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AUTHORS' PREFACE Dorothy Dinsmore Shirley Bacon Norm Martin Gwen Minaker 1980
When the Archives Committee of St. John's agreed to record the significant events and personalities which have played a major role in the last thirty years of our parish's history, we were first of all aware of the magnificent centennial history produced in 1950, which had set a standard very hard to measure up to. As if this were not daunting in itself, we soon came face to face with the historian's two chief problems: source and decisions.
As to the former, in some cases we faced an embarrassment of riches, with stack upon stack of records, whereas in other areas information was extremely difficult to track down. The latter problems, passing judgment on the material we had collected, demanded that we all learn the editor's art very quickly; names, dates, anecdotes, all had to be arranged and many, sadly, had to be left out. So this history is in many ways an imperfect effort, and we beg the reader's indulgence on that account.
To all those who contributed to the assembly of material and who made helpful suggestions go our heartfelt thanks. It is our fervent wish that old friends of St. John's will recognize something of themselves in this history, and that newer parishioners will come away from these pages with a deepened sense of the story they are building on and helping to write themselves, day by day.
Dorothy Dinsmore Shirley Bacon Norm Martin Gwen Minaker
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