Chancel Window

Canadian Memorial Chapel was born in the hearts of private soldiers in the First World War who, guided by a sergeant, formed a working party to bury six of Canada's war dead. On a November night of 1915, in the Ypres Salient, France, one of the soldiers said to Reverend Lieutenant-Colonel (Lt.-Col.) George Fallis, CBE, ED, DD: "Padre, after the war is over some chaplain should build a memorial in Canada in memory of fellows like these who have given their all." From that moment on, he would never lay away their beloved dead without the idea of a memorial chapel in his mind.

On his return to Canada he was advised by Reverend S.D. Chown, DD, General Superintendent of the Methodist Church, to go to Vancouver and choose a site in Shaughnessy Heights facing the eternal hills to erect the chapel of his dreams. He arrived in Vancouver in May 1920, to a willing congregation and plans were quickly laid. 

After Lt.-Col. Fallis travelled across Canada to secure subscriptions for each Provincial Window, he was invited by the Honourable John Oliver, Premier of British Columbia, to take prayers at the opening of Parliament in Victoria. After the speech from the throne was read by the Lieutenant-Governor, the house adjourned and everyone proceeded to the Empress Hotel for tea. An old friend of Lt.-Col. Fallis, a leading business man from Vancouver, was pushing his way through the crowd. Lt.-Col. Fallis was his Padre in 1915. He was very drunk, shouted to the crowd and made an embarrassing speech. Whispering, Lt.-Col. Fallis asked if there would be a drink for him back in his hotel room and once inside he insisted his friend sleep off the intoxication. This incident would have a sequence of great importance.

Lt.-Col. Fallis was asked to have dinner with Mrs. Leah Rogers. She had observed the way Lt.-Col. Fallis had treated the drunken man in the lobby and wanted to make his acquaintance. At dinner, he discovered she was the wife of Charles Rogers, who had made himself well-known in the manufacture of chocolates from a secret recipe. Her husband sent thousands of pounds of his choice candy to British Columbia soldiers overseas. He told Mrs. Rogers, a loyal Presbyterian, of his dream about Canadian Memorial Chapel. The next evening Mrs. Rogers called from Victoria, asking if she flew to Vancouver could she see the progress of the Chapel. In the morning he met her at the airport then had her to his home for breakfast.

Mrs. Rogers said: "My husband was so deeply interested in soldiers. I feel I should like to do something to help you." Up to this time no provision had been made for the erection of the Chancel Window which was to be the supreme motif of the chapel, depicting the sacrifices made by those who had laid down their lives in the war. Furthermore, the pulpit, which was to be hand carved oak, had not been underwritten. Lt.-Col. Fallis suggested that she might be responsible for the pulpit. She answered: "I think I would rather donate the Chancel Window."

Chancel Window focuses on sacrifice and young adulthood. The central figure is Christ on the cross with a grapevine in the background, both being symbols of sacrifice. On the immediate left is the figure of Mary, Mother of Jesus, and on the right is the disciple John. On the extreme left with a sling in his hand is David, the shepherd boy, and on the extreme right, Timothy in full armour, symbolic of the armour of God. The bottom panels depict Samuel being anointed by Eli, and Stephen, the first Christian martyr, being crowned. Between these two panels is the Last Supper.

"HE LOVED US AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR US."

DAVID

TIMOTHY

ERECTED BY Mrs C.W.ROGERS, OF VICTORIA. WHOSE LATE HUSBAND
BROUGHT LOVING SERVICE TO CANADIAN SOLDIERS IN THE WORLD WAR.