One Morinville group hopes the weather will be just as nice during the Feast of St. Jean Baptiste in 2057 as it was exactly two weeks ago. That fine morning of July 8, 2015 was when that group laid a time capsule under the new steps at the St. Jean Baptiste Church.
Simonne Chevalier said that the project was meant to pay tribute to the church from its first days through its recent renovations including the completion of those steps.
In fact, it was the steps themselves that seemed to call out for the time capsule in the first place.
“It all started with Andy Hettinger, the fellow who did the stairs,” Chevalier started. “Every time I’d stop there he’d say, ‘You should put a time capsule in there. This is a great spot.’ ”
That spot is located under the accessibility ramp, a pocket of space that will be sealed with concrete walls to preserve the 10-cm cylinder capsule and all of its contents.
Those contents include such town and county memorabilia as photographs and articles dating back to 1907, the year that the church was erected. They also included a restaurant menu, clothing catalogues, a town map, business flyers, a book called Country Asides, information from project People for the Steeple, plus other church notes such as a parish pictorial directory.
The Catholic Women's League and Knights of Columbus collaborated to compile the articles. Copies of both Morinville newspapers as well as the St. Albert Gazette were put inside as well.
“The papers had a lot to do with the St. Jean Baptiste Festival, which we had just completed at the celebration. So we had a lot of information on that and what it was like in the past and what it was like today. Who knows what it will be like in the future?” she continued.
“We gathered things from the town at large that we thought would be an interesting find in 42 years. I thought all of it was special.”
The time capsule is set to be reopened to mark the 150th anniversary of the church. Chevalier ended by saying that it is a unique gift to connect the different generations.
“I hope that we’ll touch our future parishioners and citizens of Morinville with what we accomplished in our time.”
