St Matthew's, Florence

6219 Fansher Road, Florence, Ontario, N0P 1R0

“To the dismay of many an austere churchman, the wives of Florentine merchants were, indeed, renowned for their sumptuous clothes, their elegance, their pale skin and fair hair…often adorned with sparkling jewels and silver buttons…”

- Christopher Hibbert, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici

Must be that other Florence…

Services are held each Sunday at 11 am. Sunday School runs concurrently. You are most welcome to join us at either.

Churchwardens for 2008 are Lawrene Denkers (pictured) and Shirley Sewell (pictured at the organ), both veteran people’s and rector’s wardens, and they can be reached through the office contact numbers on the home page (link to the left). Evelyn Bilton is the Deputy Warden.

Shirley is also our music degree-laden organist (come out and listen!), and Amy McLellan, a real accountant, is our treasurer. Myrna Yakubovich (pictured), a real theologian, is our lay reader and lay delegate to Synod. Allan Misselbrook is the sub-lay delegate. Our board secretary and auditor is Anne Bodkin, and Colleen Bilton is the hall rental contact person. Calvin and Diana Lampman take care of the churchyard (cemetery), Marianne Buchanan the Cheer fund, and Ron Bilton the BAC. Representative to the parish fundraising committee is Roy Buchanan.

What else gets done (and by whom)? Bill and Ron turn on the heat. Diana organizes our end of the Aughrim/Florence dinners. Anne ensures the church and hall are clean, and she and Evelyn organize the lunches and potlucks that go with special services. Myrna posts signs regarding special events uptown, and the wardens get anyone handy to send out special service reminders. All of us decorate, cook, scrub, shovel, deliver, welcome and visit.

Our newest member (2008):

Jessica Joanne VanRooyen, baptised on Sunday, June 8, 2008

The collection of canned goods takes place every Sunday, with whoever offers taking it to the local foodbank about once a month. A list of what is specifically needed is printed on the box at the back of the church, but certainly bring whatever you have. We received word from the summer driver that when she arrived the Chatham foodbank was packed – not with food, but with people. This has been the case every time someone has made the trip. So everything, every non-perishable thing, is welcome any time of year.

Parishioner pocket change goes to Sleeping Children Around the World, a Sunday School initiative, in thirty-dollar increments. Some goes to buy chickens and mosquito nets in Africa. The rest goes to the parish gleanings fund for PWRDF.

Our 1995 chapel history, Over The Years, 150^th Anniversary Book, ISBN 0-969 4017-1-X, is available at the Florence Library, or you may phone the church office for information about having one sent to you – wherever you are! It’s also online at OurRoots where it has been reproduced in its entirety.

And this is a bit more about us, found as well in the Parishes Online section of the Diocese of Huron website. It’s what we wrote two years or so ago, and all seems fairly current. The photos are from our history book. Let your co-chairs know, Florentines, if anything needs changing:

The Village of Florence in Dawn-Euphemia Township of Lambton County is small, with its population of two hundred, and quiet, but rich in history and not without present day charms and amenities. An hour in any direction will take a resident to the major centres of Chatham (the village is, in fact, on the Chatham-Kent border), Sarnia, London and just two to three hours will have that resident at Detroit’s or Toronto’s International Airports.

The community first named Zone Mills in the early 1800’s was founded around those mills on the Sydenham River. The river today is given mostly to leisure (archaeological digs, environmental studies, and farm use being its contemporary gainful employment), serving local anglers, hikers along its banks, power boaters and kayakers/canoeists. The streets of town are tree-lined and the architecture ranges from Victorian to modern. All is kept neat and tidy by fastidious homeowners and a caring township.

Within the village itself are active groups. The Optimist Club sponsors plays, exercise classes, wine-tastings, a Christmas hayride, children’s activities of all types and family fun. The Oddfellow’s Lodge provides medical equipment, school programs and community fellowship. The Antique Club puts on an annual ‘Power Days’ weekend, and the Beavers/Cub Scouts group is run by dedicated volunteers. The library recently expanded and is continually updated. Two restaurants, a grocery store, gas station, hardware store, insurance office, hairdresser/barbershop and antique store complete the business area.

St. Matthew’s was the first church in the village, begun as a mission then more solidly established in 1843. It survived the five churches to come and stands again as the only church in town. Weekly attendance is approximately thirty. Lay participation includes visitation, organization, fundraising, readings, music and the leading of Morning Prayer. Outreach includes canned food drives, collections for SCAW, donations to relief organizations, specific disaster relief, refugee sponsorship, English lessons for newcomers to the area, promotion of fairtrade coffee, and participation in KAIROS and the local intercultural coalition.

The lovely brick church building is well cared for. It was re-pointed and restored in 2000 (a major undertaking) and the inside refurbished, including new pews and restoration of the wide plank floor in 1999.

(A word about those pews: Grace Anglican Church in Bothwell, one of the three chapels in our parish at the time, closed in 1999 and the congregation, some of whom moved to join the Aughrim congregation and some of whom joined us, generously donated their pews to Florence. These are oak pews and replace pine-painted-to-look-like-oak. They have no kneelers attached, but you never heard Bothwell complaining about hard floors, and so it is with Florence.)

The parish hall, built in 1994 to replace a beyond-redemption predecessor, is a modern and attractive facility, open for the use of community groups and families. Movie nights, book club meetings, Ukrainian Little Christmas, school board initiatives, English lessons, Spanish lessons, fiestas, anniversaries, musical evenings and dinner theatre as well as the usual church group meetings take place within its walls.

Sunday worship is the Eucharist alternating with Morning Prayer. The B.A.S. is used and the hymnody is from the new blue Common Praise. The organist holds a BMus, Honours Specialist, and Assoc. of Music and Performance (AWCM).

The history of the village and the beauty and setting of the church bring us visitors to Sunday services and many inquiries. Florence is off the beaten track, but easily accessed via the Rodney or Ridgetown/Thamesville turnoffs of the 401, from Longwoods Road (Highway 2) at Bothwell or directly from Lambton Line. The church is illuminated by spotlight every night and a landmark of the area.

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