Steven Aulis and his Marion Phelps Award in front of the Canterbury Centre’s Gothic doors that he re-built.

“Well, my reward is sitting right there.” Steven Aulis gestured at the Christchurch Canterbury, now the newly restored Canterbury Center, a small but elegant structure.
“It’ll be there for years after I’m gone, and I’m hoping that young people will take interest in what I’m doing. Many hands make light work. I hope it will catch on,” he said as bagpipers Matthew Fowler and Sylvain Ross played in the background.
That is Aulis’s modest explanation of how he felt about receiving the prestigious Marion Phelps Award for his extensive and expert contributions to restoring the Canterbury Center.
It was September 12 in the historical Canterbury hamlet located between Bury and Scotstown, at the corner of Victoria and Canterbury roads. Grant Myers, the president of the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN), had just given him the award “in recognition of outstanding long-term contributions by an individual to the preservation and promotion of Anglophone heritage in Quebec.”
The Bury Historical & Heritage Society nominated carpenter-craftsman Steven Aulis for his outstanding work over the past five years. As a volunteer with the Society’s Canterbury Committee, Aulis has been instrumental in restoring the building and transforming it into a cultural centre.
The event also marked the 125th anniversary of the Anglican church, the Christchurch Canterbury. The oft-photographed little Neo-Gothic church with distinctive flying buttresses was built of local materials in 1896. In 2015, it was deconsecrated and purchased by the Bury Society.
In the following years, said QAHN’s press release, “Aulis worked on and oversaw repairs and replacements to everything from the underpinnings of the building, to the belfry, to the stained glass windows. He even replicated authentic nineteenth century Gothic-style moldings and interior decorative scrollwork.”
“He remains committed to the preservation of what is now known as the Canterbury Center,” wrote QAHN’s executive director, Matthew Farfan, “one of the area’s finest heritage sites, now enjoying a new vocation within the community.”
For these reasons and more, QAHN selected Aulis from among all the candidates Quebec-wide to receive the Marion Phelps Award for Volunteerism.
Marion Phelps was a legendary volunteer, one of the founders of the Brome Historical Society. QAHN chooses one recipient each year to receive an award in her name.
“We nominated Steve because of his dedication to the Canterbury Centre, and his gift of time over an extended period,” said Ed Pederson, secretary of the Bury Historical & Heritage Society.
“He made the schedule for the restorations of the building. It was his idea to put louvres instead of plywood in the bell tower windows, and he created them. He rebuilt the cross atop the 55-foot-high tower, and also reconstructed the Gothic-style front doors by hand from old floorboards. He repaired many of the buttresses. He built new frames for the stained glass windows when they were restored. He also installed new mouldings where the exterior mouldings were rotten, and he built window casings and put the windows in.”
“When we moved the building, he repaired and, where necessary, reproduced the decorative latticework,” continued Pederson. “He adapted the benches to fit against the walls and made necessary repairs. He acquired chairs and restored all the wooden chairs, which involved gluing 30 chairs and repairing them. He helped with the landscaping as well, and painted the floor twice inside. He’s been there every step of the way!”
“I think Steve Aulis highly deserves the Marion Phelps Award. It’s an appropriate, timely recognition of his character and his community spirit.”
Those who know Aulis also know that he achieved this incredible work despite enormous physical challenges. He broke his neck in a fall in 1986, in a local mill, and is paraplegic as a result. His trademark plaid shirt and pair of long walking staffs are a familiar sight around Bury.
At the award ceremony and anniversary celebration, a 125th Anniversary Plaque was unveiled, honouring those who contributed in some way to the restoration of the building over the last 5 years. The president of the Bury Historical & Heritage Society, Praxède Levesque Lapointe, officiated as the names of 75 Canterbury Center volunteers were read out. Following the ceremonies, volunteers rang the Canterbury bell 125 times.
The Canterbury Committee members working with Aulis are Candy Coleman, Gilles Gaulin, Bobby Jacklin, Tony de Melo and Ed Pederson.
QAHN “could not have come up with a more compelling recipient for this year’s Phelps Award,” said Myers. Because of the tireless work of volunteers like Steven, important historic sites like Canterbury Church will continue to serve as community landmarks, as places of memory, and as gathering places for years to come. It is volunteers like you who are the very backbone of grassroots heritage organizations that are working so hard to preserve and protect our heritage.”