Once upon a time, Mildred Hingston made pies — enough sticky sweet fruit pastries to pay off a mortgage.
Hingston was part of a group known as the Pie Ladies. Every Wednesday morning, the women would crowd into the kitchen at St. Anne’s Anglican Church-Steveston and prepare pies, selling them to friends and members of the congregation.
“We worked so well together,” remembered Hingston, 87. “(We made) every kind of pie: apple, peach, pear, blueberry, pecan, strawberry.”
The Pie Ladies ministry lasted nearly a quarter century — the last pies were baked in 2011 — raising tens of thousands of dollars for a parish that is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.
In 1891, Reverend Joseph Donaldson founded St. Anne’s at the northwest corner of 5th Avenue and Richmond Street in Steveston. Donaldson bought the site with a church foundation already in place. The previous owner had plans for a Baptist church, but financial trouble forced the sale.
The small church seated up to 60 people and had a classic design with modest finishes. In those early days, the building lacked proper heating and insulation, forcing Donaldson to move Sunday services to his own house during winter months, according to Patricia Knight’s book Centennial History of St. Anne’s Anglican Church-Steveston 1891 – 1991.
Letters from Donaldson written to his superiors painted an early picture of Steveston and the struggles in establishing a church there.
“The position and conditions of this place are somewhat peculiar,” wrote Donaldson in an 1898 letter, according to Knight. “It is the centre of a farming district, and also the focus of the great salmon canning industry. The settled population in my district is about 400, but in the fishing season it amounts to from 6,000 to 7,000 of all nationalities.”
Donaldson went on to report he managed to build “the shell of a very nice commodious church,” but needed money to finish the building. A group in England, the St. Anne’s Society, donated £30 (equivalent to $56 Canadian today) to the cause. Donaldson returned the favour by naming the church after the group.
Donaldson led the church until poor health prompted his resignation in 1914 at the age of 80. What followed were decades of high turnover at the pulpit.
“If we do not get an immediate and good replacement, our parish is in danger of falling apart. Even the old faithful workers are most discouraged,” according to a 1957 letter from parish leaders.
Rev. John Patrick soon arrived. He would stay for 25 years.
By the 1950s, the original church had fallen into disrepair and the parish had outgrown its space. In 1959 St. Anne’s moved to its current location on Francis Road at No. 1 Road.
A major renovation in the late-80s doubled the size of the building and added a four-column bell tower, housing a bell from an old Canadian Pacific Railways steam locomotive. The new space also provided new amenities — including a large kitchen perfect for baking pies. A few years—and many pies — later, the parish was out of debt, and members celebrated with a ceremonial burning of the mortgage.
Rev. Brian Vickers, pastor at St. Anne’s since 2009, said the church is now a multicultural community, whose members come from around the world.
“Community is big here. We throw that word out and use it quite easily, but this is such a harmonious community of people,” he said. “The sign out front says ‘welcoming and serving,’ and that certainly has been a part of St. Anne’s for a number of years.”
Today, the church draws up to 110 people to its two morning services and continues to serve in various ways, including working with the Richmond Food Bank to deliver lunches to students in need at the nearby high school, Hugh Boyd Secondary.
The original white church building in Steveston has long been gone, but some history remains in the current building, including stained glass windows, a baptismal font and a small brass cross dedicated to Donaldson, St. Anne’s first minister.
Later this year, on Oct. 23, parishioners will uncover more history when a time capsule, concealed in the alter 25 years ago, will be opened.
