Photos from the Past

An e-mail arrived recently from Bryan Warnock, whose family lived two doors down from the church on Clemenceau street and were active members of CPU for many years. He sent the black-and-white photos below, identifying as many people as he could. His best guess is that they were taken in 1968. I think the date might be slightly earlier as there doesn’t appear to be wood paneling on the walls yet, and that went up in 1967.

Bryan writes, “I lived at 1425 Clemenceau beside the manse from 1952-1970. In 1973 my wife and I bought the house behind the church at 1454 Lloyd George. We lived there until 1980 when I was transferred to Moncton NB. I taught Sunday school for many years before being the superintendent of the Sunday school. My wife rented the basement for several years for her ballet school.”

Bryan later sent several colour photos, also taken in the church hall, which we think date from 1979, and the occasion of the burning of the mortgage on the Crawford Park United building, which is now SouthWest. Scroll down to see them all.

Thank you Bryan!

As always, let the office know if you can identify anyone else in the photos.

Bryan identifies: at centre was Rev. Dawson MacDonald, to HIS left - Mrs Bowes-Lyon (she lived on Clemenceau) and to his far right was Grant Sutherland who used to live on Crawford Bridge.

Bryan identifies: Helene Augustine (my sister in law), Gail Warnock (my sister), Jean Warnock (my mother), Charlotte “Lottie” Bowes-Lyon (her husband was related to Queen mother). Lady serving coffee is Louise Smith, wife of Marvin, who was church organist for many years.

Rev. Dawson MacDonald and his wife. He was the Minister of CPU from 1957 to 1971, but we believe this picture was taken later, probably 1979.

Rev. MacDonald, Rev. Barratt (supply minister 1979-80) and Harold Grace, who was a scout leader in the church and a long time active member. He lived on Ouimet street on the other side of the green space beside the Anglican Church (now the Sikh temple). Don’t know who the people in the background are. Anyone?

Bryan Warnock says the lady in the neck brace at the far left is Mrs. Harold Grace, the tall gentleman at far right talking to two ladies is Marvin Smith, who was the church organist for about the same period that Rev. Dawson was the Minister. Behind Marvin and to the left are Mr. and Mrs. Bullock. The lady at centre in a pale pink dress and a hat is Mrs. Ackerman (Agnes).

A Snapshot of 1952

Found in a box of old papers, dated October 17, 1952, the following letter from Rev. Downing announces the completion of the “superstructure” of Crawford Park United, now SouthWest. It is noteworthy for its naming of individuals and groups involved in the life of the church at that time. The phone numbers given towards the end of the letter use the old Trenmore exchange format.
We have a Bible dedicated to Rev. Wilkinson on our communion table to this day, but it is not the one mentioned in this letter; it is in fact an earlier memorial, given by the congregation in 1945. Wilkinson had retired in 1944 due to illness, and must have passed away soon after, never to see his dream realized in the building of Crawford Park United. Rev. Downing stayed on, living in the manse next door, until 1954.

To the Congregation –

Dear Friends,

            It is my privilege to write you that the arrangements for the formal opening of the new church are now in hand. On Friday evening, November 7th, at eight o’clock, the Montreal Presbytery of the United Church of Canada will join with us in the ancient “dedication of a church”. And at this service our Women’s Association will present a Bible in the Revised Standard version to be dedicated to the memory of the Rev. Arthur Wilkinson, who thirteen years ago conducted the first church services in Crawford Park in the Little Red Schoolhouse, corner of Churchill and Lloyd George.

            The first Sunday morning service in the new church on November 9th at eleven o’clock will be a Remembrance Day service. In this community where so many of the men, and some of the women, too, are veterans of one or other of the two Great Wars, it is very fitting that our first service should be that day. At this service the communion table and chair, the baptismal font and other memorials will be prayerfully dedicated to the glory of God.

