Árdís - 01.01.1958, Page 17

Ársrit Bandalags lúterskra kvenna
15
opportunities for their children. These people had lived and wor-
shipped under the care and guidance of a state church. It is there-
fore doubly interesting to read back on these historic events that
. . . after heartbreaking farewells to their relatives and friends
and their homeland, and a long weary journey across the Atlantic
Ocean, then by train to Fishers Landing (now Grand Forks) then
on down the Red River to Winnipeg, arriving there in October
1876, and landing on the Hudson’s Bay Flats, where the Canadian
National Railway Station now stands, where small huts had been
erected for their use, that . . . within the period of two years, they
were deep in the project of organizing a congregation which was
organized on August 11, 1878, and is now nearly 80 years old.
For some years services were few and far between, being
served by Rev. Halldor Briem of the Gimli Settlements, until in
the winter of 1883 the congregation of 137 members sent a call
to Rev. Jon Bjarnason in Iceland. He had served the New Iceland
settlement along the shore of Lake Winnipeg, but had been called
to Iceland owing to the illness of his father Rev. Bjarni Sveinson.
Rev. Bjarnason came back to Canada in 1884 after receiving a call
to the new congregation in Winnipeg, signed by seventeen mem-
bers; he delivered his first sermon as minister of the congregation
on the 20th of August, 1884, in a hall built by the Progressive
Association (Frammfara felag). Then plans for the first Church
building began to formulate. The first church was built by volun-
tary labor by members of the congregation on the corner of Mc-
William and Nena St., now Pacific and Sherbrook, and was de-
dicated December 18, 1887. Here the congregation worshipped for
seventeen years . . . the property was sold to make way for the
Midland Railway. The second church, a brick one, was erected
on the corner of Sherbrook and Bannatyne (still standing) and
dedicated in June 1904. The congregation was preparing to cele-
brate Christmas in the new church, when on Dec. 23rd, a fire broke
out in the furnace-room causing great destruction, rendering the
building temporarily useless. It was fortunate for us that the first
church building had not been demolished for the congregation
was permitted to use it while repairs were being made, this helped
to sooth somewhat the blow caused by the fire . . . when the con-
gregation moved back to their old pews in the old church, and
Christmas was celebrated in spite of difficulties.