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The Rosary Ministry came into being following a Parish Council meeting in June 2025. Because many of our weekday cathedral visitors had asked for a rosary to buy, or holy water or a bible, as a Narthex Greeter I brought this problem to our Council and the thought of a Rosary Ministry was decided upon, immediately and with enthusiasm!

The first meeting of the group occurred on July 26, 2025. We met weekly for a while to learn the necessary knotting skills required to create a rosary, and the group settled on the name, the Anglican Rosary Ministry. Members of the group self-funded in the beginning. Soon 2 benefactors came forward and we are now fully funded until our cathedral budget comes into being after Vestry in 2026.

By our 3rd meeting, individualism came bouncing into the group and many, many beautiful and creative rosaries began to accumulate. We decided we needed a stock-pile of 50 rosaries before offering them to our visitors by donation as of December 1st.

When we heard the good news that the cathedral would host the Dean of Canterbury, the Anglican Primate of Canada and the cathedral’s new recipient of the Anglican Award of Honour, the Rosary Ministry went into high gear considering designs and materials.

The rosaries for the Primate and the Dean of Canterbury are identical. The rosaries are formed of British Columbia stones, green jade and mixed agate. A Canadian mixed rhodonite stone forms the Invitatory bead. Jane's rosary is made from all wooden beads, a classic rosary as opposed to the more creative ones for the Dean and the Primate.

We have found that sourcing suitable crosses has been our most difficult problem. There are many available but few seem to match the style, design and intent of our rosaries.

Then Pastor Matthew Senf learned of our need and provided the beautiful, hand crafted crosses on the rosaries. The 3 crosses were put together from pews taken out of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Coquitlam. Here is the story Matthew told as written by his good friend, David Droud:

A year or so ago, I had to shorten some pews in the sanctuary to make room for (a new use) and I’m holding that oak for when we find time to work together.

The ladies might be interested to know that this “ministry” of making these crosses may be Lutheran now, but it started out Anglican. My mom ran the Sunday School in St. Hilda’s Anglican church in Savona, BC (late 1950’s and early 1960’s). I still remember this old logger or mill worker giving her a bunch of pieces of wood that he’d cut and shaped for the Sunday School kids to put together. The cross posts and the cross arms were all shaped and dadoed; we only had to glue them up. I only saw him once and I don’t know his name, but I had my cross until my late teenage years and somehow, I lost it in some move we were making.

It’s nice to hear that you’ve given some to Anglican ladies; it kind of completes some sort of circle for me. I like those kinds of connections.

The circle of life, how we depend on one another, the continuous journey of souls that experience complete cycles and return to a beginning.

Barbara M. Brown
Co-ordinator, Anglican Rosary Ministry