My partner, Glenys, and I took a daycation two weeks ago by driving from Ottawa to Prescott, Ontario on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. A charming town with too many unoccupied Main Street shops, Prescott is a guardian of Upper Canadian history (Fort Wellington) across the river from Ogdensburg in New York state.

While there we drove a couple of kilometres west on Highway 2 to the Blue Church – a typical small Anglican church building first built in 1809 and, after fire, rebuilt in 1845. Around the church is a cemetery with graves going back to the 1700s and others as recent as earlier this year. As we wander between the grave markers, a gardener is efficiently driving her mower to keep the grass trim and the cemetery a welcoming, honoured space for visiting with the interred and contemplating our common mortality.

I am struck by the condition of many of the oldest grave markers. Moss has grown over many stones and names, dates, and epigraphs are hard to decipher. I’m disappointed, but an idea emerges – the intersection of current news about the WE student grant program plaguing the Liberal government and the condition of these historic “records”.  

 

I wonder: could the cemetery board of this historic graveyard (and the boards of thousands of graveyards across Canada) come up with plans to rehabilitate these important settings and pieces of history by hiring students in the summer drawing on government grants focused on youth employment? This could help preserve important historic information, but it would also help students discover that their life journey is rooted in lifetime contributions made by those interred. There would be both individual and collective benefits from such labours. I wonder which cemetery boards might pick up the idea….

As we continue our walk we are attracted to a large marker – 20th century monument really – obviously drawing attention to an important occasion or person. We discover that it honours Barbara Ruckle Heck. Gravestones are arrayed behind the monument – her family is interred beside her.  

Barbara Ruckle Heck, born in 1734 in Limerick, Ireland of German parents, is a legendary figure often, somewhat generously, ascribed the title of “mother of Methodism in the USA and Canada.” She and her husband Paul Ruckle emigrated to New York City in 1760. Challenging apathetic clerical leadership in her community, she sparked a Methodist revival, as well as the founding of the John St. Methodist chapel. During the turbulence leading to American Independence, the family moved to Camden in upstate New York with others loyal to the British crown. Here too she initiated a Methodist society and chapel.  

 

Fleeing the threat of imprisonment by the Revolutionaries, the family sought refuge initially in Montreal, Lower Canada, eventually settling up river in Augusta Township. There Barbara Heck was instrumental in forming the earliest Methodist society in Upper Canada.  

 

Methodism in Canada is rooted in the vigour of this devout woman, who, with other United Empire Loyalists of shared persuasions, launched a movement which dotted the landscape with Methodist chapels and helped shape a society where Christian convictions were translated into social values and norms. The United Church of Canada owes much to the persistent community building work of Barbara Heck. The Church’s archives have few documents or memorabilia testifying to her faithfulness, but many congregations in the Bay of Quinte - St. Lawrence region and other parts of Canada remain as the fruit of her witness to the Gospel of Jesus.

As one biographer wrote: “Her determination surely had something to do with the growth of Methodism in New York City; similarly her faith must have influenced her family and her friends to remain loyal to Methodism in adversity and migration.”* It is said she was reading a Dutch translation of Bible on her knees when, in 1804, she suddenly journeyed into life beyond life.

The Barbara Heck story reminds me that the Spirit, as the wind, “blows where it wills.” (John 3:8) A humble refugee woman was endowed with the gifts needed to create lasting vibrant communities of faith and mission - together as friends and companions of Jesus embracing the shalom reign of the Creator.

Thanks be to God! Where are we seeing this era’s revivalists?

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