The pews were packed Sunday afternoon at the Mohawk Chapel for a royal commemoration Thanksgiving service.

“We realized it was 100 years since Edward, Prince of Wales, came to the chapel,” noted Mohawk Chapel committee chair Barry Hill. “But, as we looked deeper, so many things have happened in October.”

Hill cites a number of October events in the chapel’s history, including its consecration 189 years ago, a visit by the first Prince of Wales in 1860, Prince Arthur in 1900 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1984.

“There have been 19 royal visits to Brantford, with nine coming to the chapel,” said Hill, gesturing to pages of the Queen Anne Bible bearing the signatures and dates of the regal visitors.

The Thanksgiving service included a reading by Six Nations elected Chief Ava Hill, and a remembrance of the chapel’s consecration in 1830, some 45 years after its construction in 1785, by Most Rev. Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Installed as archbishop last July, Nicholls has previously visited Her Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks in her position as bishop of the diocese of Huron, which includes Brantford.

“Today we remember the relationship between the Crown and the people of Six Nations, and the treaties that were built,” Nicholls observed. “This continues to be a place of prayer, reflection and a gathering place for people.”

Following the service, the archbishop was invited to put on white gloves and add her signature to the pages of the Queen Anne Bible.

Barry Hill also unveiled the design for the chapel’s coat of arms, which soon will be sent to the heraldry office in Ottawa. The design features images of crossed swords, a tree, bible, crown and the colours red. representing royalty, and yellow, representing the east. A scroll beneath the herald bears the words Faith, Hope and Charity.

Once approved, the coat of arms would be acknowledged as part of the Queen’s household, he said.

“It should then be called Chapel Royal.”

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