There will be feelings of both excitement and loss at the Sunday service on May 24 at Squamish United Church, according to Reverend Karen Millard.
The service will be the last for the congregation in its current sanctuary.
“There will be great excitement and celebration about the new beginning, but I think that there will be some grieving,” said Millard. “This congregation and the church has been here a long time.”
The church donated its land and buildings at Fourth Avenue and Victoria Street to Sea to Sky Community Services for the Centrepoint development.
“This is a big deal for the church,” Millard said, adding that Squamish United Church has been a part of Squamish since 1891.
“I mean there are folks in our congregation who built this with their bare hands.”
For the congregation, the donation of the land was a way to fulfill the church’s mission, Millard said.
“This project really helps live out our mission of what church is called to be, caring for community.”
The Squamish United Church congregation numbers about 100 families, Millard said, and on an average Sunday morning about 60 families worship.
There will be a new sanctuary for the church within the Centrepoint project, set to break ground this summer on the church’s current property.
Centrepoint will include various community rooms, a preschool, programming rooms for social services, 32 affordable housing rental units and office space.
Millard stressed that the church isn’t closing.
“Squamish United Church will still be, we are just in transition,” she said.
The church will assemble at St. John the Divine Anglican Church for the 18 to 24 months until Centrepoint is built.
As always, everyone is welcome to the May 24 service, Millard said.
“We just want to honour the gift that this church has offered to so many and celebrate and honour that as we also anticipate new beginnings and new dreams,” she said. “It is a loss of what was, and a hope of what is to come.”
Anyone interested in attending the final service is asked to contact the church office in advance at 604-892-5727 or [email protected].