            In the evening at seven o’clock our new Junior Choir will lead the service of worship under the direction of Mr. W.H. Hindle of Ville LaSalle, our church organist and choirmaster. Please make a note that the services in the evening are now placed at seven o’clock for the convenience of the teen-agers in the choir. We are in the midst of a study of the “I am’s” of Christ. Everyone is always sure of a welcome.

            I think you all know that the Sunday School program is to be divided as of this Sunday, October 19th. The Senior School, boys and girls aged seven to fifteen, will continue to meet under the leadership of Mr. G.G. Hall at 9:45 a.m. A Junior School will be organized this Sunday with Mrs. C.W. Barr as Superintendent./ this will be for children aged three to six, and will meet during the church service, that is, at eleven o’clock. For the next three Sundays these younger children will use the front side entrance and meet upstairs.

            The mid-week program is well under way with C.G.I.T., Explorers and Mission band organized, Morning Choir, W.A., W.M.S., and Men’s Club meeting regularly. The Friendly Circle, Y.P.U., and Boys’ Groups will wait until the church building is fully available in the second week of November.

            We have spent some $42,000 on the new superstructure, including oak pulpit and pews, and a Minshall electronic organ. Your complete and, perhaps, sacrificial support is really needed if we are to keep up with the program of repayments to the Finance and Extension Board of the Montreal Presbytery, which has advanced us most of the money to complete our building. We believe that when you see the fine building we have, you will want to support the venture in every way. The Committee of Stewards – Mr. J.P. Moore, Trenmore 2240, Chairman; Mr. J.P.E. Cropper, Trenmore 6132, Envelope Secretary – will gladly supply offering envelopes for these remaining three months of 1952. The committee charged with the financing of the church, trust that generous gifts will be received for the building and other funds. Certain memorials and gift objects are still available. Memorial and gift hymn books would be welcomed.

            Let us humbly and thankfully dedicate ourselves anew to the Lord’s work in Verdun and Ville LaSalle, and – through the Missionary and Maintenance Fund – in all Canada and overseas.

                                                                                    Yours sincerely,

                                                                                    John C. Downing

                                                                                    Minister.

Rev. Downing in 1947

Letter dated October 1952

Little girl in front of the Little Red Schoolhouse, 1940s;

Cover and Cast list of the Men’s Club’s “Gay Nineties Review” in 1952.

"Women's Work"

“My mother used to act in some of the stage productions that were put on in the church basement . She was very tall so often had the role of a man.”

So writes Elna Gravelle from British Columbia. Elna attended Verdun United Sunday School in the 1940s and her mother, Margaret Christensen, was very involved in the Women’s Missionary Society at that time.

If you saw our historical exhibit before Christmas, you may recall seeing a table cloth embroidered with names. It was the handiwork of Margaret Christensen and had been sent to us by Elna. According to her, the over 100 names painstakingly stitched onto it represent the members of the Louise Young Auxiliary, one of several women’s groups operating at VUC at the time. According to the booklet produced for VUC’s 50th anniversary in 1949, “the Women’s Missionary Society consists of a small number of faithful members, but the ‘Louise Young’ , an auxiliary consisting mostly of young married women is most vigorous and has a membership that fills the Church Parlour.’”

Elna and I have exchanged a few e-mails. Recently I sent her a page from the aforementioned booklet giving the program for a Missionary Evening held during a week of festivities for the 50th anniversary. Mrs. Christensen was in charge of organizing that evening. She led prayers and co-directed (and probably appeared in) a Pantomime.

Elna is sure that somewhere there is a photo of her mother in which Margaret is wearing a man’s black jacket and a mustache. I thought it might have been from the Young Adult Group’s revues of the late 1950s, from which we have many photos, but it seems those are too late. Elna now thinks it may date from those 1949 festivities. She hasn’t been able to find that one yet, but she did send us a photo of the Sunday School - looks like the youngest group - taken on the steps of 650 Woodland in 1946.

