By Joanne Stassen
From the street, St. George’s Anglican Church is not the most beautiful building in the city. In fact, the church’s own building committee has described its façade as “unattractive.”
On the inside, however, there is something decidedly appealing about the brown brick church nestled between high-rises at Gloucester and Metcalfe streets. Sunlight streams through the stained glass windows, flashing off the worship leader’s guitar. The pews are packed with young families, teenagers, single adults and a few street people.
“Our theology is conservative, with a non-traditional worship style,” says David Sisley, head of the building renewal committee. Sisley thinks that’s why the church has been growing by five to seven per cent each year.
Unfortunately, the maintenance bill for the 19th century building is also growing.
St. George’s is just one of several churches in downtown Ottawa learning the same lesson these days: Turn-of-the-century buildings don’t always meet the needs of a 21st century ministry.
In the last few years the congregation at St. George’s has sunk half a million dollars into emergency repairs to the building. When the parish council commissioned a structural survey they found out it could cost nearly a million dollars just to bring the wiring, plumbing and heating to code.
“We had to decide if we wanted to spend a million dollars, but in the end still be left with an old building and a high heating bill,” Sisley says.
Now St. George’s is looking for ways to make their building fit their ministry.
“What we do with our building is integral to what we can do—what the vision of the church is,” Sisley says.
He says their first priority is to discern what God wants them to do as a congregation, regardless of the space. They’re praying about it—but they’ve also started surveying church members and people around St. George’s, asking them what they feel they need in a church.
Once they decide what they want to do as a church, they’ll have to determine if that vision fits the existing space, or if other options need to be considered.
So far, options range from completely renovating the interior, to building a new facility as part of a commercial venture on the church’s valuable downtown property.
“We’re not welded to the idea of a new facility,” Sisley says. “We want to keep our options entirely open.”
Even though most of St. George’s members come from outside the downtown core, moving to the suburbs is the one option that’s not on the table.
“Every time we’ve asked ourselves that question it’s been re-enforced again and again that our mission is downtown,” Sisley says
Just a few blocks away from St. George’s, at Bank and Gladstone, the congregation at the Metropolitan Bible Church has been considering the same question, and they’ve come up with a different answer.
“We are looking at relocation,” says Lou Ranahan, the church’s treasurer. “In fact, we’re voting on a piece of property this month.”
The property in question is near Hunt Club and Prince of Wales, far from the church’s location, but much closer to where most of its members live.
The main reason for the move? Attendance has more than doubled in the last five years.
“With parking and just the growth in attendance we’re running out of space,” says Ranahan.
“It’s very difficult to grow downtown, with the zoning and parking restrictions. Land is about a million dollars an acre. There are height restrictions. It just doesn’t become feasible. That’s the fundamental reason we’re considering a move.”
Ranahan says building a new facility will help the church meet its ministry objectives.
“We’re more committed to the ministry than to the building,” Ranahan says. “Our focus when we build a new one is just going to be functional. A building can serve as a place to welcome people and run outreach youth programs, an after school gym program. Right now, we just don’t have that capability.”
The church has not yet decided when they will move, or whether they will sell the building on Bank Street.
“We’d love to maintain a presence downtown,” Ranahan says, adding that even if they sell the building on Bank Street they could continue programs with a downtown focus.
Renovating or relocating are not the only options for churches with old buildings. First United Church, for example, is negotiating an amalgamation with another downtown church.
“Our total budget is around $200,000, but something like $20,000 to $25,000 of that goes on utilities,” says Marti Settle, one of the church’s ministers.
Add maintenance and custodial costs, and the building eats up about one-quarter of the church’s annual budget.
It’s not that the congregation can’t afford to maintain the buildings, Settle says. Instead, they’re asking themselves if sinking thousands of dollars into heating costs is good use of their resources, and good stewardship of the environment.
“The conversation around this was ‘couldn’t this money be used for something better than just to support this building?’ ”
The church’s ministry focus has also changed. People have become increasingly involved in social justice issues.
“The kind of ministry we’re doing isn’t necessarily matching the buildings we are working with,” Settle says.
Partnering with another church does fit their ethos.
“This is a congregation that has tried to challenge and encourage a more welcoming and inclusive environment,” Settle says. “The possibility of joining with another congregation fits.”
No matter how good the fit, leaving behind an historic building will not be easy. Even amalgamation is some years away, Settle says people in the congregation are already grieving the loss of the building.
“There is a real sense of sacredness, safety and history that is part of these buildings. There is a deep sense of already starting to mourn losing this building. At the same time, everyone recognizes the value of moving on.”