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Orange Blossom Special,’ August 27th, 2011, Live at The Mary Webb Centre

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Highgate United, The Transformation of a Church
http://vimeo.com/18094331
By Barry Stephenson
A film dealing with the closing and transformation of a United Church in Highgate, Ontario. Part of a film project titled Abandoned Sacred, “Highgate United: The Transformation of a Church,” is a companion piece to “Highgate: The Deconsecration of a Church,” by Ronald Grimes, also available through Vimeo’s Ritual Studies Group.Barry Stephenson holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University Calgary (2005). He is the author of two books, Veneration and Revolt: Hermann Hesse and Swabian Pietism, and Performing the Reformation: Public Ritual in the City of Luther. In his research, Stephenson uses ethnographic and visual methods to study lived-religion. Performing the Reformation includes a DVD of edited material of Luther-themed festivals and pilgrimage, shot in the field in Wittenberg, Germany. Recent film work includes “Highgate United,” a contribution to a field research project titled “Abandoned Sacred,” in collaboration with Ronald Grimes.Highgate: The Deconsecration of a Canadian Church (Revised version 2011-02-12)

http://vimeo.com/19881923
by Ronald L. Grimes
A deconsecration service braided together with stories told by members of Highgate United Church. Community members in this rural Ontario town in Canada hope to convert the building into the Mary Webb Centre, a venue for artistic and cultural events. Simultaneously, Ontario Heritage Trust holds a conference about adaptive re-use of religious sites in the province.This video is part of “Abandoned Sacred”, a field research project conducted with Barry Stephenson. See his companion piece, “Highgate United:”vimeo.com/18807637.
A photographic study is available on Picasa at picasaweb.google.com/ronaldlgrimes/HighgateUnitedChurchHighgateOntarioCanada#

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by Ronald Grimes

The first Decoration Day service at Highgate after its deconsecration as a United Church place of worship.

From 1974–2008 Ron Grimes was Professor of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where he taught courses on religion and the performing arts, field research in the study of religion, and ritual studies. He was Professor of Ritual Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands from 2005-2010. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Colorado, the University of Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame University.  (See vimeo.com for full resume.)