A few of the names in the 1949 program overlap with those on the cloth, though the cloth is probably from several years later: Ruth Hayden, Hilda Mantle, Vivian Auld, and more. I was interested to see that there were at least two Japanese families in the congregation in 1949. A Miss Muriko Uyeda sang a solo, and Mrs. Shimotakahara is listed as co-leader of the Mission Band.

Elna remembers Mrs. Shimotakahara, and says she was a survivor of an internment camp during the war. Those painful memories would have still been fresh in 1949. I hope being part of a church community was a comfort to that family.

The Sunday School picture is below, with some notes from Elna. If you recognize anyone, as always, please let me know!

I have also provided a link to a list of all the names embroidered on Mrs. Christensen’s cloth.

Amy

Elna Gravelle writes, “I am the sombre little girl in front of the very tall lady” (at the right of the door in the back row). Elna says the lady at centre in the back with curly hair and white hat is Vivian Auld. She also mentions that, “in the top row of children, in front of the lady holding the little girl, is a tall blond girl with a Dutch-like hat on. Her name was Joan Bennett and she figure skated.”

CORRECTION: In last week’s newsletter I identified the “tall lady” in the above photograph as Margaret Christensen. Her daughter set me straight, and sent this photo of her mother, brother and herself taken in Verdun in 1945.

The letter from Elna Gravelle to Ed Chaffey, as well as the photo of Louise Young were included in the exhibit, 120 Years of History, in November 2019.

Young Man With a Horn

You may recall a few weeks back I wrote about Mrs. Clement King, aka Mary Jane Porter, who was one of the original members of Verdun Methodist Church when it started up in a private home in 1899.

As I found out about Mary Jane, turning up numerous pictures of her over the years, I became aware that her husband, Clement, was conspicuously absent from the picture archive. Their great-granddaughter, Dianne Nolin, kindly shared the family group below showing Clement and Mary Jane around 1902 or 1903 with their daughters Stella and Sarah (Sadie). Youngest daughter Bessie was not yet born, nor was a son, Robert. Another son, named Melvin Clement, had been born between Sadie and Stella but died at 2 months. Clement King was born in 1868, and married Mary Jane in 1893.

This King family portrait was taken at Ed Gagne Photo Studios, 745 Wellington Street in Verdun. c1902

I learned from Dianne that Clement was a carpenter by trade, and also that he owned several buildings in Verdun. A plot of land on Gordon Ave. was purchased by the Verdun Methodist congregation in 1902, and the golden anniversary booklet (1949) states that “the labour was voluntary by the men of the congregation”. I feel certain Clement King was one of the men wielding a hammer, literally building a church for his family and community. When it came time to build a somewhat grander church next to the first one in 1908, they hired a contractor; still, I can imagine Clement taking a keen interest in the project. The second Verdun Methodist Church was dedicated exactly 111 years ago, on December 13th, 1908.

Clement took enough of an interest in that building that in 1922, at the age of 54, he was up on the roof making repairs. Family lore has it that he fell off and although he was not instantly killed, he later died of his injuries, leaving Mrs. Clement King a widow until she died in 1957. Around the time the Verdun United Church was built at 650 Woodland Ave. (1930), the family dedicated a stained glass window to Clement and to his mother Mrs. Elizabeth (Nichols) King. This panel can be seen at the back of the SouthWest United sanctuary today.

Besides being a carpenter, Clement was apparently musical. The anniversary booklet mentions that, at the very first meeting in 1899, “there being no organ, Mr. Clement King led the singing with his silver cornet. “ The historical sketch contained in this 1949 booklet was prepared by four people, including Sadie Mavor, Clement’s eldest child.

I guess Clement’s untimely death explains why there are not a lot of pictures of him. There is, however, among our collection of glass slides, a portrait of a young man with a horn, a cornet in fact. No name, just the caption “Age 25”. It is my belief this is Clement King. If so, it would have been taken around 1893, the same year he married Mary Jane, and some years before he played the hymns for the first service of Verdun Methodist Church. Compare the faces in the two photos and tell me what you think.

