Centreville Presbyterian Church

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Church front view

Church rear view

Centreville Presbyterian Church ( South Monaghan, Ontario) was established in 1833. The first minister, the Rev. James Douglas, was inducted in 1834. A frame church was built in 1852, and a new brick church building was constructed in 1863. The congregation remained with the Presbyterian Church in Canada during the time of Church Union in 1925.^[1]

A noteworthy feature of this church is its cemetery, still sheltering the gravestones of many of the original settlers of the area.

In 1931, a ceremony of remembrance was held to dedicate a new stained glass window honouring these old pioneers of Millbrook and Centreville, especially John Deyell and his wife Margaret, who contributed the land the church stands on. The window has four panels, the first panel showing a traveller on horseback, with saddle-bags and rifle, and in the background oxen, and a log cabin home; its counterpart in the fourth section, depicts the early settler sowing grain by hand; and in the richly-coloured centre panels the figures of an apostle and an angel, while inset are farm implements and animals of pioneer days; household articles such as a lighted candle; hints at the original peoples symbolized by the feathered headdress and wigwam; the covered wagon; the ripened grain loaded for carriage to the barn; the church; the schoolhouse; the hourglass; and the fruits of the harvest.^[2]

In 2005, the Reverend Nicolaas Mulder, then Minister of St Giles Presbyterian Church in nearby Peterborough, Ontario added this congregation to his ministry. He left Peterborough for St Andrew's Church in Trenton, Ontario in early 2007. Services continue to be held on Sundays at 9:45 a.m. (Church Service, School & Nursery).