A look at 100 years of St. Ann’s church as it celebrates its centenary
At the corner of Sherman and Barton rises a grand, tan-brick, double-towered prayer of a building, reaching heavenward with green copper pyramid steeple-tops, set at conspicuously but somehow pleasingly unequal heights.
There's a beautiful rosette window in the middle and three impressive arched doors underneath and when you walk in, you walk in to a hundred years of history. It's a century of community, of pastoral care and of serving the largely immigrant population in the inner city, at the crossroads of Hamilton's then-evolving foundry-lands. As the factories turned out steel, this church steeled the souls of the new and poor in an often harsh industrial environment.
The centenary officially starts Saturday, June 17, the date in 1923 when this church edifice had its cornerstone laid, soon to welcome to its bosom the freshly Canadian-ized Irish, Italians, Poles, later Vietnamese, and, Japanese parishioners - just ask church organist Gordon Okawara (third generation), who is also oncologist at Juravinski Centre.
Greeting me at these doors, in a long black cassock that sets off his considerable height (so that standing together we look a bit like the unequal towers), is the smiling hospitable figure of Father Jeffery Oehring. He is the latest of only eight pastors who've served here.
Welcome to the grandmother of this city's historic east-end Catholic presence, the church named after Saint Ann. Yes, St. Ann, Jesus's grandmother, and that's one powerful 23 and Me pedigree, even by the Bible's begat and begotten standards.
We're right at the heart of church alley, and we were here first," says Father Jeff, with a laugh of mock boastfulness.
By church alley he refers to the presence along Barton of so many houses of worship, such Hamilton landmarks as the Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral, St. Stanislaw's, St. Anthony's and several others. Some Catholic churches spun off from St. Ann's, in a way, such were the population pressures of a rapidly growing city.
Over time the churches have shared the street with methadone clinics and other examples of an inner city's challenges but also with examples of Hamilton's pride, accomplishment and culture. St. Ann's is within parking-shot of the Ticat home games.
Oh, yes, we've sold parking space (on the church lots) for home games," says Frank De Clara, longtime parishioner, singer, Latin choir member and part of a St. Ann's group who've gathered to talk with me about the church's history and this, their special year. And they all laugh knowingly at this quirk of the church's geography. Football parking's not a huge revenue stream but every bit helps - I guess one could call it Ti-thing.
Among the group I talk with are Linda Perron and Kathleen Rotondi and they've prepared reams of history and colour from the church's past, much of it contained in old Hamilton Spectator articles.
The parish actually started more than 100 years ago, with the first church cornerstone having been laid in 1905, but St. Ann's parish grew so fast, as did Hamilton, during those years that by the early 1920s a bigger church was needed.
The old church? Says Linda, It was moved, one foot every day, for 40 days, by men and horses and became the church hall." It was later destroyed when St. Ann's school was built in its place.
Again, long before the present church was built, the parish became - in 1908 - home to a Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference.
Frances March, another of the parishioners in the group, has been volunteering for decades for the SSVP conference in their work providing food vouchers, furniture, clothes and myriad other goods and service for those in need.
And not just here. Part of the work, says Frances, is getting together a big container to ship to the (far) north."
St. Ann's has long been at the centre of efforts to help bridge inequality in our society, and every fourth Thursday of the month the parish joins the Sisters of the Poor of Jesus Christ to help them in their street ministry in Hamilton, collecting donations of food and preparing lunch bags to distribute around Jackson Square.
Says Father Jeff, We have a good mix of ages and families and we sometimes hear screaming of kids" during service - so much better than the silence of empty pews.
The aforementioned Kathleen Rotondi, baby on the way, is part of the young family" contingent of the church. She met her husband at St. Ann's.
The church is creative in keeping the young involved. We had a spring ball. We dressed up in white gloves, Jane Austen style."
St. Ann's is still true to its roots and customs, such as Corpus Christi Day parades and the very popular novena observances with are so well attended at the church and feature not only prayer get-togethers but explorations of the church's many beautiful stained glass windows.
And, of course, the relic. Gordon Okawara explains that years ago the church was gifted some portion of the bones of St. Ann, which were, the story goes, discovered by Charlemagne hundreds of years after St. Ann fled from the Holy Land to France. They - the bones, sealed away in the church - continue to fascinate.
We're very visible," says Father Jeff of the church. Not just the magnificent building. There is the statue of St. Ann and Mary (out front), the grandmother and mother who bring Jesus into the world. It's a sign of hope."
There will be prayers before masses at the cornerstone this Sunday, June 18, the first of many markings of the centenary.
Jeff Mahoney is a Hamilton-based reporter and columnist covering culture and lifestyle stories, commentary and humour for The Spectator.jmahoney@thespec.com