Amy

The King stained glass window being installed at SouthWest in 2007, and (below) a close up of the dedication.

Living History

It was so nice to see familiar faces and meet a few new ones last Friday at the opening of the 120 Years of History exhibit. It was a blustery night but warm and inviting in the sanctuary. Thanks to Dennis Brown and Ro Ghandhi who took pictures.

Amy

Top three images by Dennis Brown; bottom four by Rohinton Ghandhi.

Beryl's Blog: Every Picture Tells a Story

Amy, our Administrative Assistant here at SouthWest, has been diligently sorting through decades of “memorabilia” in preparation for our exhibition of the history of Verdun United/Crawford Park United and, ultimately SouthWest United Church which will commence with a wine and cheese soiree on Friday, November 15th.

We all have them. They have come to us through our parents.  They are in boxes, in albums, in frames.  We seldom get them out to look at them.  The boxes are covered in dust and we move them, as they are, from house to house as we move on with our lives.  We do not know what to do with them, yet we do not have the heart to throw them away because, somehow, they are a part of us.

Images of what was, wearing hairstyles and clothing so foreign.  Yet, there is familiarity in their faces - a family resemblance, genetically passed down in a smile, or “so and so’s eyes” which you have recognized all your life, even if you have never met the person.  Some of them are wearing army uniforms, faces brave and confident as they head off to the unknown.  Others are holding babies who probably grew into adulthood – or not.  Smiling faces of brides and grooms. People strolling along boardwalks.  Ghosts of the past, yet there before our eyes.

Old photographs; what is it about them that brings on nostalgia, longing, questions?  If someone took the time to name and date them, they can fill in pieces of a puzzle and give us a glimpse into our family history.  They can also leave us sad and longing for times when generations lived under the same roof and we all felt connected.

As the oldest sibling, I seem to have inherited the albums and bags of loose photos left by my own parents.  They are filled with faces which are anonymous, faces of colour, places unfamiliar; yet random moments in time captured and present right there in my hands.

Today, our children and grandchildren take photos with their iPhone.  They post them on Facebook or Instagram.  There for an instant and then gone forever into cyberspace.  What legacy will they leave for their own children?  How will they provide them with tangible evidence of family faces and events?

Early Christian art, beautiful in its presentation though sometimes questionable in its content, has left us with a visible legacy of our Christian heritage.  An artistic interpretation of our Christian journey through the centuries.  Is there any artist who is continuing such a tradition?  I don’t know.

But I do believe this; unless we have clear images to help us understand from where we have come, we will have difficulty discerning where we are to go in the future.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the exhibition of SouthWest’s journey to the present!

Beryl

Branches of a Family Tree

UPDATE (January 2021): I had an e-mail from a Mark McElwain, who confirms that the minister in the group photo down below is Alec Renton. It seems Mr. McElwain’s father, the Rev. William McElwain, succeeded Renton as Minister of First Presbyterian. He was there from 1959-1962. Rev. McElwain passed away in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, in 2004. His obituary is here.

I also did a bit of Googling and found that after leaving Verdun, Rev. Renton went to East Hampton, New York. First Presbyterian Church of East Hampton has quite an extensive biography of him on its website. It includes a story, apparently widely reported at the time, that he was hired by First Pres in Verdun sight unseen. They hired him as their pastor based on a “cassette tape” he sent from Scotland. You can read the whole post here. In fact, it must have been a reel-to-reel tape because cassettes and 8-tracks were only developed in the 60s! Here is a clipping from an unknown newspaper about the momentous event.

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ORIGINAL POST:

Family trees are funny. They usually start with an individual, then show his two parents, four grandparents, and so on. They tend to make everything look tidier than it could possibly have been in real life. What if great-grandpa was married twice? What do we do with that information? What if grandma had thirteen brothers and sisters? Where do they go? You can find yourself running off the page pretty quickly.

