Strange as it may seem to many of your readers, there is life north of the borders of the U.S.A. We are called Canadians! We have a heritage both parallel, yet different from that of citizens of your nation.

One such heritage is the observance of the first Eucharist in North America on Sunday, Sept. 3, 1578, some 29 years prior to the Jamestown celebration [TLC, Sept. 13].

The Canadian Book of Common Prayer 1962 and the Canadian Book of Alternative Services 1985 list this event in our calendar.

The account is as follows:

In 1578, Sir Martin Frobisher set sail for the Arctic waters in what is now known as Canada. His chaplain was the Rev. Robert Wolfall, the vicar of West Harptree in the English Diocese of Bath and Wells. A graduate of Eton and King's College, Cambridge, Wolfall felt called to preach the gospel among native peoples.

The captain of the ship Anne Francis recorded in the ship's log: "Master Wolfall ... preached a godly sermon, which being ended he celebrated also a Communion upon the land ... The celebration of the divine mystery was the first sign, seal, and confirmation of Christ's name, death and passion ever known in these quarters." (For All the Saints, Stephen Reynolds compiler, Anglican Book Centre, Toronto, 1994)

(The Ven.) A. H. Skirving

St. James', Westminster

London, Ontario, Canada