Sylvan United Church Is On The Move

Cowichan Valley Citizen

January 30, 2000

For more than 40 years, Shawnigan Lake United Church has been a focus for Shawnigan Lake Village. This Sunday, however, the congregation will walk out of the old church and down to its temporary location in the community centre. There, the recently amalgamated congregation will await construction of a new and larger house of worship.

Located on Shawnigan Lake Road next to the Aitken and Fraser General Store, the Church was dedicated in January 1957, approximately two years after construction began. The church grew out of the need of the congregation for more space. The original United Church had been housed in the tiny Methodist Church located behind Mason’s Store. The congregation outgrew that building and, after serious congregational consideration, the Church decided to buy two lots right in the village at a cost of $200 per lot.

The building of the present church represented a community effort as members of the congregation, friends, merchants, and others contributed materials, expertise, labour, and commitment to the building. The Minister during the building, Rev. H. Turpin, praised his predecessor, Rev. R.B. Knipe, for his foresight and the members of the congregation for their energy and determination.

The first sod was turned by Mrs. J. E. Andrews with the assistance of the younger child in the Sunday School, Marion Craig. Much, if not most, of the labour of building the church was spearheaded by Building Committee Chairmen, C. Curtis and R. Osland, only assisted in the construction by W. Kennedy, A. Kennedy, and E.J. Clarke who built the pews, Communion Table, pulpit, etc. by hand. Funds were sought and received from the Board of Home Missions for B.C., and then the congregation, led by its Women’s groups, set out to repay the loan in five years.

Such noted Shawnigan women as “Brownie” Gibson, Anna Kennedy, Nan Kennedy, Bernice Edson, Irene Craig, Doris Carr, and many others put on dinners and community suppers to see that the debt was retired by 1961.

Jan. 18, 1957, began a weekend celebrating the completion of the new church. Dedicated on the Friday evening, the celebration continued on Saturday with a fellowship dinner and entertainment in the downstairs hall. On Sunday evening, Jan. 20, Dr. W. S. Taylor, president of B.C. Conference and principal of Union College (now the Vancouver School of Theology at U.B.C.), was the guest speaker at an evening service in the new church.

Since that day, Shawnigan Lake United Church has been the centre of worship and activities for Shawnigan Lake United Church congregation and, after the amalgamation of the Shawnigan Lake and Mill Bay congregations, the joint congregations. Since, renamed Sylvan United Church after the community of Sylvania, the church continues to grow.

In June 1997, Victoria Presbytery approved the amalgamation, and the new congregation held Sunday morning worship in Shawnigan Lake Church, whose sanctuary is larger than that of Mill Bay. Evening services continued at Mill Bay United Church. At the same time, the congregation of Sylvan United instructed its Re-development committee to look into the feasibility of selling either or both original churches and of buying property for a new church. The growing congregation, feeling seriously pressed for larger facilities, set about pursuing re-development with vigour.

Finally, a year ago, a five-acre property was acquired on Hutchinson Road, and shortly after, a purchaser was found for the Shawnigan Lake United Church building. This happy combination of events was made even more attractive as the purchaser of Shawnigan Lake United Church expressed this intention of keeping the building on site and as unchanged in appearance as possible. The building will continue to be a much-loved feature of village ambience.

The sale of the Shawnigan Lake building is to be completed at the end of this month, when the congregation will move temporarily to the Shawnigan Lake Community Centre for Sunday morning worship while the design and construction of a new building are approved.

To celebrate the almost 50 years of service of Shawnigan Lake United Church, the congregation will mark its move to the Community Centre by processing from the church to the Community Centre during the Sunday morning service on Jan. 30. Later, at 5 p.m. Sunday evening, the church is holding a millennium supper of celebration in the church hall when some 140 members, friends, and guests will gather for the lay time in this church as members and friends of a worshipping and serving community.