If you were to draw our SouthWest United family tree, I guess you’d  put Verdun United and Crawford Park United as the two parents. But I think you’d have to include Chalmers United and First Presbyterian Church as aunts and uncles; even St. Paul’s United in Ville Emard must qualify as a cousin or something.

Verdun and Crawford amalgamated, while the other churches I mentioned closed in the 80s and 90s, and some of the people who worshipped in those churches found their way to our congregation. I think of the Buchanans as a SouthWest family, but they worshipped at St. Paul’s until it closed in 1991. The Padghams went to Chalmers, the Hasties to First Pres.

I was talking to Doug Hastie this week about some old sepia prints that turned up (Historical Stuff really has been just appearing at the church; I think we have elves). I recognized the exterior of the First Presbyterian building  at 503* 5th Avenue (now a Tibetan Buddhist centre). It was built in 1925 and this picture was taken long before the extension which now houses Verdun Community Church, was built in 1956. I’m not an expert when it comes to cars, but the one parked outside the church in this shot suggests the 1940s.

There were also sepia prints of church interiors which Doug confirmed were of First Pres, but appeared to be before his time. Finally, there was a shot of a group of people standing outside a building, and one woman was holding a spade. I guessed this might be a sod-turning ceremony as First Presbyterian prepared to build the extension in the ‘50s. Doug was able to recognize Rev. Alec Renton, a Scotsman who he says was the minister there in the ‘50s.

Doug Hastie was one of a group of First Pres members who were officially received into the United Church of Canada in 2010 at SouthWest United. If anyone else can identify any of the other people in the picture, please get in touch with the office!

Rev. Alec Renton is at centre. Can you recognize anyone else? C.1955

Amy

*the current address of the original building is 503 and the extension is 501. Back in the day, the original building’s address was 501, 5th Avenue.

In Search of Mrs. Clement King

She just kept turning up. Usually as an elderly lady in a hat: Mrs. Clement King. Well, I thought, we know who her husband was, but who was she?

You’ll recall she was present at the Verdun United mortgage burning in 1947, identified as the church’s oldest living member*. She appears in a group of ladies in hats identified as Mother’s Day, 1950, and her age at that time is given as 84.

Her name appears on a brass cross on a wooden base from VUC. The dedication reads:

In loving memory of
Mrs. Clement King
A member from the inception of this church
An elder 1925-1957
Presented by her Family

Well that makes sense. If she was 84 in 1950, she was born around 1866, so would have been a young wife and mother by 1899 when Verdun Methodist Church came into being. It also means she was an elder of the church until she was around 90.

The name Clement King appears on one of our Verdun United stained glass windows, but it is dedicated to him and to his mother, Mrs. E. King, by the family. Perhaps Clement’s wife had a hand in making that happen. But the question continued to nag: what was her first name?

Then one day it dawned on me: I already had the answer. I had had an e-mail conversation two years back with Dianne Nolin, who was looking for a baptism record from VUC. She mentioned that she was descended from “Clement King of the stained-glass window”. I ended up sending her the Mother’s Day 1950 picture and she recognized her great-grandmother, Mary Jane Porter King. Yes, you guessed it: Mary Jane Porter married Clement King!

Dianne replied to my photo with one of her own. It shows the Ladies Aid Society of Verdun Methodist Church, circa 1910. Among those pictured are her grandmother, Sadie King, who was a girl of 16 at the time, and, yes, her great-grandmother, Mary Jane, is shown, four decades younger than in the photo I had sent.

A follow-up e-mail to Dianne this week produced the biographical information below.

Dianne is quite the geneologist, it turns out. She has a blog called The Days of Their Lives, which is worth checking out, especially if you have a connection to the King, Mavor, Porter or other old Verdun families.

