame structure that would itself be replaced in less than a decade by the current brick and stone building.

By July, 1912, just two months after the first class, it was decided a "real" church was needed.

Mr. R.J. Robinson, the first Sunday school superintendent, wrote in a later report: "... the rapid growth of the community warranted the consideration of a church. You are aware of Mr. Magrath's generosity in providing a site in [sic] Houston Street (64^th) where a parsonage was built which was ... left unfinished so that it could be used as a meeting place for the Congregation."

In a matter of a few months, parishioner and noted architect E.W. Morehouse designed and supervised construction of the Highlands Methodist Church. The first service was held on December 1, 1912.

The building, at 11317 - 64^th Street, still serves as the manse (or parsonage) to this day, although the exterior was radically "modernized" in the 1950s.

In 1912, as people flooded into the new neighborhood, the unfinished parsonage was quickly overwhelmed.

By the summer of 1913 services were moved to the local curling rink, located at the corner of 62^nd Street and 113^th Avenue for the summer while the house was completed and a new church building quickly erected - all with volunteer labour - at the northwest corner of 64^th Street and 113^th Avenue.

"The Little White Church ca. 1915

The "little white church" served for many years as both a church and Sunday School.

A two-classroom wing was added in 1914, and the little church served through the First World War until 1922, "when ample accommodation became imperative," as a later church history noted.

Sadly, few details are known of the little white church. There is no mention of it in church records, and it is not seen in a 1931 photograph of the site.

But Dorothy Reynolds (11332 - 62^nd St.) remembers it. Her father built a house at 11404-67^th St. in 1913 with lumber shipped from Ontario, and she attended Sunday School and was baptized by Rev. G.H. Cobbledick, who ministered to the congregation from 1917 to 1921.

She has vivid memories of teaching her first Sunday School class as a teenager in 1925 in the little white church. The building had a second floor gallery across the front (south) end with curtained off "classrooms" for the children. As part of her job, Dorothy played the church's small foot-pumped organ.

Ted Reynolds, a bachelor, arrived on the scene that year. Ted and Dorothy married in the church in 1931 and remained active in the congregation until the late 1980s.

On August 15, 1923, a cornerstone (still visible on the present church) was laid to mark the official start of construction of a new church with a concrete basement and clinker brick finish.

This was actually phase one of the building program, as the basement, temporarily roofed over, was to be used for church services until enough money was raised to complete the superstructure.

The congregation paid $9,000 for the new quarters, and the first service was held on December 11, 1923.

The church was renamed Highlands United after the nation-wide union of Methodist, Congregationalist and most Presbyterian churches in 1925. That same year, the congregation decided to complete their church, a "bungalow" style building on the existing basement that would seat 325 parishioners.

Architect W.G. Blakey was hired to design the new structure. He had completed Christ Church (Anglican) in the Oliver district just the year before, and to this day the interiors and finishes of the two buildings remain similar.

The wood frame, which has timber structure finished on the exterior with painted California stucco and half-timbering, rose quickly.

The interior, with its plain plastered walls and striking dark-stained timber framing and paneled wainscoting was, and is, very reminiscent of the interiors of many of the older homes in the area.

The Gothic arch windows and their magnificent stained glass panels are still in first-class condition. All that for the sum of $16,000 pews not included.

............................................................Highlands United Church in 1950 prior to addition.

The dedication service was held on December 11, 1928, exactly fours years after the "basement" was finished.

The oak pews used today were installed in 1934. Despite the Great Depression, the Ladies Aid raised the $1,800 to buy them.

The original 1927 building remains little changed to this day, although it is somewhat concealed from the front (south) by the "modern" 1953 addition built to house the influx of parishioners to the Highlands area following the Second World War.

The best view of the original building is from the northwest on 64^th Street.

Later modifications to the interior of the sanctuary included the 1948 memorial window, a Neutel pipe organ in 1970 to replace a two-manual Casavant, and the addition of a built-in memorial baptismal font in

1992.

Stained glass collected from the ruins of the Second World War became a memorial

Dave Cooper

In a shell hole in France almost 50 years ago, Rev. Dr. T.R. Davies of the Highlands United Church was giving his ninth service of a long day.

Attendance was nearly 100 per cent. "Men don't have to be compelled to go to church in the present circumstances," he wrote in his personal diary.

In the shell hole, 30 men sat and there was still plenty of room. "I walked around the rim and it took me 45 steps to get around. It was almost 12 feet deep so that we could stand up and still be concealed from the German gunners.

