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St. Andrew's Heritage Church
4634 N. Island Hwy.
Courtenay, BC
(located near the bottom of Mission Hill)
Photo Credit: J. Peacock
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1864 - 2011
Mother Church of the Comox ValleyAs the pioneer era mother church for the Comox Anglican Parishes, this 1873 carpenter gothic styled church is a major historic landmark for the Comox Valley. It was lovingly restored in 2004 onto a new foundation, along with a professional restoration of its organ and two notable stain glass windows. Visitors and Anglican parishioners from around the valley enjoy summer services at St. Andrews from mid June until mid September.
St. Andrew’s Chapel has been designated as the home chapel for the RCMP. Friends of St. Andrew’s Committee and Vanier School youth group of volunteers work together with our property manager to help maintain St. Andrew’s cemetery and surrounding property therefore giving them a sense of pride in helping with a community project. These groups are vital to the life of the church, providing a variety of opportunities for individuals to become involved in the parish and in the broader community.
Visitors and Anglican parishioners from around the valley enjoy summer services at St. Andrews from mid June until mid September.
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"In 1862 British Columbia was in the midst of a great gold rush. Four thousand men pushed up the Cariboo Road that Spring and about one thousand more travelled the old fur brigade trail, through the Okanagan Valley, headed for the rich gravel of Williams Creek.
That same year a small group of men, attracted not by gold but by reports of land of the richest character with scattered prairies of from 500 to 1000 acres, well-water and abounding in game", joined a government sponsored expedition to Comox. They came, in the fall of the year, on the gunboat HMS Grappler.
The Comox Valley was one of the first agricultural areas to be settled in British Columbia and although the first Bishop, the Rt. Rev. G. Hills, had been busy since his arrival in 1860 visiting the booming mining towns of the interior, he found time to visit the new settlement of Comox the year of its beginning. He came on the second sailing made by the Grappler to Comox October 25, 1862. He found "an active and bona fide settlement" and arranged for the Rev. J. B. Good, then in charge of Nanaimo, to make regular visits. It was Mr. Good who pre-empted 170 acres in the center of the valley, erected a small building and fenced the land so that by paying one dollar an acre for the whole property a Crown grant was issued to the Bishop.
The date of the foundation of the Parish of St. Andrew's Mission Comox is June 21, 1864, for on that date the Bishop located the site for the mission chapel and made arrangements for the appointment of Mr. Jordayne Cave-Brown-Cave as the missionary catechist. On August 25, 1864 the foundation log was laid and fourteen settlers gathered to put up the building."
- "A History of Saint Andrew's" written by The Rev. W. J. Lunny
The Lady Blackwood Bell & Historical Background
Photo Credit: R. James
The Ship's Bell for the ship "Lady Blackwood" of Sydney, N.S.W., is doing duty in St. Andrew's Anglican Church