My great grandmother, Mary Jane Porter was born oldest of 11 kids on 7 Oct 1867 in Ulverton, QC. to Susanna Johnston and John Porter, a carpenter of Ulverton. Mary Jane was a meticulous dressmaker and she married 1 May 1893 in Ulverton to Clement King, youngest of 7 kids of Elizabeth Nichols and George King, Miller of Montreal. They lived in Verdun where Clement King had properties.

They had five children: Sarah (Sadie, my grandmother, married Herbert Mavor), Melvin Clement who died at 2 months), Stella (never married), Elizabeth (Bessie, married Harry Gay) and Robert.

Mary Jane’s brother Horace lived in Montreal and was a streetcar motorman. During the strike of Feb 1903 Horace was hit in the head with a Brick and spent the rest of his life (45 years) in the Verdun Insane Asylum. Mary Jane went to visit him every week until he died in 1948 then had him buried with their parents in Ulverton.

Mary Jane’s husband Clement King was a carpenter. In July 1922 he was making repairs to the Verdun Methodist Church when he fell off the roof and subsequently died of his injuries. She then lived with her unmarried daughter Stella.

My grandmother Sadie King was a life long member of the Verdun Methodist, and the United church all her life. She married Herbert Mavor, son of Alexander Mavor and Rebecca Campbell.

I don’t know when, but sometime after the First World War the Mavors and Kings sponsored the stained glass windows that were later moved to SouthWest. One was in memory of Clement King and his mother Elizabeth (Nichols) King. The other window was in memory of Alexander Mavor (Herbert’s father who died at age 60 in 1924) and Alexander George (Herbert’s brother who was killed in action in Belgium in 1916).

In Oct 1942 Mary Jane’s children from Verdun and brothers and sisters from New Hampshire and Calgary all came to Verdun to celebrate Mary Jane’s 75th birthday.

Blog:the-day-granny-king-turned-75

Mary Jane died 5 March 1957 at the age of 89. I was 7 years old when she died and I missed her terribly.

Dianne

Apart from Mrs. King, at least one other lady appears both in this 1910 photo and the Mother’s Day one from 40 years later: Mrs. W. Taylor. Now if only we knew her first name! [See this blog post for a small update on Mrs. Taylor]

The ladies are identified on the back of the photo with their ages at the time:
Back row: Mrs. C. Dawe (76); Mrs H. Salmela (73); Mrs. A. Parker (74); Mrs. E. Ritchie (74); Mrs. R. Norman (80); Unidentified; Mrs. A. Timms (78); Mrs. E. Grey (73); Mrs. E. Cain (75)
Front row: Mrs. C. King (84); Mrs. W. Taylor (89); Mrs. L. Hobbs (98); Mrs. E. Retallack (93)

Ladies Aid Society of Verdun Methodist Church, 1910

Back row, left to right: Mrs. Evely; Mrs. Taylor; Mrs. Mavor; Mrs. Dawson.
Middle: Mrs. Bradbury; Mrs. Hayden; Flo Bradbury; Mrs. C. King (Mary Jane Porter)
Front: Sarah Myrtle (Sadie) King, daughter of Mrs. C. King; Jessie Bradbury; Mrs. Brown

According to the original inscription, the photographer was Reg Cummings, and the photo was taken at the “corner of Wellington and Gordon, Verdun”. The second, larger Verdun Methodist church building was built by then, and the original one was still standing, so this could have been taken in either of them.

* This is incorrect. Mrs. King may have been the oldest founding member in 1947 but, as the 1950 photo indicates, she was nowhere near the oldest living member.

See also this post about Clement King.

The Church is the People in it

This is a story about memory, and connection, and coming full circle.

When we moved to Verdun from the Plateau Mont Royal in 2007, I didn’t really have any prior connection to this place. I remembered being in Verdun exactly twice before we started house-hunting: once in my twenties when I took the metro to de l’Eglise to visit a friend, and once around 2001, to a dinner party. We came by car and I didn’t really have any idea where I was. Honestly, that was it!

Or so I thought.

As you may have heard, I have been spending a lot of time with old photos and documents these past weeks, putting together an exhibit to commemorate 120 years of the United Church in Verdun.

