With shrinking congregations and dwindling resources, four churches in southeast Edmonton are uniting as one in an effort to keep the lights on.
In its prime in the 1950’s, Knox-Metropolitan United Church in Garneau would be jam-packed with people — 300 for a Sunday service.
But in the 21st century, it simply hasn’t been the same.
“Like anything else in the inner city, the population is moving out. We’ve got very faithful congregants, but our numbers are declining,” said church chair Victoria Wynn.
The congregation dropped to about 80 people and they couldn’t meet the demands of an aging church.
“There’s an antiquated electrical and mechanical system and we just don’t have the reserves to modernize the building,” church treasurer Kevin Gue said.
There are also issues with a leaky roof and shifting foundation.
Instead of just closing the doors and splitting off, volunteers decided to conduct an experiment of faith, looking for other churches that might be in the same boat.
“We initially started talking with nine united churches in this area,” said Kathy Martin, “and there were four of us that said we’re ready to go boldly forward and see what we can do.”
Martin and her colleagues decided to try and form a new church – from parts of four others.
Knox-Metropolitan, Ritchie, Pleasantview and Avonmore all agreed to start over, together.
They decided to sell off Knox-Metropolitan and Pleasantview and turn Ritchie over to a growing Korean United group.
Avonmore’s church, rebuilt after a fire in 1986, became their new home and was quickly renamed ‘United on Whyte.’
“We did an assessment of all of the sites and realized that is the one that has the least cost to maintain and would be the most viable. It has the space and all the things we needed,” Martin said.
Still, it wasn’t easy to say goodbye to a church that holds so many memories.
“While we’re grieving the loss of our church building, we’re so hopeful for the church as the people moving forward,” Wynn explained.
To try and ease the pain, mementos from each church are being worked into services at the new church. Things like hymnals, a baptismal font, stained glass windows and a tiny schoolhouse used for offerings have all been incorporated into United on Whyte.
“Right now it’s really exciting because all possibilities are open. We’re just experimenting with what has worked and been successful in one congregation and what’s worked and been successful in another,” Martin said.
They’ll also be able to funnel the money that went into maintaining four churches into one.
“The church is more than a building,” Susan Bramm said. “Really it’s about that community and the connections people make with each other in a faithful way.”
Services at United on Whyte started in July and are averaging about 100 people each Sunday – the majority of whom are coming from Knox-Metropolitan.
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