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March
29th is the date for another Divine Dining Dinner
at the St. Thomas Anglican Church in Bracebridge.
“There is a Punch Party
at 6pm and then the dinner starts at 6:30,” explains Rick
Lees, adding that the main dish on the menu will be Chicken
Tarragon.
“It is mainly a social event,” Lees explains, adding
that the Divine Dining is a regular fundraiser of the church
used to help pay down church debt.
“We buy all of the
food, and church volunteers prepare it,” Lees says. The
church’s youth group does the serving.
The cost is $15.00 per
person, and donation envelopes are available, though there
is no pressure, Lees points out. “We usually have about 90
people attend,” he says.
The St. Thomas Anglican
Church is located at Manitoba Street, across from the movie
theatre in downtown Bracebridge. Parking is on Mary Street,
across from the church.
The present church
building was originally built in 1896, at a cost of just
over $4,000. Its exposed interior wood truss system, with
its half-circle arches resting on decorated hammer-beam
truss wall brackets, is a rarity in Canada. The adjoining
bell tower was added in 1903, around the same time that the
parish hall, named Browning hall after its benefactor, was
built across the street. The church purchased the first pipe
organ in Muskoka in 1906, for $600. In 1958 this organ was
replaced by a Casavant pipe organ. 1991 marked the year when
a decision was made to tear down the old Browning hall and
make an extension to the church of a parish hall. This
greatly expanded the physical building, though resulted in a
load of debt that has since been reduced to a much more
manageable level.
St. Thomas’ Anglican
Church is active in the community, with a growing Sunday
school, an active youth group and a dedicated congregation,
led for the past 3 years by the Reverend Rosalie Goos.
The church building is
open every day in the summer. Two ‘hosts’ or
‘hostesses’ are always present to show visitors the
beautiful windows, the unique architecture and the peaceful
setting.
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