Canada: St. Peter's ends 96 years with baptism

From the Diocese of New Westminster:

The parish of St. Peter's, Rosedale, is no more. It closed at the end of 2007 after serving people in the eastern Fraser Valley for 96 years.

The closing service was held on Sunday, December 30. Bishop Michael Ingham presided and preached. He took as his text Ecclesiastes 3, "For everything there is a season." There was a time for St. Peter's to open, to flourish, and now to close, he said.

Part of the last service, held in the afternoon, included the baptism of Kaiden Harvey Blank, son of Kim Prest and Dwayne Blank, by the Rev. Graham Witcher, who had served as priest for several Sundays in the fall.

A special vestry (membership) meeting of the parish, with 16 of the 22 people on the parish rolls present, on December 9 voted to petition Bishop Michael Ingham to close the parish.

The congregation of St. Peter’s, Rosedale, after their last Sunday worship service
"There was sadness on the part of many people," said Don Rodger, the People's Warden. "But they understood.”

Rodger said most of the parish was elderly, with only a few people under sixty. "I'm 71 and I'm one of the youngest guys in the congregation."

The church building was nearly 100 years old, built in 1911-12 with volunteer labour, and had many problems. It needed a new roof, windows, and wiring, which would easily take around $40,000 to repair, and there just isn't the money.

Parishioners can't do the repairs, he said: "You can't have 80 year old guys climbing up ladders.”

At Diocesan Council, Legal Assessor Jennifer Dezell, one of the diocese's legal officers, said the parish would soon send a letter to the bishop asking him to close the parish, as stipulated by diocesan Canons. He can do this since three-quarters at the vestry meeting voted to close.

"They have made this decision entirely on their own volition," said Bishop Ingham.

Rodger said what brought on the decision to ask the bishop to close the parish was basically a lack of energy to continue on.

"I asked how many people would be willing to serve on Parish Council come next February. Nobody was." There was no one who could take on the Ministry Assessment Process (the "MAP") as requested recently by the diocese of parishes in the east end of the Fraser Valley.

"If this was a business, this church would have been gone a long time ago. It was just sucking up money from the diocese," Rodger said. . .

Read it all, and also check out the diocesan editorial on the closure.