By Season Osborne
Downtown churches are looking for congregations, while congregations in the suburbs are looking for churches.
Since amalgamation, Ottawa’s population has reached close to 800,000; the majority of whom live in the suburbs.
Just as a century ago, when there was a boom in church- building to accommodate a burgeoning downtown, a population explosion in the suburbs in recent years has made it necessary to find new buildings for growing congregations.
There are close to 200 churches, temples and synagogues in Ottawa’s suburbs. Centretown is home to 20 Christian churches.
Marti Settle says there are seven churches within walking distance of First United Church, on Kent Street, where he is an associate minister.
“Our congregations are vibrant and strong, but quite small,” he says, adding that a few downtown ministers preach to a full house on Sunday mornings.
“Part of the challenge for the Centretown churches is that we were established when the majority of the population lived and worked in this area,” Settle says.
“There is a huge concentration of churches in the Centretown area and the population isn’t there to sustain them anymore.”
First United has a membership of 550 people, but about 150 to 180 regularly attend Sunday service. Only 20-to-25 per cent of the congregation lives in Centretown.
The First United congregation also encompasses a broad age group, Settle says.
“A majority of the congregation is between 45 and 60 years of age” including about 30 families with children, Settle says.
However, only eight or 10 people are between 20 and 35 years old and there are no teenagers in the congregation.
In the west-end suburb of Kanata, where the population approaches 60,000, there are 23 thriving churches.
These range from Catholic and Anglican to Russian Orthodox and Jehovah’s Witness. The City of Kanata Web site says the average age of its residents is 34 to 49 years. It’s not surprising then that 80 per cent of Kanata churchgoers are under 60. The Kanata Wesleyan Church originally held services in the Katimivak Elementary School. As the congregation grew, so did the building fund and the church was built six years ago. The church administrator, Susan Sanders, says the congregation continued to expand and has now reached 730 members. However, this means they have already outgrown their church.
The average age of the congregation is mid to late 30s and there are lots of children, says Sanders. So many children, in fact, that the Sunday school now occupies three classroom portables. The church also has a thriving youth group with a Sunday “teen school.”
Not all suburban churches hold services in traditional church buildings. As the suburbs are built in areas where no churches originally existed, many new congregations have found nontraditional places to worship in.
The Community Bible Church in Kanata started with a few families meeting in Pastor Steve Stewart’s home.
The congregation now exceeds 250 and, Stewart says, continues to grow by about five per cent annually. Services are now held at A.Y. Jackson Secondary School on Sunday morning. Eventually, the congregation hopes to purchase land and build its own church.
The growing number of evangelical churches in the suburbs helps explain why some of the traditional downtown churches are not attracting people.
Rev. Stephen Hayes of Knox Presbyterian Church on Lisgar Street says his regular congregation of 170 comes “out of a desire for traditional worship, good sermons and good music.”
He says the church’s organ is one of the best in the city, and is one reason why people come to Knox.
“The idea that we’re here to be dictated to by cultural norms that arise from immersion in television and movies — no we’re not. This is the church. We’re here for God’s purposes,” Hayes says.
Yet, cultural norms are dictating what many churches are doing. “We live in a world of consumers, and people also shop around to whichever church offers the best worship or teaching,” Steward says.
Stewart says many young families and teenagers come to his church because of the contemporary style of worship. They have a band and sing hymns written in the last ten years.
On the Rock’s pastor Nancy O’Reilly says, “Don’t come expecting hymns and organ music. That’s not what we do.”
They “do” rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll. Their contemporary service on Sunday also includes a potluck meal afterwards.
Like Stewart, O’Reilly also started her evangelical church in her living room six years ago. Her living room got too small as the number of parishioners grew and On the Rock began renting the Glen Cairn Community Centre in Kanata. Its congregation of 60 people, mostly families, comes from Smiths Falls, Perth and Gatineau.
The number of suburban churches is an indication that despite declining congregations at traditional downtown churches, people are still seeking spiritual guidance. Stewart says he believes that “people in a high-tech society need a high touch too.”