The church was a cornerstone of the community when Saskatchewan was founded, and a new book and exhibition at the Godfrey Dean explores religious sites throughout the province, from spiritual sites of the First Nations of the province to different religious denominations that established themselves in the province. Legacy of Worship was a five year project which brought together photos and research to showcase the province’s religious past.
Photographer Larry Easton estimates that over the five years, he has travelled over 50,000 kms and took 15,000 photos in his search for different churches in the province, and says that for him he was driven by a love of architecture, and spent his time searching for different churches and taking note of interesting sites as he travelled through Saskatchewan.
Just finding churches was often difficult, Easton says. A church in Rama was one challenge, as even with GPS coordinates it was difficult to spot, as the building itself was hidden by thick tree cover.
Frank Korvemaker and Margaret Hryniuk wrote the book, and say that from their perspective, the history of the church the most important part of the book, and they wanted to make something that was entertaining to read as well as informative, rather than a dry summary of what happened.
“Not only does the church have to be photogenic, but it also has to have a story. You could have a really good image of a church, but if Hryniuk can’t find a good story to go with it, then it doesn’t go into the book,” Korvemaker explains.
Just finding information was often a challenge, as many of the smaller churches had poor records or difficult to find connections, Hryniuk explains. One of her major sources was newspaper archives, which told the story of the day.
“Those old newspaper accounts hold back nothing, they don’t care if it’s politically correct or not at that time it didn’t matter. You get colourful quotes and characters.”
She says that it’s the history of the province as told by the people who built it, as the church was one of the main centres in most of these small towns. The state of the church today is part of the same story, as the state of the surrounding community is often reflected within the church itself.
One of the stories of these communities is reflected in Ebenezer, which had a baptist community that grew rapidly enough to require two churches of the same denomination in town, something Korvemaker explains is the only time that this happened in the province.
“These are the sorts of things we look for in our book, something unusual that isn’t known before, perhaps bringing in historic photographs that have never been published.”
While it’s the history of the province, for many people it’s a much more personal history, something which they are learning about as people read the book and look at the photos. Hryniuk says she has had people tell her about their own history as they have read about the church they’re from.
The book is as much a spotters guide to Saskatchewan churches as it is a historic document. Korvemaker says that they show different things that different denominations and synagogues use which are common among their buildings, as well as an illustrated glossary for architecture, so when someone sees a church they can identify things about it.
Korvemaker admits that they thought it would be an easier project than their first collaboration, Legacy of Stone, which chronicled stone buildings in the province, but took five years of research, writing and photographs to put it together. He says that they need to give appreciation to their families who put up with the stress of putting the book together.
“A book is not just the authors, it’s the people we communicate with on a regular basis.”
Korvemaker says he would do something on brick in the province, though he says the priority right now is to take a break after the long process of putting Legacy of Worship together.
