A parish should always be visioning, that is, discerning what God is calling the people to be and do in their gifted part of God’s vineyard. The Parish of St. John’s Anglican Church in Halifax has put actions behind its vision. The parish, founded in 1839, moved its worship and ministry centre from its original location in Fairview Cove to the corner of Dutch Village Road and Bayers Road in 1962 to follow the demographic growth of that area. Within the decade, the people began talking again about a relocation of their parish centre. These talks waxed and waned over the ensuing years.
In 2006 these talks heighten again after the arrival of a new rector and intense visioning sessions. It became clear that the ministry centre, perhaps, should be moved again to better serve, in worship and ministry, the growing area out from old Fairview.
During these parish discussions, the church complex was found to be environmentally ill.
Without a new church complex constructed, the people of St. John’s parish moved out in faith abandoning their 45-year-old building to being, like Moses, in a wilderness headed to an unknown and unseen promised land.
The last Service
St. John's being torn down
Cash in hand from the sale of their property, the people of St. John’s parish continue their regular Sunday worship in a local junior high school library while searching for the elusive plot of land on which to build a new parish complex.
Fairview High school where they are worshiping
During the search, the parish has invited neighbouring parishes to enter into conversation to come together to establish a new, larger, and vibrant Anglican parish to serve the communities of Halifax west mainland to Bedford southwes
t.
A service in the school
The people of St. John’s parish dream of the day when they can focus their attention to ministering in Christ’s name through programs and worship with the many people settling into the greater Halifax mainland west area.
