“Chilliwack - 1984"

​​Written by Stephen Thompson
Canada West Mission Centre Historian
[email protected]

Historians Corner
Vol. 2 | No. 1

​As Mission Centre Historian, one responsibility is to encourage congregations to have a Congregational Historian to track the major events in their congregation each year. Some congregations have a long, consistent history of having historians appointed. Others seem to have had more occasional appointments, perhaps whenever someone expresses interest in the task after a year or two (or more) of having no one taking on the task.

Chilliwack Congregation is one with a long tradition of having a historian appointed each year. I have in my files reports from 1984 to 1999. And I know that reports have been filed for most, if not all, years since then. All the reports I have were prepared and submitted by Vilda Fetterly. I believe Vilda continued in that role until relatively recently when the “torch” was passed to Lorelei Dean. I thought I would share a few of the happenings in the Chilliwack Congregation as reported by Vilda in her 1984 report.

Membership as of January 1, 1984, was 118 persons. There were 3 marriages, 2 baby blessings, 1 ordination, 2 deaths, 1 “transfer in,” 2 “transfers out,” and 1 membership withdrawal recorded that year. Membership at year end was 114.

Guest ministry on January 29 was a distinguished trio including Howard S. (Bud) Sheehy, Jr. (Counselor to the President of the RLDS Church – as we were known at that time), BC District President Carl Bolger, and Seventy R. Skoor.

​Many members did many good things:

• Jean, Alf, and Patti Beer travelled to Samish Island for a Camping Workshop, Feb. 4&5
• A successful garage sale was held in March
• “Joy Unlimited” – “our youth singing group” (based in Vancouver) performed April 7&8
• Steve and Sherri Weber, managers of Herald House Canada, spent an evening displaying books and talking about their work
• Alf and Jean Beer attended the “Mini Reunion” in Prince George
• Graduations: High School: Rod Christensen, Sandra Fetterly, and Brent Welch; BCIT: Alan Christensen (diploma in Biomedical Electronics); UBC: Dan Beer, B. Comm. (Marketing)
• A Youth Caravan from Southern Oregon visited June 16, 17 & 18.
• “Prayer and Share Meetings” were held on 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings of each month
• Maclaren and Marie Christensen celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Sept. 12
• A new piano was purchased for the chapel
• Rick Stevenson donated a beautiful organ in memory of his wife, Winnie.
• The young people “brought joy into many homes at Christmas” as they spent an evening travelling about singing carols.
• The Christmas Eve Service depicted the drama, “The Journey of the Shepherds.” A special offering was taken at the service for Canadian Saints Outreach (now World Accord).

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That was 1984 in Chilliwack in a nutshell. Thanks Vilda!