Saskatchewan
anglican
The newspaper of the Dioceses of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon and Qu’Appelle • A Section of the Anglican Journal • April 2018
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In the footsteps of Jesus
Bishop David Irving led 22 clergy from the Diocese of Saskatoon on a two-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where they visited the places Jesus and His disciples walked nearly 2,000 years ago. Above, the fourth day of the trip began at the Muslim Haram al-Sharif on the Temple Mount, where the group climbed the stairs on their approach to the top of the Temple Mount. For articles about the trip, visit page 11. Photo by Joan Irving
After 50 years, black priest sees changing attitudes By Alan Hustak Fort Times Newspaper FORT QU’APPELLE (Qu’A) – According to the most recent census, fewer than 10,000 Canadians of African descent live in Saskatchewan. But blacks have been a thin, taut thread in the fabric of the province since the first families settled here in 1910. They came from Oklahoma to escape Jim Crow laws enacted in that state and settled in the Maidstone area, where they built the Shiloh Baptist Church that still stands. The Liberal government of the day discouraged further black immigration saying the province was not suitable for AfricanAmericans. For a century, they also represented less
than one per cent Saskatchewan’s population. Rev. Canon Blair Dixon, a retired Anglican priest, who was the pastor of St. Matthew’s in Regina for 17 years and is on the board of the Saskatchewan African Heritage Museum, has a passion for Black History Month “that goes very deep.” He shared that passion with members of the Qu’Appelle Valley Christian Association (QVCA) in Fort Qu’Appelle Feb. 22. Dixon, who is 82, is the seventh in a family of 11 children who can trace their ancestry to black slaves from Louisiana who settled in the Maritimes after the Civil War in the United States. As a boy growing up in St. John, N.B., he played basketball Continued on page 5
Barb and Ron Cox share a laugh with Rev. Blair Dixon in Fort Qu'Appelle, after Dixon spoke to the Qu'Appelle Valley Christian Association for Black History Month. Photo by Alan Hustak