"The lads called it their 'Rosebowl,' and had it fixed up for the service before I arrived. The last service of the day was one to be remembered because of the manner in which the lads sang 'Abide with me'."

The day before, Davies had visited a church in the Normandy town of Carpriquet that had been almost completely wrecked. Amidst the rubble, he tried to imagine what it must have been like before the shells hit. Someone had been there before him and attempted to restore the altar.

"The base was there with the carved figure of a lamb. Above this there was a cross (with the image of Christ blown off) ... the shattered figure had been gathered up and placed on the pedestal at the foot of the cross. I knew that someone with a sense of value had visited the place and performed this act of reverence." Later he discovered it was soldiers from his own regiment, the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Winnipeg.

Davies felt in this simple act there was hope for the world when there are people who recognize that some things have to be preserved.

The day after his shell hole service, Davies and the troops passed through the ruin of Caen and moved south along the Orne River. The fighting was terrible, and hundreds of wounded men were moved to field hospitals. Hundreds of others were killed.

To find solitude, Davies wandered into the deserted village of Fleury-Sur-Orne. The walls of the local church were still standing. As he ambled through the partly ruined building, thinking about the destruction of war and two friends who had been killed earlier that day, Davies bent down to puck up a small square of orange coloured glass.

It wasn't a souvenir, he wrote. Just a token of remembrance.

Later, he returned to his blanket by the roadside. The next day, a patrol found seven German soldiers hiding in the balcony of the Fleury-Sur-Orne church, where they had hidden to let the war pass by. They had let Davies pass as well.

At the end of July, 1944, the Allied advance was largely halted by vicious fighting. Davies spent his days in the sad task of burying the dead. He began picking up fragments of glass from local churches, and inscribing them with the names of those be buried. "The practice had to be discontinued because the number of names was usually too great to write in as small a space as my glass provided."

Davies suffered a wound in the field, and was treated near the front line by a medical officer and friend. "I was his last patient. Shortly afterwards a shell landed and Harry Marnatz passed to his reward."

Davies later found a little rosette of glass in tribute to Marnatz, "whose chief fault was that he always established his regimental aid post as close as he could to the area where the lads were fighting." On his way to hospital in England, the truck carrying Davies' luggage - and collection of glass - was blown up.

When Davies returned to the regiment at Christmas, he was handed his package of glass. A soldier had searched for it in the debris of the explosion and kept it for him. By early 1945, the Germans had been pushed back through Holland. Davies collected fragments to remind him of the bitter fighting through Arnhem and Groningen.

At Frasselt, in the Reichwald Forest close by the upper reaches of the Seigfried Line, Davies found a piece of glass with the picture of an animal. At Cleve, he picked up a lovely rosette. "The name of Cleve is known to us because of Anne of Cleves ... It is not improbable that sunshine filtered through some of this very glass and fell upon the face of Anne before she set out to become the bride of an English king," he wrote.

Davies brought the glass home and gave it to his congregation. They had it made into a memorial window.

He said that the memorial window "emphasized three essential principles."

Much of the glass was very old and steeped in history. "We need to be reminded that wisdom did not begin with us."

All the glass came from outside Canada, and he said that should remind us that we are a very young country, with much to learn from Europe.

Thirdly, Davies said the glass can represent "the sad fragments of men (and women) whose graves are in foreign lands."

Seventeen members of the Highland United Church lost their lives during the war.

The window was officially dedicated by Lt.-Gov. J.e. Bowlen on Remembrance Day Sunday, November 7, 1948.

Rev. Dr. Davies died in October 1987.

For many, the music heard in church has a special place in the heart. Christmas carols sung by winter candlelight, the alleluias of Easter morning or the strains of a favourite hymn all endure as memory.

Highlands United Church has a strong musical tradition that began with the first service on December 1, 1912, when Miss N. B. Scarth played a piano purchased before there was a church building to house it.

No doubt the congregation sang as they do today - all voices raised and all the verses covered!

By 1927, with the church sanctuary a reality, a reed organ with pedal operated bellows was installed. But as membership grew and more sound absorbing bodies filled the pews, a larger instrument was required.

In 1945, a two manual Casavant pipe organ was purchased. The Memorial Organ was dedicated "To the glory of God and in memory of the men who gave their lives and to honour the men and women who served in the armed forces during the Second World War."

