Grace United in Sydenham to close

Wilma Kenny | Feb 18, 2010

Nearly 150 years ago, in 1861, the Episcopal Methodist congregation built a big new stone church on a hill above Sydenham beside what was then the main road south to Kingston. Now, the congregation of Grace United Church has diminished to less than 20 households. Burned out with fundraising efforts and weighed down with debt, on December 7, 2009 they voted strongly though not unanimously to begin the process to sell the church and adjoining property, and disband the congregation. For those present, it was a sad but inevitable decision.

Fifty years ago, the church was a centre of village society. It was packed every Sunday; latecomers were forced to march down the aisle to the few remaining seats at the front. There were usually both morning and evening services on Sunday. The Sunday school had many classes, from kindergarten to teens. There were three women’s groups: the Women’s Association, the Missionary Society and the Chi-rho Ladies’ Group, for younger housewives. There was CGIT (Canadian Girls In Training: remember the sailor-style "middies?"), though even then, the Young People’s group for older teens had disbanded, for lack of participants.

Today, the active congregation has dwindled down to a few people in two or three pews. Community groups who may have wished to use the building have been deterred by the high cost of heating, as reflected in the rent. Few new or young families have joined: there are no longer any children for Sunday school. The expense of maintaining, insuring and especially heating such a large open structure and employing a minister has, over the past decades, used up all the money from contributions, fundraising, and reserve funds, and still left the church running at a constant deficit.

Grace United is far from alone in this. Many churches are facing similar problems, along with many formerly vibrant community groups. A wide and sometimes conflicting list of reasons has been proposed: orientation towards the city, more women working outside the home, secularization, liberalization of views, questioning of beliefs, shifting priorities, enormous changes in means of communication, recreation and socializing.

Changes like this evolve gradually, undramatically; for a long time we can almost convince ourselves everything’s fine, nothing’s really different. But now, a handful of us has faced the end of an era, and forced ourselves to step off into new territory. It’s not comfortable.

Although the decision to close has been made, it is a slow process: Grace United will continue to hold 10 am Sunday services, under the leadership of the Reverend Mac Steinburg. Don’s twentieth and last pie sale will be May 8, and there’ll be a community potluck supper on Saturday April 24. The closing service will be held in the afternoon of May 16.