Starting a church from scratch in Canada

An altar from a nearby decommissioned church, the pulpit borrowed from a Baptist congregation in Owen Sound, a lectern and kneelers made by a parishioner, the minister's own piano and a box of prayer books salvaged from curbside in Brantford and destined for the landfill.

With these gathered things, conservative Anglicans in this southwestern Ontario town are striking out on their own.

"We left everything behind when we left our former churches," says Jim Blumer, a parishioner and spokesperson for St. Barnabas Anglican Church, part of the conservative breakaway group Anglican Coalition in Canada.

Blumer's wife, Louise, made the cloth hangings that adorn the walls of the hall at the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church, where St. Barnabas rents space to worship.

The congregation and about two-dozen others are part of a growing movement in church circles known as church planting, or opening new churches to reach potential new members. Read more
No comments will be posted without a full name and location, see the policy.