The Casavant had five ranks of pipes which lined the east and west walls of the choir loft. It would serve for 25 years, but by the end would require extensive repairs. Once again, growth necessitated change.

The church addition, including the balcony at the back of the sanctuary, demanded a larger and more extensive organ. After a year-long fund drive, a new Memorial Organ was installed in 1970.

The dedication of the Neutel organ was an ecumenical affair as it included Father Leo Green, then Director of Music for the Edmonton Separate School Board and a well known musical personality.

The Neutel pipe organ, designed and built by Neutel Pipe Organ Company Limited of Brantford, Ontario, has 862 pipes located above the east side of the choir loft. Reaching this room requires a great deal of faith and a long ladder perched in the stair well. The console, located below and in front of the loft, controls all the stops and the chimes. It was donated in 1950 by the Women's Association.

Now getting on in age, this organ has its special quirks, some endearing, and some -- challenging. It whistles hello when first turned on, and on a cold morning will continue to sing long after the organist and everyone in the congregation has stopped.

Other instruments add to the joyful noises of celebration. In addition to the organ, a Yamaha baby grand piano was added to the sanctuary in 1992. The music program is rounded out with the Senior and Up Tempo bell choirs under the direction of Carol Bergum

But central to the music of the church is the choir. The dedication of time and practice, irrespective of musical ability, has been the mainstay of the Highlands United Church choirs. Leaders of song, soloists, a source of inspiration and celebration, the choir gives voice to music as prayer, both contemplative and joyful.

Many of the faces in the choir loft today have been there for a lifetime. In fact, it is claimed that every girl in the neighborhood belonged to the junior choir at some point. Highlands has also been blessed with talented music directors and organists, including the Highlands' own Dorothy Reynolds, who worked out on the pedal-operated reed organ.

In 1963, J.H. Pritchard began 22 years of service as choir leader, assisted by Miss Naomi Skinner who became church organist in 1964. Rev. Pratt, his wife Jean and various members of his family added much to the music program during their tenure from 1967 to 1974.

In 1967, James Whittle was appointed Director of Music, followed by Sharon Backsted, Florian Wenzel, Kevin Heschedahl, Debi Harris and the current organist and choir director, Jacqueline Carstairs.

The Highlands United Church's music program continues to grow. Music is still a vital and central part of worship. Its power to unite and build community is always strong.

Debi Harris

After years of exploring various church pews, doctrines and sermons, I rejoined the faith of my childhood one Sunday in the spring of 1995. Ostensibly, I had gone to see the memorial window at the Highlands United Church, and instead found myself visiting a past whose comfort I had missed. The music was familiar, the order of service and messages of hope little changed from that which my subconscious had taken in despite my rush to adulthood.

There were no plastic smiles or vacant looks. Everyone sang, all the hymns, all the verses. They shook my hand and spoke to me.

There was something else going on here, though, something I couldn't define - until someone asked me where, in the Highlands community, did I live.

Then I realized that what pulled at me. It was a feeling of belonging.

I'm not a theologian or anthropologist, so I can't explain the enduring aura I felt that Sunday and many days since. I do remember one of the truisms of the United Church was, and is, its strong sense of community, so typified in the Highlands United Church.

We see it in the old photographs, from the modest beginnings in a clapboard building, and the "new" hall, added in 1953, in the blurry faces of all those children in the junior choir. We see it in the list of charter members, which includes E.W. Morehouse, the architect of many of our historic homes and original owner of my own home.

And we hear it in the memories of residents when they describe life in the Highlands through the years.

Frances Martell was five years old when she started attending the clapboard church. Like Violet MacLeod, Helen Newnham and many other girls of the neighbourhood, she sang in the Junior Choir.

Dorothy Aird recalls the Canadian Girls in Training (CGIT) trip to Moon Bay at Lake Wabamum. Jean Robbie remembers the Strawberry Tea held every June, an event which is still part of the church calendar. And people remember Alice Emmott, the first bride married in the church and the author of the poem commemorating the Memorial Window.

The Highlands Methodist Church, later the United Church, was a hub, a mainstay in the social and religious life of the community from the earliest days.

Today, new families are moving into the Highlands community and many are coming to Highlands United Church. Many are perhaps seeking the old fashioned stability and sense of belonging that the Church, like the community, represents.

Even when people have moved from the area, they still return, Sunday after Sunday, to "their" church.

