St. Paul's-Eastern United Church is one of the oldest congregations in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The stone Romanesque church building is located in the heart of downtown Ottawa ( Sandy Hill) on the corner of Daly and Cumberland Streets, near the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

and two blocks east of the

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History

The Romanesque Revival structure was built from 1888 to 1889 for St. Paul's

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Church by S.R. Badgley, architect. It originally had a large

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

. Unfortunately the church was built on sand, and the steeple side started sinking into the ground. The steeple was therefore removed early in the 20th century, leaving the building as a relatively squat stone structure. With the creation of the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

in 1925, St. Paul's merged with the nearby Eastern

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Church and got its current name. In the late part of the 20th century the church struggled. The growing

secularization In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

of Canadian society and the smaller number of people living downtown meant that the church was rarely more than half full and the

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

had only a handful of children. The church closed in 2021 following the covid crisis and the congregation disbanded.

St. Paul's today

More recently (2003–present), the church has experienced a revitalization in activity, membership, finances and Sunday School involvement. Most of the new people coming to St. Paul's-Eastern are young families and young singles. St. Paul's-Eastern has a number of groups and partners who operate out of the church. They include: Jericho Road and Touch of Love. Other groups such as Girl Guides and Alcoholics Anonymous also operate out of the church. The church closed in 2021 following the covid crisis and the congregation disbanded. http://home.imagesandyhill.org/2020/12/goodbye-but-never-forgotten/

References

{{Reflist *''Ottawa: a guide to heritage structures'' City of Ottawa, Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee; managing editor, Lucy Corbin. 2001 *Harold D. Kalman ''Exploring Ottawa: an architectural guide to the nation's capital'' University of Toronto Press, 1983 United Church of Canada churches in Ontario

History

St. Paul's today

See also

References