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Money pours in to rebuild St. Jude’s

DAN BENOIT

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Parishioners listen to music inside Iqaluit’s St. Jude’s Cathedral several years ago. The Anglican Diocese of the Arctic needs $6 million to build a new structure. (FILE PHOTO)

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But they’re still a long way from the $6 million they need to pay for construction of a new igloo-shaped cathedral.

The longtime Iqaluit landmark - one of the city’s most beautiful buildings - was destroyed in a fire on Nov. 5, 2005.

The church was an icon for the Inuit and for the Anglican Church of Canada’s Diocese of the Arctic, as well as the centre of various community outreach programs in the region, Bishop Andrew Atagotaaluk said shortly after the fire.

Since June, St. Jude’s Cathedral Vestry and the Diocese of the Arctic have appealed both within and beyond the borders of the Arctic and the Anglican faith to raise the $6 million, which they hope to receive within two years.

Many have answered their call, said Debra Gill, the executive officer of the Diocese of the Arctic. Collection boxes have been put up at various retail outlets around Iqaluit.

In Ontario, a man named Garth Hampson, a former RCMP member who spent time in Iqaluit, is organizing a fundraising concert, Gill said.

And though Lunenburg, Nova Scotia may be far from Iqaluit, the plight of Iqaluit’s Anglican community hits home for Anglicans there.

In 2001, the parishioners of St. John’s Anglican Church in Lunenberg, the second oldest protestant church in Canada, saw their place of worship burnt to the ground by Halloween pranksters. The congregation of St. John’s drew together to restore the church to its original condition.

Now that the work is complete on their church, the congregation of St. John’s plans to help rebuild St. Jude’s, Gill said.

People across Canada have sent donations, she said.

“It’s pretty amazing. Some send $5, some send $500, some send $5,000. It’s phenomenal.”

But raising enough money to cover the construction costs is a big hurdle. Building costs per square foot in Iqaluit are $485, about 90 per cent more than the $255 a square foot to build in Vancouver and 106 per cent more than the $235 a square foot it costs to build in Ottawa.

As well, costs for the project have risen because of Iqaluit’s growing population. The new church will have to 40 per cent bigger, because Iqaluit’s population is expected to double in the next 10 to 20 years.

Insurance proceeds from the fire are expected to cover $717,000 of the construction costs, leaving more than $5 million to be raised by fundraising.

“It is impossible for a community of 6,000 people and our Arctic diocese of 55,000 people spread across the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Nunavik - we are the largest Anglican diocese in the world – to raise the kind of money without help from across Canada and indeed from around the world,” Atagotaaluk said in a Nov. 12 news release.

“We need to make an urgent appeal to Anglicans around the world as well as people of all Christian denominations and to those who care about the people of the North. St. Jude’s was not only the spiritual centre of Iqaluit and the diocese, it was also the heart of the community from which many critical social and family programs emanated.”

Outreach is a particularly important part of the church’s ministry due to the high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, high teen pregnancy, school dropout rates, physical and sexual abuse, suicide and high unemployment in Arctic communities, he said.

But the arson confirmed “that we have not been doing enough,” Atagotaaluk said shortly after the fire.

Clergy and parishioners continue to provide outreach services from the church hall.

Donations can be sent to:

The Diocese of the Arctic
St. Jude’s Cathedral
Restoration Fund
P.O. Box 190
Yellowknife, Northwest
Territories, X1A 2N2

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