Huron takes close up look at history.The diocese of Huron is taking a page from Hollywood as it celebrates its 150th anniversary this year with the production of a film that features several members of the clergy in 19th-century costume playing their forebears. Titled Huron, Our Story: The Legacy of Bishop Cronyn, the 30-minute production stars Rev. Nick Wells As a member of the US Air Force, Nick Wells (born February 11, 1951) won the 1972 US Amateur heavyweight championship. In that year, he twice knocked out future WBC and IBF heavyweight champion Larry Holmes. as Bishop Benjamin Cronyn The Right Reverend Benjamin Cronyn, (11 July 1802 – 21 September 1871), was the first bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Huron. A noted Low Church cleric, he distrusted the what he considered to be romanizing tendencies of Toronto's Trinity College, in 1863, he founded Huron , founder of the diocese and a pivotal figure in the development of the Anglican Church of Canada. The film is part of a yearlong diocesan celebration that culminates with a worship service at the John Labatt Centre The John Labatt Centre, usually referred to as the "JLC", opened on October 11, 2002. It is named after John Labatt, founder of the Labatt brewery in London. Labatt still has a large brewery in London to the present day, although its head office was moved to Toronto in the early 1990s. arena in London, Ont. on Sunday, October 28, the anniversary of Bishop Cronyn's consecration. As the narration notes, 101 churches (out of the current 220) were established in the southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario, centred on the city of London. It extends north to south from the Bruce Peninsula on Lake Huron to the Lake Erie shoreline, and east to south-west roughly from Kitchener to Windsor. diocese during his time as bishop from 1857 to 1871. Archbishop Andrew Hutchison Andrew Sandford Hutchison L.Th., D.D, D.C.L. (h.c.) (born in Toronto in 1938), is a retired Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. Prior to his election at the General Synod of 2004, he was the bishop of Montreal and metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Canada (which, , the Canadian primate whose greeting opens the video, also noted that Bishop Cronyn was "the first bishop elected by synodical process; before that, all bishops were appointed by the crown and shipped here." The film takes a dramatized documentary approach to the subject, with narration provided by interviews with scholars Bill Acres and Douglas Leighton of Huron University College Huron University College was founded Huron College on May 5, 1863 by Benjamin Cronyn and Isaac Hellmuth, it is one of the oldest university communities in Canada and founding college of The University of Western Ontario. (also founded by Bishop Cronyn) and reenactments of such scenes as then-Rev. Cronyn's arrival in Huron in 1832 by ox-cart and his dramatic election over a candidate favoured by the formidable bishop of Toronto, John Strachan The Right Reverend Dr. John Strachan (April 12, 1778 – November 1, 1867) was an influential figure in Upper Canada and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. Strachan was one of six children born to a quarry worker in Aberdeen, Scotland. . Mr. Wells, who serves parishes in Sarnia and Corunna, worked with filmmakers Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnyk of Pixel Dust Studios, based in York, Ont. on a budget of $20,000, some of it contributed by Bishop Cronyn's descendants. As a member of a historical reenactment Historical reenactment is a type of fantasy roleplay in which participants attempt to recreate some aspects of a historical event or period. It may be a narrowly-defined time period, such as a specific war or other event, or it may be more broadly defined. group called The King's Company, Mr. Wells was accustomed to donning period costumes and dramatizing or lecturing about such events as the French and Indian Wars French and Indian Wars, 1689–1763, the name given by American historians to the North American colonial wars between Great Britain and France in the late 17th and the 18th cent. and the War of 1812. "The (current) bishop (Bruce Howe) asked me would I do Bishop Cronyn, so I grew my hair and sideburns side·burns pl.n. Growths of hair down the sides of a man's face in front of the ears, especially when worn with the rest of the beard shaved off. [Alteration of burnsides. and I had to take horse riding lessons for four months (in order to appear on horseback in the film)," he said. Mr. Wells also scouted locations for the film, including the historically-preserved Old St. Thomas church, which has been kept the way it was in the 1860s and therefore did not require removal of electric lighting or modern sound speakers. The film presents an engaging view of the diocese's founder as a man of great faith and energy and the experts describe the church politics of the time as the dramas they were. Bishop Cronyn arrived in Canada from Ireland, where the prospects for Anglican clergy were not encouraging. As a Protestant Irishman, he was not "high church," the branch of Anglicanism more comfortable with Roman Catholic-style worship. Bishop Cronyn was "low church," which embraced Puritan plainness in vestments and music. But Bishop Strachan's candidate, Archdeacon Alexander Bethune, was definitely high church. The film makes these conflicts so interesting that after a while, the viewer longs for some dialogue rather than strictly narration. Producer Drebert said they wanted to make a film based on facts. "Unless we have substantial research, we don't like to put words in people's mouths," she noted. Historical accuracy also led to the curious (for the viewer) omission of any mention of the native inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. of the diocese, which is the location of a large reserve, the Six Nations, and a historic chapel called Her Majesty's Chapel of the Mohawks. "(Bishop Cronyn) didn't rake part in First Nations' missions. He was allowed to pick the priest at the Mohawk chapel, but he didn't spend extensive time at the First Nations," Ms. Drebert said. Bishop Cronyn apparently kept no diary and documents relating to him are church records and records of land transactions--another facet of this pioneer. As the film points out, he was an active land speculator Speculator A person who trades (i.e. derivatives, commodities, bonds, equities or currencies) with a higher-than-average risk, in return for a higher-than-average profit potential. and investor whose dealings helped form the current city of London, Ont. "He was accused of using his office for his own benefit, but that gossip subsided," noted one of the scholars in the film. The wealth he acquired also benefited the church, for on his death in 1871, he left a $70,000 endowment. Solange De Santis Staff writer |
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