One of the things that strikes you as you go through this material is just how many people have passed through the doors of the various church buildings over the years. How many, in 120 years? Thousands, certainly. Maybe tens of thousands.  

“Passed through the doors” makes it sound like they came once and that was it. Well, sure, there have been some of those. But for others the church became the centre of their life. This may be particularly true of the early decades when virtually every social activity in the community was connected to a church of one denomination or another. But it’s also true of some people who are still part of our congregation. Faith, and the United Church, certainly loomed large in the lives of Linda Kotovich, Bill Buchanan, Roy Sargent and Iris Allen, all of whom we lost this year.

As I go through old photographs I see lots of people I know, some who have unfortunately passed away since I first came to Southwest in 2010. But of course there are many, many more that I never met. It’s a strange experience to see and start to recognize the same faces over a span of years, smiling at Wednesday lunches and Epiphany potlucks, rummage sales and penny fairs, anniversary dinners and Holly Teas, barbecues and musical revues!

I wish I had known them all. I wish they could all come back for one night to swap stories.

In a way, that’s what we’re trying to make happen with this exhibit. Hopefully, people will come, and look, and delight to see old friends in pictures, and reminisce about times past. As the invitation to our All Saints Memorial service this Sunday says, quoting Terry Pratchett, “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”

I have learned a great deal about my church’s history, and Verdun’s history  in these past weeks, and there is so much more to learn. There has been some detective work trying to identify people and places, and a number of people have been helping me fill in blanks. I hope this will continue through the holiday season as the pictures are on display. I hope people will come to me and say, “I know who that is” or even “You got that wrong”!

As I said, I didn’t think I had any personal connection to Verdun or this church going back much more than a decade. Then I made a two-part discovery.

First, on reading through the “little red book” – the commemorative booklet Crawford Park United Church 1947-1997: 50 Years of Memories, I discovered that my grandfather the Rev. Ernest Barratt, had been supply minister at Crawford in 1979-1980, in between Rev. Corbett and Rev. Nerny.

My grandfather was retired by that time, but he and my grandmother, Winnie, were living on Bishop-Power in LaSalle, so it makes sense. I was a teenager myself and typically not so interested in what my parents or grandparents were up to. I have been wracking my brain ever since, though, wondering if I might have attended a service at 1445 Clemenceau forty years ago!

The second part of my discovery? A picture of my grandparents showed up, dated 1980. At first I thought it was taken in their apartment, but as I looked at other photos taken in the church at around that time, I realized they are in fact standing on the stage in the hall, exactly where our office is now, exactly where I am sitting, putting together this exhibit.

It’s a little eerie, maybe, but it also makes me happy. My personal connection to Verdun, and to the United Church, is new, despite this family history. The church has grown and changed in ways my grandparents couldn’t have imagined and probably wouldn’t have approved of! Still, finding this picture makes me feel closer to these two people who have been gone over 30 years now. It also makes me feel like I’m right where I’m meant to be.

-Amy

We hope you’ll join us this Sunday, Nov. 3rd at 10am for our All Saints Memorial service

The exhibit, 120 Years, will be up as of Friday, Nov. 15th. You are invited to come by for wine and cheese from 4 to 6PM. It will remain in place through the holiday season.

1899-2019: 120 Years of the United Church in Verdun

Please join us for the official opening of an exhibit of historical photos and artefacts relating to the history of our church and our community.

Friday, November 15th, 4 to 6 pm. Wine and cheese will be served.

At SouthWest United Church, 1445 rue Clemenceau, Verdun.
There is no charge for the exhibit, although donations are always welcome.

120 Years: LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD

SouthWest United Church is one of only two remaining United Church congregations in Verdun (the other being the Montreal Korean United Church), but it carries the legacy of several churches and congregations stretching back to 1899.

How can that be, since the United Church of Canada was only founded in 1925?

