GALE PRESBYTERIAN FEATURE | 17
THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2012
The new Gale Presbyterian Church is located at 10 Barnswallow Dr. in Elmira. The church will be holding an open house on Sept. 22 for the community to come tour the building.
[COLIN DEWAR / THE OBSERVER]
Celebrating the move to a new home Gale Presbyterian Church to hold community-wide housewarming event as culmination of multi-year effort For 144 years Gale Presbyterian Church stood on a quarter-acre lot at 2 Cross St. in Elmira, but on April 15 the congregation held its final service at the old building and closed the door on a nine-year journey that started in 2003 to find a new location for the church. There were a lot of great things about the former location, including being the oldest standing church in
Elmira, but for the current needs of the congregation there were a lot of drawbacks, such as a lack of parking and almost no visibility in the community. The old church building is landlocked and after building a new addition in 1986 it has nowhere to grow on the property – to upgrade or expand the old facilities once more was almost impossible. Over the years the oneroom church grew both in size and in membership.
Mar-Span Home Hardware Building Centre, along with Mar-Span Truss Inc, congratulate you on your new facility.
The building expanded to include a Sunday school room, an annex and tower. “The congregation made a phenomenal job of using every square inch of the old building while making it as modern and user-friendly as we could, including adding a lift allowing patrons to reach almost every corner of the old structure. We did everything possible but had reached its boundaries,” said Reverend Dr. Linda Bell, the church’s longest-serving minister.
In a sense the congregation had outgrown the building at least in terms of the vision they had for the church. Even though Sunday service only sees some 100 church members in attendance, the church felt it had to grow in the community and offer more to Elmira. The church moved as much as it could from the former location to the new building at 10 Barnswallow Dr. All the furniture except for the pews was moved.
The stained glass windows remained behind as well at the request of the buyers of the old church building. Some of the congregation was hesitant at the idea of moving the church at first for a variety of reasons. “Some were very attached to the building and many of them had worked really hard on the old building, helping to renovate and building additions to the structure. They had invested themselves and their energies into that and
it’s hard to let that go,” said Bell. Members of the congregation did not see the need for a new facility, as there are only 300 official members on the books and the church could never fill the pews for Sunday morning service. “Originally we all had reservations but we were sitting in an old church with no room for expansion and the younger members wanted it and were willing GALE PRESBYTERIAN | 18
COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL
COLIN DEWAR
Show this ad & receive $50
OFF your new shutter order*
Congratulations on Your New Shutters and Facility! Sales - Service - Installation *Offer expires October 12, 2012
7022 Road 129, Newton, ON Tel: 519.595.2359 Emergency Service: 519.501.4002
www.harmonydoors.ca sales@harmonydoorservice.com