Canadian Memorial United Church windows

The chapel was dedicated to Canada’s fallen soldiers, while “articulating a Christian cry for peace and an end to violence.” Key among the features intended to make that statement are the stained glass windows that illuminate its interior. There are 10 main windows, five on each side of the building. Nine are dedicated to the provinces (Newfoundland was not part of Canada at that time), and one is dedicated to the Yukon.

Each window has a religious motif above the provincial (or territorial) coat of arms, flanked by window panes on each side that depicted some events significant to the history of that jurisdiction. Rev. Fallis traveled all over Canada, promoting the windows and raising funds to have them made. His campaign was highly successful.

He did not travel to the Yukon, but in January of 1929, he wrote a ltter to Martha Black regarding the proposal and asking her support in raising the $2,500 required to install a window for the Yukon. A small plaque, he noted, would be placed below it listing the names of “those citizens who installed the window.”　

Martha Black and her husband George, Yukon’s member of Parliament, set about this ambitious task. Donations flooded in from Yukoners in California; $500 was pledged by those in Seattle, and several generous benefactors in Vancouver contributed $100 each to the cause.　

The IODE in the Yukon set itself the task of raising funds in the territory, while George Black contacted friends in various communities that he thought would commit themselves to the task of collecting contributions.　

The money came in from all quarters. George I. MacLean, who was chief executive of the territory, contributed $25; Harry Gleaves, who ran the Arcade Café, added $5, as did Frank Berton, Rev. Hawksley, Turner Townsend, T.A. Firth and Dr. W.E. Thompson. Other contributors included those whose names are still familiar to Yukoners today: McCarter, Jeckell, Osborn, Lelievre, Burkhard, Nordling and Troberg.　

The local contributions added hundreds of dollars to the final tally, which must have reached the target, as the window was dedicated at a ceremony held in the new chapel in Vancouver on the evening of Sunday, July 23 1929.　

In a service conducted by Rev. Fallis, Sheriff Charles MacDonald performed the act of dedication, after which former Yukoner Rev. George Pringle delivered a stirring sermon. Pringle, the author of the book, Tillicums of the Trail, had served Yukon parishioners for a decade and later served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the war. He had lost his own son, John, near Corcelette, France in 1916.

Inscription

To the glory of God and in memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice for Canada

The windows are erected in honour of all men and women of Canada who rendered service in the World War.

Les vitraux ont été commandés en tant que mémorial pour les Canadiens qui ont servi au cours de la Grande Guerre et en l’honneur de la paix mondiale. Il y a neuf vitraux pour les provinces et un pour le territoire du Yukon. Les vitraux de Robert McCausland Company comprennent les armoiries provinciales ou territoriales, des événements historiques de la province ou du territoire et des motifs religieux. L’église et les vitraux étaient l’idée du révérend col George Fallis.

Le texte de l’inscription figure dans la section anglaise.