The Highlands United Church is a beautiful and historic building. It is also where the cycle of life is celebrated and mourned, where the soul is nourished. It is where you catch up on current events and gossip.

The past and the present, the living history of the Highlands community, is be found partly in the Highlands United Church as it is in other hubs throughout the area. The continuity and enduring sense of Highlands community is amazing.

There are other churches here and throughout the world that have served the same function, but the Highlands United Church is part of our community and we celebrate its presence here over the past 85 years.

 Gertrude Dahl, Eileen Passmore, Lucille Ross, and Ruby Simonson

Throughout its history, the Highlands United Church has held events such as the Robbie Burns Tea, Next to New sale and the Christmas Bazaar.

Unit 4 ladies catering at Freda and Ted Talbot's 50^th Anniversary, September 30,1989.

These events have provided an opportunity for the congregation and the community to come together to share food and fellowship. A common theme of all these events is brisk business around the bake sale table, and the lively chatter of friendships being renewed.

And how do all these occasions come off so well? Because of the women of the congregation, who have always provided their loyal support and service.SEPTEMBER 15. 2018

In the early years, women joined the Women's Association and/or the Women's Missionary Society.

The Women's Association did primarily work in support of the church, while the Women's Missionary Society concentrated on missions and outreach projects.

In 1961, the United Church of Canada started the United Church Women (UCW), a new group which was to encompass the work of both the Women's Association and the Women's Missionary Society.

When the new organizational structure was adopted at the Highlands United Church in 1962, it was agreed that Freda Talbot, President of the Women's Association, would be the president of the UCW for the first term, and then Marjorie Hadlow, President of the Women's Missionary Society, would be president the following term.

Merging the two existing, strong groups was not without difficulty, and the successful merger is a credit to those involved at the time.

The purpose of the UCW is to unite the women of the congregation for the total mission of the Church, and to provide a way for women to express their loyalty and devotion to Jesus Christ, in Christian witness, study, fellowship and service. In the Highlands, this purpose was demonstrated regularly through the activities and the projects of the UCW.

In the mid-60's more than 100 women belonged to one of the six units of the UCW. Each unit held fundraising activities. For example, the Robbie Burns Tea was an initiative of Unit Four. The Robbie Burns Tea has brightened many a long, cold January for the past 42 years. It is a traditional Scottish Tea, complete with dancers, singers, pipers and an address to the Haggis!

Unit Three regularly catered dinners, including the monthly meetings of the East End Businessmen Association. The women of Unit Two were known as the "Quilters." From 1962 to 1987 they raised funds by making and selling handmade quilts. All units provided catering services for funerals, anniversaries and weddings.

Funds raised from the activities of the UCW are used to support the ongoing work of the church and for community outreach projects.

Until recently, support of the church included maintaining the church manse. The UCW provided the curtains and furniture, and took care of the interior decorating. The UCW also provided an annual "house" allowance to the minister's wife.

The community outreach projects have varied over the years, but have always concentrated on addressing the needs of others through agencies such as Operation Friendship, the Elizabeth Fry Society, WIN House, Youth Emergency Shelter, WINGS, Inner City Pastoral Ministry, Canadian Bible Society and World Development.

The UCW has also been active beyond the Highlands through the functions of the Presbyterial, which is made up of all of the UCW's in Edmonton. Over the years, several Highlands UCW members, including Jo Ross, Lucille Ross, Freda Talbot and Marjorie Hadlow have held executive positions at the Presbyterial level.

Through the countless meals served and the thousands of dishes washed, the Highlands UCW has provided support and comfort to the community. The members have truly put their hearts and souls into "being of service to others in the name of Christ."

While their fundraising has provided for a great many creative comforts for the church, the real legacy of the UCW is the strength of the friendships formed and the fellowship shared over the years.

The Highlands United Church and its congregation have changed a lot in 85 years. The following descriptions of clothing and typical activities over the years illustrate just how dramatic some of those changes have been.

* Up until the end of World War, women's skirts brushed the floor, and hats and gloves were an essential part of the costume for church and many other occasions. Men also wore hats, suits and ties to church, and to most other places, including parties and even outdoor events such as picnics. * In the 1920's, things changed quickly. Women began raising their hemlines to just above the knee, bobbing their hair, driving automobiles, even smoking.

* During the Second World War and in the 1950s, many more women than ever before were entering the workforce, some to do jobs that men had always done until then. Women who worked in offices favoured tailored suits, and they scrambled to get nylon stockings, which were scarce because of war-time rationing.

