Churches near Whyte Avenue in Edmonton consider sharing one building
Five United Church churches near Whyte Avenue in Edmonton are considering sharing a single building to save money.
Rachel Ward, Edmonton Journal
Knox-Metropolitan Church on the south side in Edmonton on Sunday Sept. 13, 2015. John Lucas / Edmonton Journal
Shrinking congregations and coffers have prompted members of five United churches near Whyte Avenue to consider coming together in one building.
Kevin Gue, treasurer for Knox-Metropolitan United Church on 109th Street, said his congregation will meet Oct. 4 to vote on what to do with its 75-year-old building and its octagonal stained glass windows. It is not a heritage building, he said.
"This is a massive piece of infrastructure that's aging," Gue said after Sunday service. "Do you apply more money to an old, aging building or do you apply it to programming and ministry?"
The other churches are Pleasantview United Church on 62nd Avenue, Ritchie United Church on 74th Avenue and Avonmore United Church, which shares a Whyte Avenue building with Edmonton Korean United Church. Knox-Metropolitan representatives spoke Sunday on behalf of the churches through the South Side Churches Joint Planning Council.
This "innovative" idea of all the churches relocating into one building could free up scarce resources, Gue said, and help them focus on further developing faith and social justice.
"As long as we're fixing the roof, we're not doing that," he said.
The church is "making ends meet," Knox-Metropolitan board co-chairwoman Cathy Martin said, but "it's probably not going to be sustainable for the long term."
The church cut a youth worker job and warned in its last annual report the reserve fund would be depleted in four years. In recent years it also paid about $30,000 to re-enforce the gymnasium roof and about $5,000 to repair the outside stucco siding, she said.
They're starting to plan now while the finances are stable, she said.
"With any change, there's excitement and anxiety," Martin said. "But the thing is, we get to decide how we handle that."
The five churches hope to have a decision by January 2016, a deadline Martin said her congregation fully supports.
"Their legacy is much more than a building," Martin said of the congregation that dates back to 1892. "Their legacy has been their faith."
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