The Story behind the Banner in the Chapel

by Ann McLaren
March 2008

 

In the Advent 2007 issue of Aspire, there was a photo of the banner which hangs in the chapel, and the question, “What is the story behind the banner?”.

Two responses to the query have come to our attention. One was from Helen Smith who was an active member of our parish in the 1990’s, but more recently has been unable to attend our regular services. Helen says that she remembers helping to sew the banner, along with several other ladies, under the direction of Margaret Wallace, who designed it. Helen remembers that she was amazed at how Margaret could take some seemingly plain little scraps of fabric and arrange them to create such a beautiful piece.

The text, she says, is from Revelation 22: 2 “the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” The banner shows a tree with fruit and leaves, and the name of our parish “St. John the Divine”. The last book of the Bible is called “The Revelation of St. John the Divine”, so it is fitting that our patronal banner should depict one of the images in the book of Revelation.

The other response to the query came from Margaret Wallace herself, who wrote the following letter:

In your last issue you asked if there was a story behind our processional banner. Here it is. In 1989 I was new to the parish, and took an evening course on the Book of Revelation, given by our Assistant priest, Kim Murray. This, I thought might be an opportunity of getting to know some of the parishioners by working on a project growing out of the course. Our Rector gave his consent for a patronal banner and a small group came together. Among these were Barbara Duckett, Helen Smith, Pat White, and Phyllis McNaught. Phyllis was soon to be confined to her home in her last illness and it gave her great pleasure to embellish our efforts with beads and sequins. Jim Luke found a suitable pole, and the banner made its home in the chapel.

Thank you for asking.

In 1993, Margaret Wallace made another banner for the Diocese of British Columbia. It is much larger and heavier, so a group of St. J’s ladies helped her by quilting it to a backing for support. Initially, this banner was part of a display of banners from across Canada which hung in the Cathedral; today it remains in the Cathedral as our Diocesan banner.