On December 7th, St. George’s Church in Châteauguay celebrated with Debbie Stevens-Boyer her retirement as Parish Secretary. Mrs. Stevens-Boyer started working at the church in 1988. Back in those days, she typed everything on a Gestetner Stencil and then ran the copies off on a duplicating machine. She also remembers when the church was the official registrar for baptisms, marriages and deaths and received income for making extracts of these records.
Over the 37 years, Mrs. Stevens-Boyer has worked with incumbents and many curates and interim priests. She said that at times “it was a challenge to adjust to each priest’s way of working” but she has always enjoyed working with parishioners and the feeling of community at the church. The congregation made a memory book for Mrs. Stevens-Boyer with pictures from her time as Secretary and messages from church members and past and current clergy. Many of the clergy wrote about how they had served at St. George’s early on in their ministry and Mrs. Stevens-Boyer had been a great help to them. Parishioners described Debbie as like “a lighthouse” and “a stabilizing force during so many transitions.”
Over the years, Mrs. Steven-Boyer has developed a deep knowledge of the parish, working to support the life events of multiple generations of the same families. She reflected that “I have always been the type of person to take an interest in people and get to know them.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped the congregation stay connected, hand-delivering newsletters and visiting parishioners in their front yards.
Throughout her time as Secretary, Mrs. Stevens-Boyer was an active member of the congregation and looks forward to remaining so as long as she is able. “It has been a pleasure and it is not like I have left the community. I am still a big part of it and will continue to be so as long as St. George’s exists or I do. I am so thankful that I was able to serve the church in a capacity that I truly, truly, loved.”
