St. Christopher's Anglican Church
Bishop Coleman delivering the inaugural service at St. Christopher's, 1963.
A wedding service in St. Christopher's, 1982.
For years, Bishop Coleman was ferried to Saturna to give services.
A news article about St. Christopher's, 1968.
A news article about St. Christopher's, 1968 (cont.).
St. Christopher's Anglican Church was commissioned in 1963, and stands to this day as one of Saturna's most iconic and well-used locations. It hosts a multitude of regular worship practices, and its basement is home to the volunteer-run Eddie Reid Memorial Library. Fundraising for St. Christopher's was undertaken by Bishop Coleman, and after its construction he was ferried to Saturna to perform weekly services during the 1960s.
St. Christopher's was, however, Saturna's second church. The first was built out of a Japanese boat-house around 1900 through the efforts of Rev. Hubert Payne. He dubbed it St. Nicholas', and presided over the congregation for over twenty years. (Rev. Payne's earliest Saturna baptismal record, found in the Archives of the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, was signed in 1904.) St. Nicholas' seated fewer than twenty-five worshippers, but nevertheless held regular services until its abandonment in the early 1930s. It is still visible from Winter Cove to this day.
Decades after its abandonment, the boat-house church was restored as a private chapel and renamed St. Christopher's. Between 1933 and 1963, services were instead held in the Saturna Community Hall. When the new church was built, the titled of St. Christopher's was transferred to it, causing some confusion over the original name of the boat-house chapel.
St. Christopher's is located at 140 East Point Road.