On Sunday, June 8 at 10:30 a.m., the sanctuary of St. George鈥檚 United will welcome congregants from five area churches, as well as members of the community who want to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the United Church of Canada.
The Sunday service is the collaboration of five United Church ministries in the area, including: St. George鈥檚 United, Comox United, Weird Church (Cumberland), Union Bay United, Denman Island United, and Campbell River United.
The Reverends Ingrid Brown (Weird Church) and Karen Hollis (Comox United) will be the presiding ministers. The service will include roles for retired clergy and lay ministers, as well.
For this Centennial celebration, the choir will include representatives from all of the participating churches. The musical selections will take participants through history, starting the service with old hymns and progressing through history to current musical selections.
This celebratory service is not just for adults either. As usual in the United Church, children will start with their family members in the sanctuary, and will then be invited to Children鈥檚 Church downstairs with children-church instructors and volunteers.
Lunch will be provided after the service.
The United Church of Canada is the largest Protestant denomination in Canada-- ministering to over a million people in about 2,500 congregations. The history of the United Church is closely entwined with the history of Canada itself.
The United Church was inaugurated on June 10, 1925 in Toronto, Ontario, when the Methodist Church, Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada, and 70 percent of The Presbyterian Church in Canada entered into a union. Also joining was the small General Council of Union Churches, centered largely in Western Canada.
It was the first union of churches in the world to cross historical denominational lines and received international acclaim.
Each of the founding churches had a long history in Canada prior to 1925. The movement for church union began with the desire to coordinate ministry in the vast Canadian northwest and for collaboration in overseas missions. Congregations in Indigenous communities from each of the original denominations were an important factor in the effort toward church union.
