19 June 2005
By Ian Cumming
It is indeed an honour – and somewhat humbling – to stand in this pulpit talking to the Loyalist descendants of Sir William Johnston, the Ferguson’s, MacDonald’s, Grant’s, Cameron’s, Ross’s, Munro’s and McDonell’s from Mayfield, who have spanned 11 generations in this historic church.
As a congregation, we honour the military of our nation. The retiring of the colours of the regiment this weekend who played a vital role in the forming and protection of our country and community, those names etched on the village cenotaph, those who served and returned, and soldiers in our present armed forces.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had several phone conversations with J K Abbot from Lanark county, a direct descendant of the Rev John Bethune who founded this church. Mr Abbot was a bomber pilot in the famed Demon Squadron of the Second World War, flying over 40 extremely dangerous missions, the most of anyone, in what historians have called “suicide missions.”
In any other nation he would be famous and his book Gathering of Demons – dedicated to those “who flew out in the dark of night and did not return” – would be a great seller, as it was in the U.K. But Mr Abbot was raised with Loyalist ideals and several years ago when I emotionally praised what he did in a phone conversation, he quietly replied, “I was just doing my job.”
He wanted to join us this weekend, but was unable to, being he has an important far away meeting tomorrow. At 84 years of age, Abbot is about to launch another book entitled Conspirators At the Gate. As former director of Inspection Services at Immigration Canada, Abbot follows what goes on behind the scenes throughout the world, probably better than any MP or most cabinet ministers.
This family’s service to Canadian society spans the centuries. The Rev Bethune’s granddaughter married Sir John Abbot, a future Prime Minister, and from that family also came the establishment of an educational institution in Montreal and Maude Abbot, the first lady to graduate as a medical doctor from McGill.
Lest we think those on the vanguard of our nation, who established the Loyalist ideals, have no relevance today, consider several weeks ago I was honoured to stand at the front of this church as godfather to a boy being baptised. A baby whose mother, Diane Poilly, immigrated to Canada when she was four, because her dad wanted to escape racism. Diane is also a doctor, getting her degree at McGill.
It struck me the other day, when my little daughter Mei Le clambered on my lap, that her birth parents - whom are unknown – would be comforted if they knew, that the child they had left outside an orphanage in Guangdon Province at one day of age, is frequently in the Canadian church founded by the ancestor of that revered hero in China, Dr Norman Bethune.
Locally Rev Bethune’s greatest legacy was the foundation he laid for harmonious relationships between Catholics and Protestants. Bethune and Bishop McDonell from St Raphel’s knew that if this community, indeed this nation, was to function and become all that they had envisioned, than religious fighting couldn’t exist.
That relationship has been Glengarry’s greatest legacy. There are countless examples, but the most recent was a Williamstown lady, Christine Sloan, who was raised in the pews of St Mary’s and then over here to the pews of St Andrews, being a prize winner and valedictorian at the Queen’s University Theological College graduation.
After the ceremony that valedictorian met Judge John Matheson, a wounded war veteran who became parliamentary Secretary to Lester Pearson and the main person responsible for the development of our Canadian flag and the Order of Canada. Matheson, whom is of Glengarry Loyalist stock and my second cousin once removed – which counts as family here in Glengarry – is related to a lot of us.
It was Matheson’s sister’s son, Donald Carty, who was president of American Airlines at 9/11. If ever there was an example of those from Loyalist stock showing caring and loyalty with whom they are connected, it was Carty making every funeral throughout the U.S. and doing a eulogy for every pilot, co - pilot and flight attendant on those planes.
When the other Bethune founded church, St Andrews Presbyterian in South Lancaster, was having its bicentennial celebrations nearly two decades ago Matheson was the guest speaker. In his speech about the Loyalists who founded this community and country, Matheson said, “you will never understand what God is about, until you understand those people.”
In all reality our ancestors must have been a dispirited lot when they arrived here in the late 1700’s. Imagine the feelings of loss, the odds against them were almost insurmountable. But they persevered, even finding the strength to fight again in 1812.
Among us today are ordinary people whose ancestor was this village’s namesake, Sir William Johnston, the second largest landowner in colonial America after William Penn. But there is no lament for lost wealth and power, but rather lives led of quiet dignity and personification of what God is about.
The strength and soul of a community and nation’s people is far more than the wealth of an ancestral laird or the result of a battle It is everyday all around us; ordinary people leading extraordinary lives.
Whether it is Alex and Betty MacDonald delivering trays of free food from their cafe to a family suffering tragedy, or Robert and Jane McDonell always there offering sympathy at a wake, or George and Bev Runions doing countless unpaid tasks for church and community, or those caring people wearing yellow bracelets engraved Live Strong, for Julie MacLachlan, a young wife and mother fighting brain cancer with a grace and courage which mere words cannot convey; they are all instinctively understanding and personifying what their Loyalist ancestors were about What God is about.
“Tread softly stranger, reverently draw near, the vanguard of a nation slumbers here,” is the powerful and beautiful inscription on this church’s gatepost. The highest honour we can pay our ancestors, is being who they taught us to be.
