Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Sept 05/01) - A group of Ontario youth spent some time in Rankin Inlet recently strengthening a decades old relationship.

The 14 youth and six adults were from St. Matthew the Apostle, Oriole Anglican Church in Toronto.

The vicar of the Holy Comforter Anglican Church in Rankin Inlet, Canon Paul Williams, is a former member of St. Matthew's parish.

Canon Greg Physick says the older youth of St. Matthew's parish began meeting regularly in the fall of 2000 to discuss ways to help Williams with his Rankin efforts.

The youth also explored ways of strengthening ties between the two parishes and learning more about Rankin's way of life.

"Paul (Williams) grew up going to our church and some of his family are still members of our parish," says Physick.

"The outreach committee of our church always felt a tie to first Coral Harbour and then Rankin Inlet with Paul in the community."

That long-distance bond continued to intensify with the passing of time.

The desire of the St. Matthew parish to help Williams evolved into the desire to visit his community and Project Rankin was born.

Before departing for the Kivalliq, the visiting group identified a number of focal points for their visit, including compiling a list of relevant Internet Web sites, establishing e-mail "pen pal" relationships and assisting in the creation of a Holy Comforter Internet Web site.

The youth also interviewed Inuit elders in Rankin to compile a history of the Holy Comforter Parish and worked on refinishing projects in the Rankin church to restore damaged pews.

Nicole Bruiners was one of the southern youth to visit Rankin.

She says she was surprised by the size of Rankin.

"I really expected it to be a lot smaller." says Bruiners.

"And I can't believe how friendly most people in Rankin are.

"You don't even know them, yet they're smiling at you and saying hi."

Bruiners says she expected the town to be modern, but quickly adds she was quite impressed by the traditional demonstrations put on for the group.

"I was surprised by how everything from an animal was used for something.

"The tools were simple, but very effective.

"A sore throat prevented me from trying to learn throat singing, but I did learn how to drum dance."