The church represents the amalgamation of the United Churches of Lake St. Peter, Whitney, Madawaska and St Andrew’s Bethel in Maynooth.
United Church minister Marilyn Zehr says the amalgamation has been part of a process of ongoing discussions.
“The former Maynooth Madawaska Pastoral charge, four little churches that always worked well together, have spent 18 months having the conversation about the best use of our resources, and it seemed good to us to come together into one congregation that meets every Sunday at 10 a.m. in Maynooth. And as part of that 18 months, we had a lot of challenging decisions to make, which included letting go of land and buildings.”
A closing service was held at the 125-year-old Madawaska church at the end of September, and a closing service in October in Lake Saint Peter.
Zehr said that the Lake St. Peter church will be transferred to the Municipality of Hastings Highlands as they are taking over care and maintenance of the cemetery. Cemeteries cannot be separated from their churches.
Zehr went on to share a special way the new Windsong United Church is honoring the churches of the former Maynooth-Madawaska Pastoral Charge.
“At our closing services we were recognizing that even though we were four different churches, we were all part of the same watershed. We all live and work and play in the Madawaska watershed. So at the closing service in Madawaska, we gathered together water from everywhere that we live and brought it together in that service and then brought some of that water to Maynooth. And then at the closing service in Lake Saint Peter, we did the same thing with soil. And then in Whitney, because they didn’t have a building anymore, they brought a shovel. And we got bulbs from everywhere. And we planted bulbs in Maynooth with the water and the soil from the closing services.”
“We planted bulbs because we’re very excited about what will grow in Maynooth.”
Zehr said that the bulbs had to be planted in the fall, before the ground froze, and that a video of the ceremony will be shown at Sunday’s celebration.
The amalgamation celebration takes place Sunday at 10.am in Maynooth at Windsong United Church (formerly St Andrew’s Bethel).