Glad you asked. One of our founding congregations, Verdun United Church, began life as Verdun Methodist, in 1899. It was one of many Methodist congregations that joined with Presbyterians and Congregationalists in 1925 to form the United Church.

Verdun had only been called Verdun for a quarter century when the first meetings about founding a Methodist church were held in the home of Mr. John Way on Church /de l’Eglise avenue.  Frequent flooding had plagued the area, but with the construction of a dyke in the last years of the 19th century, much more land became suitable for settlement. By the beginning of the 20th century, Verdun was teeming with young families, and the Verdun Methodist Sunday School could barely keep up with the demand!

The original Verdun Methodist Church was built on Gordon avenue in 1902-1903. Due to a growing congregation and Sunday School, a larger building was put up on an adjoining site in 1908. Verdun Methodist and then Verdun United used both buildings until 1931, when they built a new church at 650 Woodland avenue. The Gordon avenue buildings no longer exist. The Woodland building, although sold in 2007 when Verdun amalgamated with Crawford Park, still stands and is in use by a Buddhist group and a daycare. Many Verdun United artefacts, including a triptych of stained glass windows, were preserved and incorporated into the new SouthWest United Church.

Our other founding congregation, Crawford Park United, came into being during another population boom, in the 1940s. Crawford Park was one of several Montreal neighbourhoods designated during World War II for the construction of “veteran’s cottages”  - the distinctive pointed-roofed brick homes still very much in evidence in the neighbourhood.  SouthWest United occupies the building the Crawford Park United congregation erected in 1947 after several years of meeting in homes and the local schoolhouse.

Both of these founding congregations came to life thanks to the can-do spirit of Verduners of the last century.

Over the years, Verdun was also home to Chalmers United, built in 1922 at 177 de l’Eglise. That congregation closed in the 1980s but the building was transferred to the Korean United Church which still holds services there today.

Verdun was even home to a French-language United Church, Église Bethanie, from 1922 to 1978. Its building, located at 3099 Wellington, was home for a time to L’Église des montrealais, and is currently used as a private residence.

Verdun United and Crawford Park United began sharing ministry in the 1970s, with the same minister performing two services every Sunday. Rev. Maurice Nerny led both congregations from 1980 to 1998. He was succeeded in 1998 by Rev. David Lefneski who oversaw amalgamation in 2007 and the opening of SouthWest Mission in 2008. He stayed on as Minister of SouthWest United until earlier this year.

SouthWest recently began a new chapter with Pastor Beryl Barraclough at the helm. There are many female worship leaders in the United Church of Canada, both ordained and lay ministers, and we have had several of them as visiting ministers at SouthWest. Perhaps that’s why we almost didn’t register the historic importance of calling Pastor Beryl. A long line of ministers stretches back over 120 years, every one of them a white man… until now.

On November 15th, and throughout the pre-Christmas season, we invite the whole community - Old Verdun and New; English and French; Christian or not – to join our little church community in looking back with pride at 120 years of achievements, and ahead with excitement to the next chapters.

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Please note, except for the Nov. 15 opening, the exhibit does not have opening hours of its own, but can be enjoyed during any of the (mostly free) events and services scheduled from mid-November to the end of December. See list of upcoming events and services below

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Friday, November 15: Opening of Exhibit: 120 Years in Verdun, 4pm to 6pm

Saturday November 16: Harvest Supper, 5pm. Tickets $15

Sunday November 17: Worship service 10 am

Sunday November 24: Worship service 10am

Saturday November 30: Holly Tea with Silent Auction. Lunch $5, tickets at the door

Sunday December 1: Worship service, 1st of Advent, 10am

Sunday December 8: Worship service, 2nd of Advent

Sunday December 15: Worship service, 3rd of Advent

Sunday December 15: Chantons Noel Candlelight Carol service, 4pm

Sunday December 22: Worship service, 4th of Advent, 10am

Tuesday, December 24: Worship service, Christmas Eve, 7:30pm