St. Paul's Eastern United Church

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St Paul's Eastern United Church
Denomination	United Church of Canada
Administration
Province	Ontario Ottawa Conference
Presbytery	Ottawa
Clergy
Minister	Alan Edwards
Other

St. Paul's-Eastern United Church at 90 Daly Avenue

St. Paul's-Eastern United Church is one of the oldest congregations in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The stone Romanesque church building is located in the heart of downtown Ottawa (Sandy Hill) on the corners of Daly and Cumberland Streets, near the University of Ottawa and two blocks east of the Rideau Centre.

[edit] History

The structure was built from 1888 to 1889 for St. Paul's Presbyterian Church. It originally had a large steeple. Unfortunately the church was built on sand, and the steeple side started sinking into the ground. The steeple was therefore removed early in the 20th century, leaving the building as a relatively squat stone structure.

With the creation of the United Church of Canada in 1925, St. Paul's merged with the nearby Eastern Methodist Church and got its current name.

In the late part of the 20th century the church struggled. The growing secularization of Canadian society and the smaller number of people living downtown meant that the church was rarely more than half full and the Sunday school had only a handful of children.

[edit] St. Paul's today

More recently (2003 - present), the church has experienced a revitalization in activity, membership, finances and Sunday School involvement. Most of the new people coming to St. Paul's-Eastern are young families and young singles.

The church also continues to be very involved in social justice issues, in particular it has a heavy involvement in providing food and shelter to Ottawa's downtown homeless population. The current Minister is the Rev. Alan Edwards MSW, RSW, M.Div.

St. Paul's-Eastern has a number of groups and partners who operate out of the church. They include: Ottawa Innercity Ministries, Jericho Road and Touch of Love. Other groups such as Girl Guides and Alcoholics Anonymous also operate out of the church.