Warm welcome at Bishop's Levee
A cup of chowder added to the New Year menu
by Ana Watts
A warm welcome awaited a lot of cold New Brunswick Anglicans at the
Bishop's Levee on New Year;s Day. This year the hostess, Bishop CLaude Miller's wife Sharon, added a cup of chowder to the levee menu.
“Everyone said they loved the chowder, it was perfect for such a cold, cold day,” says Mrs. Miller. “We served seafood chowder and a fish chowder, to accommodate those with shellfish allergies. There was also some delicious pate, cheese, fruit and, of course there were lots of Christmas sweets.”
No matter what the menu or the weather, the annual levee held at Cathedral Memorial Hall on Church Street, Fredericton, is a warm and cheerful event. Fine linen, china and silver, a Christmas tree and flowers — this year it was wonderful winter white roses arranged by Rae Kimm of the Cathedral — help to make the occasion festive. It is an opportunity for New Brunswick Anglicans as well as other members of the community to greet the bishop and each other and share good wishes for the coming year.
In recent years the bishop has made a point of inviting everyone to join him at the New Year’s Day service in Christ Church Cathedral at 11 a.m. followed by the levee. “This year I think there were at least 75 people at the service,” says Mrs. Miller. “Quite a good crowd for such a bitter day.”
The numbers grew at the levee.
Retired Archbishop Harold Nutter, who was bishop of the Diocese of Fredericton from 1971-1989, credits his immediate predecessor, Archbishop Harry O’Neil, with introducing the bishop’s levee to this diocese, which encompasses all of the province of New Brunswick. Archbishop O’Neil was bishop from 1957 until 1971.
In a Dec. 20, 2008 article in the Fredericton newspaper the Daily Gleaner, writer Wilfred Langmaid quotes Archbishop Nutter: "When I came to Fredericton in 1960 as dean, the big event was the lieutenant-governor's levee, which was usually at 10 a. m. When Bishop O'Neill came, he proposed that he host his own levee in the early afternoon.
The history of levees dates at least from the time of Louis XIV in France. Church of England bishops adopted the event as a New Year's Day tradition. The custom eventually made its way to some Canadian dioceseses, including the Diocese of Huron in southern Ontario, where Archbishop O’Neill spent most of his ministry before coming here as bishop. He added the bishop’s levee to the existing ones hosted by the lieutenant-governor and the military.
The lieutenant-governor’s levee continues as well, and begins just as the bishop’s levee ends. Many of those who attend the bishop’s levee move on to Old Government House to meet and greet more of their friends and neighbours.
