‘It’s very bittersweet’: Church holding final service before congregation disbands

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This article was published 21/04/2022 (1293 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Central United Church will be hosting a bittersweet celebration Sunday as the congregation marks its final service ever in the community.

On Jan. 22, members voted 96.5 per cent in favour of disbanding the congregation on June 30, with the last service slated for April 24, according to a congregation newsletter obtained by the Sun.

The letter stated the building was sold as of Feb. 27 with a closing sale date of June 30.

“It’s sad,” said Bill Myers, chairman of the leadership team at Central United Church. “There’s a lot of history. A lot of people have been baptized, married, buried — it’s been sort of a stalwart part of the religious community of Brandon for a long, long time.”

Myers — like plenty of the congregants — and his family have been members of the church for many years. His parents were even married in the previous church, St. Paul’s, in 1941.

The final service will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The service will include previous ministers, Knox United Church and Trinity United Church members gathering to help celebrate the history. Member representatives from the regional United Church from Winnipeg will be coming out for the formal officiating of the end of the congregation.

“It will be a celebration and I guess a bit of a funeral,” Myers said. “It’s very bittersweet. It’s a celebration of our history, but it’s a sad situation.”

The more than 18,200-square-foot church, located at 327 Eighth St., was listed for $1.5 million on a local real estate website. The sanctuary of the church can hold up to 800 people.

The sale of the church had been in the works for several years and was largely necessitated by declining congregation numbers.

“It got to the point where it just wasn’t financially sustainable. It costs a lot to maintain the building and the staff,” Myers said. “Ultimately, it became apparent that there wasn’t enough membership congregation to run the place.”

After the final service, all congregation members will be given their member certificates and will be able to transfer to other churches, including Knox United Church or Trinity United Church.

Items in the church are being dispersed into the community, and longtime reverends Milo Spooner Craig and Doug Craig will retire when the closure is complete.

The funds generated by the sale of the building will be used to first satisfy liability and bills, and whatever is leftover will be split between the Regional United Church of Canada and the local congregation.

Based on a unique formula, the regional church will receive 30 per cent of the funds, leaving 70 per cent for the congregation to disperse among charitable organizations.

“I expect the majority of [funds] will stay in Brandon,” Myers said. “It’s all primarily social outreach functions.”

Cities Church has been renting space in the Central United Church for three years and will also be forced to find a new home. The Sun requested comment from the church, but assistant pastor Faith Beswitherick said in an email they would be unable to meet the press deadline.

Central United Church sits on the site of the former St. Paul’s United Church, which dates back more than 100 years. The previous church burned to the ground in 1986. Central United was built in its place and first opened its doors to congregation members in September 1988.

The closure of Central United Church is not a unique story, Myers said. Churches across the country have been shutting down, too.

According to Statistics Canada, religious affiliation, the frequency of group and individual religious activities and the importance of religious or spiritual beliefs in everyday life have been declining for decades. United Christians make up 3.8 per cent of Canada’s Christian population of 63.2 per cent.

“It’s just the way of the world at the moment,” Myers said.

» ckemp@brandonsun.com

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