CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor. They can be sent to [email protected], or submitted through the website. The following letter was submitted by the Reverend quoted and interviewed for the story entitled: Community calls church demo a 'real slap in the face'.
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Sadly, the public has been misinformed about the events that transpired over East Nottawasaga Presbyterian Church.
While the land was donated by the Paul family, the deed states that it was given for a Presbyterian Church in historic continuity with roots tracing all the way back to our motherland, the Church of Scotland. Thus, ownership of the land the church sat on belongs to the Presbyterian Church, from the time the deed was transferred and ownership ultimately now lies with the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The cemetery is a separate entity under the care of a cemetery board.
In the late 1970s, the congregations of East Nottawasaga and Jubilee amalgamated, yet, Jubilee held an annual service at East Nottawasaga Church until 2013, at which time, due to a lack of interest and attendance, the congregation was granted permission from the Presbytery of Barrie to stop even these services, and there was no response from the community or the families in the article to reinstate the services.
In 2016 when the building began to show serious deterioration, caused by the entire back wall being buckled out - the bricks fell off. The article written states that "families" (cemetery board) were negotiating with Jubilee (the congregation entrusted with its care upon amalgamation) – yet there was only ever one individual – or party – the Cemetery Board.
The first personal connection made between Mr. Paul and Jubilee church came in 2020 when Mr. Paul's mother passed and she was buried in Stayner Union, not East Nottawasaga. I was invited by the family to conduct the service. At that time, Mr. Paul never identified his connection to East Nottawasaga nor did he express any concern over the state of the church. The public was aware of the damage to the church as it was visible from the road coming north but no one came forward to offer financial help to assist with the repairs for six years. The Presbytery of Barrie would have considered an offer to purchase from Mr. Paul but an offer to buy, or even, help fix the church never came – Mr. Paul never reached out to anyone at Jubilee or the Presbytery of Barrie.
The decision to demolish the building came from the knowledge that people were indeed visiting the gravesites that surround the building and the wall could have collapsed at any time. The company that completed the demolition stated that as the building was not insulated, if restoration began, once the walls were insulated, the supports would have given way and the building would have completely fallen apart.
Mr. Morrison's claim that the cemetery Board had fund-raised was correct, however, they were fundraising for the upkeep of the cemetery, not the church building because they are not the owners or deed holders of the building.
Would it have been correct to use funds collected from the public for cemetery upkeep to repair a former church building? Would the Bereavement Authority of Ontario approve of this use of funds by the cemetery board?
What has happened here is that a house of worship was left for over forty years to deteriorate to a point beyond the safety of the public and everyone drove by it every day and got complacent. When it was too late, a few people decided they cared. I reiterate what I said to the reporter who interviewed me for the story, (my comment that never made the paper) – where was everyone when the back wall fell down? No one reached out to the church then, but, everyone found me this past week.
Rev. Darren May
Jubilee Presbyterian Church
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