Our Sanctuary

The Reredos

The Reredos (an ornamental screen covering the wall at the back of an altar) was started in the early 2000s when the Altar Guild approached the Vestry asking for a permanent replacement for the wall hangings behind the altar. The existing system was heavy, and the ropes to raise and lower the drapes broke periodically. Additionally, fewer people were able to handle the weight of the hangings and related hardware.

Bill Walker came up with a solution, and asked the vestry for permission to approach the congregation for donations of articles of wood that had personal meaning for them. A request was made by him that people donate lighter wood for the backdrop and darker wood for the proposed central cross. The response from the congregation was immediate and enthusiastic. He received wooden spoons, hockey sticks, bowls, a road runner carving, blocks, boards, cubes, walking sticks and canes, driftwood, trays, tabletops, a headboard, candlestick holders, cutting boards, a mallet, a burl, a plank from a grain elevator, and many other wonderful pieces. Some of the wood used was from the original church pews, which Matthew Walker determined to be in excess of 1.5 meters in diameter, and would have been over 500 years old when they were used to make the pews. As varied as the items were, so were the woods that they were made of. Of the woods able to be identified, there was birch, fir, maple, cedar, oak, pine, yew, monkey pod, baltic birch, mahogany, ash, sitka spruce and walnut. The only non-wooden part of the reredos is a small golden cross, which was designed, cast and donated by Dr. Ken Rayment. Kathryn Osborne designed the lamb which is etched into a piece of maple donated by Olive and Norton Metcalfe.

In March of 2001, Mr. Walker informed the congregation that enough wood had been donated and in April the reredos was started. There were no official plans made for this project. Over the next eleven months, inspired by God and through the suggestions of all involved, as well as the many who popped by the workshop to visit and offer encouragement, the foundation of what you see in the church today was formed. On February 26, 2002 the reredos was brought to the church in three sections, and a mounting crew organized to put the substantially finished reredos in place.

On Good Friday, March 29, 2002, the Right Reverend Victoria Matthews, Bishop of Edmonton, came for the unveiling and to dedicate the reredos. The church was filled to rejoice and celebrate. Mr. Jim Johnson and Mr. Bill Walker lowered the old hanging for the last time with the finished reredos then revealed. Since the reredos was unveiled it has been admired by all that have seen it. Many comment on the contemplative nature of the piece, while others are in awe of its beauty. The reredos has brought together the old and the new members of our congregation for the future of our parish home.

- Adapted from Parish of St. Andrew, Camrose, Alberta 1906-2006 by Mary E. Caunt, pp. 94-97.