The first service in the church was held on May 9th, 1891. On May 9th, 1991, a 100th anniversary service was held to commemorate the auspicious occasion. As part of the centennial celebrations this small stone plaque was affixed to the boulder which holds the wooden sign beside the church.
Oddly, a report from the Okanagan Historical Society, this one from 1969, states that "During May 1891 a site was selected for the Church of England and building was commenced in June." This is a month after the first service was supposed to have been held in the new church. I suspect that the discrepancy in dates arises from fading memories, more than anything else. Fonds of the Anglican Diocese of Kootenay Archives indicate that the church did, indeed, open in 1891
The parish was established in 1885, the same year that the town of Enderby received its name. The church forms one half of the Anglican Parish of Armstrong-Enderby, consisting of the two churches, St. James and St. George, and resides in the Diocese of Kootenay. The twists and turns in the history of the Enderby Parish are outlined below.
St. George's is the
oldest place of worship (Page 21, Volume 19, 1955) in the Okanagan Valley still on its original site. St. James's in Armstrong is older but was moved from Lansdowne when the railway ran through Armstrong and not Lansdowne, causing the entire town to be moved to Armstrong.
A very complete history of the church is to be found
here. It is a link from the old Enderby Museum website, soon to be closed (the website, not the museum). It has not yet been transferred to their new site. Hopefully I'll be able to update the link when it moves.
Anglican work began in the north Okanagan region in connection with the Kamloops Missionary District which was set apart in 1884. By 1892 the Okanagan Missionary District had been divided off which included the Okanagan Valley from Vernon south to the international border. In the northern section, churches had opened at Vernon and Lansdowne (moved to Armstrong in 1896) in the 1880's and at Enderby in 1891. In keeping with the growing settlement of the valley, the Okanagan Missionary District was further subdivided in 1893 with the southern section from Kelowna to the border worked from Penticton.
In 1896 Enderby was separated from Vernon into a new parish, together with Armstrong, Mara, Hullcar and Grande Prairie (now Westwold). In 1904 Salmon Arm was added to the parish. In 1906 the parish was divided. Armstrong, with its parish church of St. James, consecrated in 1896, became a new parish while Enderby retained responsibility for Salmon Arm and Mara. In the following year, Salmon Arm was set apart as a new parish. The parish of Enderby continued to serve smaller outstations, including St. Paul's, Grindrod (opened ca. 1920, no longer active); St. Matthew's, Mara (opened in 1912); and St. Peter's, Sicamous (opened in 1955).
In 1964 the parishes of Enderby and Armstrong were united into a single parish. At the same time St. Peter's, Sicamous was transferred to the care of Salmon Arm and Christ Church, Falkland (with Armstrong from 1957) to the Westwold Mission. In 1978 the parishes of Armstrong/Enderby and Vernon combined to form a team ministry called the Vernon Area Ministry which continued during the 1980's, and in which Lumby was later included as well.
From Memory BC