Saanich municipal councillors Leif Wergeland (left) and Bob Gillespie at the Easter sunrise service on Mount Tolmie in Victoria

Along with his mother and some 3,500 other people, he made the climb up Mount Tolmie on Easter Sunday – to experience the annual sunrise service.

Clem Davies, then the robust minister of Centennial United Church, was the instigator of that service – which had been an Easter morning feature for a decade or more before the particular 1937 event. In the 1920s, according to archives collected from that era, the crowds had run as large as 8,000 or so.

Those records show, in fact, that the very first broadcast for what eventually became CJVI radio station was Centennial Methodist’s sunrise service of 1923. The station operated under the call letters CFCL and carried out a strictly religious broadcast format for two more years, until Davies left the Centennial pastorate.

Gillespie was not yet born when the 1923 service was held. But he recalls the singing and preaching at the 1937 event. He remembers the sea of faces and the general joy that rippled through the crowd as they celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. And he recalls watching people disembark from the streetcars arriving at the foot of the mountain, and beginning their 300-foot ascent to the meeting place, with its panoramic view of the city.

Gillespie spoke about it a few days after this past Easter. He had made a return pilgrimage to Mount Tolmie at 6:30 am on Easter Sunday. He was there to participate in a service sponsored by First Church of the Nazarene, which he attends periodically.

Gillespie enjoyed the service, along with the 65 or so who were with him. Later in the morning, a group of Chinese Christians gathered on the mountain; and, at still another time, worshippers from three Lutheran congregations stood atop the mountain.

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True, the crowds today are not what they were when an activist pastor like Davies could pull together cooperation from a fair number of churches.

But Gillespie hints at another reason for the large crowds. The service was not really at sunrise, or even an hour or so later, as is the case today. It was more like mid-morning, close to the time when Christians normally gather for worship.

So Davies, as far as can be determined, encouraged his fellow ministers to give their congregants a chance to gather together with members of other congregations.

After seven decades, worshippers still gather at Victoria’s Mount Tolmie for the Easter sunrise service.

Lyle McKenzie, pastor of Lutheran Church of the Cross, one of the three Lutheran congregations participating in this year’s Mount Tolmie activity, noted that his congregation – which has a clear line of sight to the hill – has been involved in sunrise services there for close to 25 years.

In more recent years, Good Shepherd – at Cedar Hill and Hillside – and Grace – on Fort Street near Yates – have joined in the mountain celebration. All three churches are affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

McKenzie noted, as well, that Cadboro Bay Beach has been a favorite for such services as well. Lambrick Park Church has had such services there, he said.

As for the station whose first broadcast was the 1923 service: It continued to serve until 2000. A chronology of the station can be found at www.broadcasting-history.ca.

May 2007