The historic Greenwood B.C. church destroyed by fire last week was days away from being shuttered, though its early end is no less a loss for those who remember it fondly, says a church official.
“There hasn’t been an active congregation in there for the last two years,” Anglican bishop Lynne McNaughton said of St. Jude’s church, which was built in 1901.
“I was scheduled in at the end of June to go and we were going to have a formal worship service of letting go of the buildings.”
It’s not an uncommon scenario in many small communities for a variety of reasons, McNaughton said. But while the old Greenwood church had outlived its original purpose with only two churchgoers currently tied to it, there is a lot of history in the building, and that would have been a time for people to express the loss they felt by a chapter of their history closing.
“It would have been a gathering of everyone who has memories to give thanks for the community that built the church and sustained it,” McNaughton said.
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“In 1901 churches tended to be the community center in lots of ways and held lots of events over the years. I’ve seen on Facebook people saying, ‘You know, my parents were married here in 1964’ or, ‘I was baptized here’ … so it has memories for the whole wider community in a way that isn’t true now.”
An opportunity to let go of the building will still be planned in the days ahead, though how that looks remains to be seen, as are plans on how the land will be used in the months and years ahead. The church had considered giving it to the town for housing.
While the building’s place in families and the Greenwood community is still being mourned, McNaughton has a greater concern at the moment.
“I’m far more concerned about the loss of a home to the one person (that lived next door) than the actual church building,” she said.
Luckily, she said, the community of Greenwood may be small, but its ability to rally is mighty.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, she added.
“The fire department and the RCMP have asked people not to speculate,” McNaughton said.
“So we’ve been encouraging people not to also because in a smaller town, it actually can cause more problems … and cause more angst.”
McNaughton said the history of the Anglican church on a whole is fraught in parts of Canada due to its part in this country’s residential schools. The Greenwood church was not home to a residential school, but it was standing when Greenwood was home to a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War.
Located in the Southern Interior, about an hour east of Osoyoos on Highway 3, Greenwood has a population of around 700.