As Christina Lake is en route back home, I decided to visit Simon and Juno Shenstone on my return trip from Synod in Kelowna this year. I was interested in seeing the home they had built out of stone into the side of a mountain.
Back in February, 2009, their home had burned down to the ground and the community rallied around to help them.
Simon and Juno had sent a letter to the diocese thanking everyone for their support. The letter to the diocese was published on the front page of The HighWay, along with pictures of their progress. The following is an excerpt from their letter:
“Last spring we cleaned up the remains of the old house and prepared the ground for a new structure. During the summer, with some help, we laid 70 feet of rock wall about 30 inches wide and 3-1/2 feet high, which is the beginning of the back wall of the new house. The house will be a circle of rock wall 40 feet in diameter, set back into the side of the mountain where we live. The rear of the house will be in the mountainside with only the front half appearing out of the ground with big windows and a gothic-arched door. The roof will be part of the mountainside, a continuation of the forest floor over the top of the house. It should be warm in the winter and cool in the summer.”
Having previously only seen a photograph of a very rough foundation, when I visited their new house, I was amazed by the transformation.
I had likened Simon and Juno’s ministry in the Boundary Parish to a rock: a sure foundation, following what Bob Purdy had written in an article published in the Grand Forks Gazette and The HighWay (2016).
Writing about Simon’s retirement, Purdy said, “Shenstone was very involved in the community and was a great person to work with. He was very much the pastor for the town of Grand Forks. Everyone knew him. He attended many public events which included most of the Remembrance Day ceremonies. He took a lot of Legion funerals and other funerals and weddings. He was involved in the ministerial with other clergy and with the Anglican Diocese of the Kootenay. He was also a chaplain for three years with the B.C. Anglican Youth Movement.”
Simon and Juno have been interested in traditional Indigenous culture since they were young and they even met on a Chippewa reservation in northern Minnesota.
In some ways, their rock dwelling today is reminiscent of a First Nations pit house, but with all the comforts of modern living, and not quite as austere as the beehive cells that Bishop Lynne wrote about in the November edition.
Even though Simon has retired as Incumbent for Holy Trinity, Grand Forks, Juno and Simon continue to minister in the area.
I asked them how they saw their ministry fitting in with “Truth and Reconciliation” and the Anglican Church.
Their answer was that presently, Juno is helping to facilitate an Indigenous women’s group at Holy Trinity Church, which meets once a week, though anybody is welcome to come. The women attending find it a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere to meet in. Juno also helps with drumming and sacred rock circles at church service events that have an indigenous aspect to them.
Simon has been asked on several occasions to lead funeral services for the indigenous community in Grand Forks at Holy Trinity: services that, though they use the Anglican BAS prayer book, incorporate a lot of traditional aspects to them, including native spirituality.
Juno and Simon also help with the Indigenous Day of Prayer, incorporating prayer, sacred circles, and drumming.