* Today, the going-to-church costume for younger members of the congregation is similar to what their great-grandfathers would have worn only on the football field.

Interior of Highlands United Church about 1955

Despite these many outward changes, however, the reasons for attending church are the same. People still come together to seek fellowship, strength in adversity and a meaningful life through a search for God.

The first decade, 1912-22

During its first decade, the Highlands Methodist Church served a large percentage of the residents of the new, upscale Highlands community. At that time, the Highlands was located in a semi-rural area outside of the city, on "the curving Saskatchewan" where "farsighted eyes had seen the potentialities of a river whose banks turned from virgin white to green, blending into deep reds as autumn winds blew" (quoted from the Highlands United Church's 60^th anniversary booklet).

The newly formed Methodist United Church congregation faced significant challenges almost immediately. By 1914, the economic bust had forced a number of residents to sell their large homes and move away. Also, men were enlisting for service in the First World War. Ninety men from this small congregation were away during these years, while those who remained behind waited and prayed for their safe return.

1911 - The first Methodist Sunday School opened in Highlands School, with 32 pupils and a staff of six.

Sunday School class and choir, about 1936... Rev. Smith appears elsewhere as technology, modern as it is did not allow him to appear with his choir!

1912 - December 1. The first regular service of Highlands Methodist Church was held in what is now the manse, with Rev. Stephen Bond officiating.

1913 - September 21. A little white frame church was built and dedicated, with Rev. L.S. Wight officiating.

The Roaring Twenties

1923 - November 11. The newly completed clinker brick basement was dedicated. (The upstairs would be built later.)

1925 - The Highlands Methodist Church became the Highlands United Church, as the Methodists joined the Congregationalists and Presbyterians to form one "united" church.

1927 - December 11. The new "superstructure" (the upstairs) was dedicated.

The Dirty Thirties

1936 - The annual bazaar held on November 27 offered a plate luncheon for 25 cents (at a time when coffee was 45 cents per pound and Tip Top Tailors was advertising British woolen suits for $25.75). The Second World War and the Fifties

During the Second World War, 228 men and women from the Highlands United Congregation served in the forces, and 14 of them gave their lives for their country. The Women's Auxiliary held teas and luncheons and used the money they raised to send food parcels and socks and sweaters to "the boys" in overseas service.

The post-war boom stimulated the first major real estate development in the Highlands since the original large houses had been constructed in 1912-14. The empty spaces between the original homes began to fill in, mainly with modest, one-storey bungalows.

The Church felt the impact of the population growth. In 1955, the Sunday School at Highlands United was the largest in the city, serving nearly 400 children. There were 150 girls in CGIT (Canadian Girls in Training) and the youth congregation had 125 members.

1941 - Rev. T.R. Davies was called to serve as Minister. Rev. Davies later served as a chaplain in the Armed Forces.

Rev. Smith who should have been a part of the choir shown above.

1953 - An extension was built on the Church: the space that is now the front entrance, parlour, kitchen, kindergarten and primary rooms. In this same year, Rev. A.E. "Bert" King spearheaded the acquisition of property for Camp Maskapatoon at Pigeon Lake, the long-term site of Christian Youth Camps for Edmonton presbytery.

The Sixties and Seventies

As the baby boomers grew up and moved away and the congregation became older, the numbers served by the Church declined dramatically. The building of the Capilano freeway was a factor in this change as well. The Freeway cut through the middle of the area served by the Church.

1962 - The Women's Association and the Woman's Missionary Society amalgamated to form the United Church Women (UCW). This new association had 141 members.

1968-71 - Services at the Church were broadcast twice monthly on CFRN radio.

1981-97

Over the past 15 years, the Highlands United Church has experienced another growth period. People who have recently moved into the Highlands area are sharing pews with people who have attended this same church for their whole lives, for as long as 90 years!

A current focus is on "caring for the congregation". A four-part training program provides instruction on Linking Faith to Daily Life, Basic Skills for Caring, Faith for Caring and Caring When It's Tough. The Church has now graduated two classes of Stephen Ministers from the congregation. Stephen Ministers are specially trained lay persons who are assigned a church member who needs help during a crisis or in just generally handling their lives.

1992 - To mark the Church's 80^th anniversary, the congregation installed a baptismal font in the northwest corner of the sanctuary. It's all done in wood and matches the older decor of the church perfectly.